As it turns out, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd was not the only journalist who peddled fake news about high-ranking Trump administration officials on Sunday using a deceptively edited video.
CBS News’s 60 Minutes ran a feature during their Sunday night broadcast that they titled “Pandemic Politics.” It was an error-filled segment, as thoroughly documented by Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra. But we’ll focus on a couple of the more glaring issues with their claims, which they emphasized in a tweet on Sunday:
Let’s start with the whole “U.S. took the lead for illness and death from coronavirus” claim. It’s misleading at best when you consider the fact that the United States has been far more upfront and honest about their Wuhan Coronavirus case numbers than China ever has been. This is especially true considering that China has revised its definition of what they consider a legitimate case of the virus at least eight different times.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came down hard on China in March for its numerous deceptions, which he and other administration officials including Trump have said hampered efforts here in the United States to combat the virus:
Speaking following a virtual meeting of the G7 March 25, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed the “intentional disinformation campaign that China has been and continues to be engaged in” regarding COVID-19. Pompeo had earlier told CNBC that, “The information that we got at the front end of this thing wasn’t perfect and has led us now to a place where much of the challenge we face today has put us behind the curve.”
It was Pompeo’s remarks he made during an interview with ABC News’s Martha Raddatz earlier this month that 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley used to claim he said the Wuhan Coronavirus was man-made:
PELLEY: As the U.S. led the world in illness and death, the White House moved the focus to the Chinese government.POMPEO [on ABC’s This Week, 05/03/20]: That’s where this began.PELLEY: Last Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attempted to resurrect a debunked theory that the virus was manmade in China.POMPEO: Look, the best experts so far seem to think it was manmade. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point.PELLEY: But he did have reason. Days before, the director of national intelligence said there was “wide scientific consensus the virus was not manmade.”MARTHA RADDATZ [on ABC’s This Week, 05/03/20]: Your Office of the DNI says the consensus, the scientific consensus, was not manmade or genetically modified.POMPEO [on ABC’s This Week, 05/03/20]: That’s right. I — I agree with that.PELLEY: The same day Pompeo tried to have it both ways, President Trump repeated the theory of a Chinese lab accident.
The problem with the way 60 Minutes aired the clip of Pompeo’s interview with Raddatz is that it left out the context and the strong likelihood that Pompeo initially misspoke. Here’s the actual transcript, with follow-up comments by Professor Jacobson:
If you go back a week, you can see that not even ABC News, which interviewed with Pompeo, claimed he said the virus was “man-made:”
State Dept. spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus called 60 Minutes out over the deceptive segment:
So did White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany:
Why it’s almost like 60 Minutes is doing China’s bidding or something:
Sadly, the national media (and Democrats) have more often than not been peddling Chinese propaganda for months now on the Wuhan Coronavirus, so this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
It’s still infuriating as hell, though. Regurgitating China’s talking points simply based on their Orange Man Bad premise is not a good look for the media. Not a good look at all.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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