Several polls since the start of the pandemic show a majority of people checking the news several times a day and turning to trusted news sources and state broadcasters rather than social media.
Oh how the zeitgeist has changed in a few short weeks. A deadly pathogen was what was needed for those hostile to “experts” and the so-called “mainstream media” to come crawling back, begging for trustworthy news and a vaccine.
In terms of the press, several polls since the start of the pandemic show a majority of people checking the news several times a day and turning to trusted news sources and state broadcasters rather than social media and their crazy uncle’s health blog rants about the benefits of CBD.
Fox News, for example, posited the virus was a “Dem hoax” for some time before finally doing an about-turn. And Donald Trump has personally attacked reporters at his virus press conferences for asking questions he didn’t like.The New York Timeshave dropped their paywalls so that anyone can access their reporting on the coronavirus.
For us journalists in Africa who diligently covered the Ebola outbreak in Congo for years, without it ever really becoming a major international story despite the violent attacks on health workers, a plethora of fake news and painful deaths, this was not particularly surprising, although it is still depressing.In times like these, fake news can actually kill as can labelling real news “fake”.
Much has been written this week on an apparent FBI report that American neo-Nazis were planning to try and spread coronavirus to “cops and Jews” by using spray bottles filled with bodily fluids.Even people dumb enough to believe in eugenics and genetic racial superiority have finally bought into the science on Covid-19. The neo-Nazis believe it exists and they know how it spreads. And they have the doctors, scientists, and “mainstream media” to thank for that.
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