This one is hard to say, having been a journalist for twenty years. But it needs to be said, and someone has to, so it may as well be me.
There’s something you need to keep in mind when you read or watch stories on coronavirus. The same people who are writing the stories that make you want to panic and flock to the store to buy five thousand rolls of toilet paper so you can wipe your ass in the apocalypse are the same people who tried to convince you that:
- A mob of evil Catholic school kids in MAGA hats harassed an honorable Native American elder who served in Vietnam (they didn’t, and he is neither honorable nor a Vietnam veteran);
- Jussie Smollett was the victim of a racist hate crime (he wasn’t);
- President Trump instructed his attorney to lie to Congress (he didn’t);
- President George W. Bush’s commanding officer in the Air National Guard wrote disparaging memos about him on a 1972 typewriter that magically came with Microsoft Word, nine years before the first version of Microsoft Word was created; and
- The people of Ukraine had bumper-crop harvests under Josef Stalin (they didn’t).
Think for yourselves
Coronavirus is hardly fake news – there ain’t enough tinfoil in the world to make a hat thick enough to think that.
However, always remember that panic sells. It means web hits, clicks, Facebook likes and retweets for an industry desperate for revenue in the face of mass cutbacks, layoffs, and bankruptcies. Facts these days are secondary, which I’m sorry to say is one of the reasons I walked away from the business. It’s been forever since media showed restraint or caution – they aren’t about to start now.
Don’t be asleep at the wheel, but don’t give in to the mob mentality.