Fox News—an outlet that has spewed so much
dangerous misinformation
about the coronavirus outbreak that is reportedly worried about being sued over its coverage—is calling out one of Daily Kos' top writers for getting a story right.
The right-wing robots at Fox might be content repeating whatever talking points the Trump White House emails them, but that's not who we are or who we will ever be. We work hard to get the facts straight and to connect our readers to actions that can help them do something about the news they read. We've taken this responsibility more seriously than ever during the coronavirus outbreak, as millions more people have come to us for the latest news.
Here's how Daily Kos ended up as a Fox News target:
In February, Staff Writer Mark Sumner wrote that Trump's lies and right-wing conspiracy theories were making the outbreak much more dangerous than it needed to be. In it, Mark noted that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton was among those spreading misinformation, specifically calling out Cotton's claims that the virus came from a lab. (You can read Mark's story here.)
Last week, Cotton doubled down, penning an op-ed trying to justify his claims that the virus came from a lab. His evidence is entirely circumstantial, and nothing has changed since Cotton started making these claims in February—experts still don't believe the virus emerged from a lab, as NPR notes in a story debunking this right-wing tinfoil hat theory.
But Fox News isn't the sort of outlet that lets pesky experts and their facts get in the way of a good story to "own the libs," so this weekend they ran a story pretending that Cotton had been somehow vindicated, and calling Mark out specifically for his February story.
In summary:
Daily Kos Staff Writer Mark Sumner wrote that Sen. Tom Cotton was claiming that the virus came from a lab. (Cotton was, and still is.)
Experts neither then nor now believe the virus came from a lab.
Fox News thinks this makes Tom Cotton right and Mark wrong ... somehow 路♀️
That's it. That's Fox News' big "gotcha" moment for Daily Kos.
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