inb4 WaPo is fake news https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/25/fox-news-hannity-coronavirus-misinformation/ New research explores how conservative media misinformation may have intensified the severity of the pandemic The three studies paint a picture of a media ecosystem that entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking steps to protect themselves and others In recent weeks, three studies have focused on conservative media’s role in fostering confusion about the seriousness of the coronavirus. Taken together, they paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others. The end result, according to one of the studies, is that infection and mortality rates are higher in places where one pundit who initially downplayed the severity of the pandemic — Fox News’s Sean Hannity — reaches the largest audiences. “We are receiving an incredible number of studies and solid data showing that consuming far-right media and social media content was strongly associated with low concern about the virus at the onset of the pandemic,” said Irene Pasquetto, chief editor of the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, which published one of the studies.
We were doing fine until democrats promoted violent riots as a God given right. According to them people were LITERALLY dying if you didn't do your part in destroying small businesses harming and even killing innocent people. You can trace surges directly to the protests and riots. But no it was definitely orange man and his merry band of news sites. How do Democrats hold so many false beliefs at once?
I take it the Washington Post and all the other left-wing media outlets don't believe that the Protests spread COVID-19. Somehow they believe protestors are completely immune to COVID-19 and don't report on all of the breakouts from protests. In the Carolinas we have had health notices from protests in Charlotte, Greenville SC, Columbia SC, Raleigh and other cities that you need to be tested if you attended a protest on particular dates since several others now have COVID-19. All we hear from the left-wing media is crickets about this.
"The three studies paint a picture of a media ecosystem that entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking steps to protect themselves and others" Yep. And at 2am the NC guess whos refused to extend the anti KKK face mask wearing exemption. Why is 70 percent of all the this stupid thing happened internationally reported news from the Carolinas, it used to be mostly a Florida thing? .
Or, democrats hold objective thinking in high regard. See, an objective thinker would realize that good science means having control studies in which you don't just test all factors at once. An objective thinker knows that these studies may focus on one such factor, and an objective reader understands that the absence of a "protests study" does not absolve it as a factor. An objective thinker also knows studies take time and they know that Faux news et.al. were spreading propaganda about the "fake virus" way before the protests took place. It's this level of granularity that cons lack in their thinking.
I'm looking at it objectively. Let's take a look at the fact pattern: 1. A disease that according to leftist media, "spreads rapidly and is deadly" 2. The objective thinking democrat leaders forced nationwide lockdowns at the cost of the livelihoods of many millions of Americans because the threat was too grave Okay, we're good so far. They're objective - they've identified a threat and are dealing with it. 3. George Floyd is a sign we need to get out and protest. If you're not protesting you're part of the problem. Okay so now let's break this down further: 1. Disease spreads rapidly 2. Go out and protest - the implication being that a protest will neither practice proper safe social distancing, face masks, or other protocols the left believes are important. Hmm, it seems their objectivity has fallen apart here. How do you justify this? We looked at one factor - disease spread rates, and compared it to a second factor, the protests. Seems like a simple linear regression study to me. Are you suggesting the protests aren't causing a spike in cases? How do you explain the spikes in places that saw the largest protests? Places that were previously flattening?
Did your regression study account for the timing of when fake news where being peddled as opposed to when protests took place, the geographies where right wing viewership is highest against the spread in those regions and the geography's unlikeliness to see left leaning protests?
To be clear I'm also not dismissing right wing news sites from downplaying the virus. There's a bogeyman being set up and it's called conservative. I'm simply asking for consistency here. Everything is "we can attribute <horrible_thing> to <right wing/conservative> <object>". It's getting tiring. The tribalism is getting to the point I'm having a hard time even choking down left wing media just so I can understand the same story being said two different ways. There is one outlier that fits your case - namely Florida. Texas is more purple than red so I am unsure how to account for it. The point stands. If we are going to blame "right wing fake news" for outbreaks in flyover states then we should certainly be blaming the lack of push back on protests on the left wing.