Masters of Misinformation

Bill Maher has gotten into the habit of speaking truth to power. This weekend he attacked the dominant media pandemic narrative. You may have noticed that the media, with precious few exceptions, has chosen not to let the coronavirus go to waste. They are using it for political purposes, to slam Republicans and to enhance the power of Democrats.

What else are the teachers’ unions doing by shutting down school systems, to the detriment especially of minority children. 

Maher’s remarks were reported by Fox News. He began by emphasizing that propagandists in the media have used misinformation about the medical science to advance an agenda. Dare we add that government officials like Dr. Fauci have acted more like political activists than like scientists:

"When all of our sources for medical information have an agenda to spin us, yeah, you wind up with a badly misinformed population, including on the left," Maher told viewers. "Liberals often mock the Republican misinformation bubble ... but what about liberals? You know, the high-information, by-the-science people?"

Yes, indeed. The leftist love for science is a ruse to dupe the gullible. As it happens, Democrats turn out to be wildly misinformed about, for instance, the probability of being hospitalized:

Maher then pointed to a Gallup survey that showed the vast majority of Democrats incorrectly overestimate the probability of being hospitalized from COVID, with 41 percent believing it's at least 50 percent while only 10 percent of Democrats correctly said that the probability is only 1-to-5 percent while 26 percent of Republicans said the same, stressing that Democrats were "wildly off on this key question."

So, Democrats are more prone to exaggerate the effect of the virus. They are more prone to an hysterical overreaction. And this has translated into bad policy, on the part of blue state governors and blue city mayors.

"[Democrats] also have a greatly exaggerated view of the danger of COVID to and the mortality rate among children, all of which explains why today the states with the highest share of schools that are still closed are all blue states," Maher lamented. "So if the right-wing media bubble has to own things like climate change denial, shouldn't liberal media have to answer for 'How did your audience wind up believing such bunch of crap about COVID?'" 

Of course, misinformation about the virus begins with the notion that schoolchildren are especially susceptible-- ergo, we must close public schools and extort more money for teachers. In truth, children are at far less risk and are happily in school in many parts of the country.

Maher then attacks The Atlantic magazine, an intellectually serious publication, for lying about the chances of contracting the virus on the beach:

The HBO star blasted The Atlantic magazine for shaming the media's use of beach photos as a concern of furthering the spread of the virus "even though it's increasingly looking like the beach is the best place to avoid it."

He continues that Texas and Florida have relaxed their restrictions and have seen their infection rates decline. Apparently, sunlight prevents the virus from spreading:

"Sunshine is the best disinfectant and Vitamin D is the key to a robust immune system," Maher exclaimed. "Texas lifted its COVID restrictions recently and their infection rates went down in part because of people getting outside to let the sun and wind do their thing. But to many liberals, 'That can't be right because Texas and beach-loving Florida have Republican governors,' but life is complicated!"

And then Maher praised Florida’s gov, Ron DeSantis-- one politician who has bucked the crowd and provided his state with serious leadership:

Maher then praised Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being "a voracious consumer of the scientific literature."

"And maybe that's why he protected his most vulnerable population, the elderly, way better than did the governor of New York," Maher said, knocking Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "Those are just facts, I know it's irresponsible of me to say them."

Of course, we all know and have all repeated, ad nauseam, that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, wildly and widely praised for his pandemic leadership, has just about the worst record of any state governor in America. We knew about this last summer, but it would have been inconvenient for the national media to report these facts-- they might have helped Donald Trump. 

Of course, the media was perfectly capable of making up any story whatever if it would damage Trump. Masters of misinformation, they.