FPI / March 23, 2023

Corporate WATCH

Commentary by Joe Schaeffer

The dominant media insist that the “disinformation” peddled by “anti-vaxxers” is so horrible that these people must be rigidly censored on social media and suppressed wherever and whenever they are to be found in the name of public safety.

From a Feb. 4 Associated Press article. The second paragraph says it all:
 

The use of “died suddenly” – or a misspelled version of it – has surged more than 740% in tweets about vaccines over the past two months compared with the two previous months, the media intelligence firm Zignal Labs found in an analysis conducted for The Associated Press. The phrase’s explosion began with the late November debut of an online “documentary” by the same name, giving power to what experts say is a new and damaging shorthand.

“It’s kind of in-group language, kind of a wink wink, nudge nudge,” said Renee DiResta, technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory. “They’re taking something that is a relatively routine way of describing something – people do, in fact, die unexpectedly – and then by assigning a hashtag to it, they aggregate all of these incidents in one place.”

Hey, this is serious. People are going to get killed because of this:
 

The campaign causes harm beyond just the internet, epidemiologist Dr. Katelyn Jetelina said.

“The real danger is that it ultimately leads to real world actions such as not vaccinating,” said Jetelina, who tracks and breaks down COVID data for her blog, “Your Local Epidemiologist.”

The faux-hard-edged journalism acting by AP reporters here is reminiscent of the worst theatrics commonly found during the heyday of the coronavirus pandemic hype:
 

An online conspiracy theory claims without evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are killing people.

The AP Fact Check team investigated. https://t.co/Dr3PxcyBhs pic.twitter.com/M9SMSOPwY5

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 16, 2023

That phrase! It has spiked considerably online. Well, yes it has. And leading big-box media organizations, who are without exception 100 percent in lockstep with the ruling vaccine narrative, are doing their part. Apparently, fighting what these media entities earnestly proclaim is literally murderous disinformation isn’t as important as drumming up more article clicks. NBC News: Make sure to get it in the tweet:
 

Long-time minor league pitcher Matt Pobereyko died suddenly of a heart attack, according to his team. The Indiana native's minor league career included stops in the New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins organizations. https://t.co/Q7kWGKjeb0

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 27, 2023

And the headline. And the lead sentence. And even link to the words in that opening sentence. ABC News highlighted the loaded AP article in a tweet. Yet the network is quite comfortable with prominently placing the dastardly phrase, or intentionally similar wording, in its news coverage as well, as can be seen here, here and here.

“Devastating news that Elvis Presley’s only daughter, Lisa Marie, has died suddenly from possible cardiac arrest,” a January blurb below a video reads. Watch our clip! Actor Lance Reddick passed away March 17 at the young age of 60.

An article on the CBS News site attributed jointly to the network and AP made sure to have the catchy phrase in paragraph two. Yes, but it is a common description. It’s been used for years. But given that it is now being hijacked by COVID vaccine skeptics for their dastardly purposes, doesn’t utilizing the term to describe an accident victim’s unfortunate death seem more than a bit deliberate? CBS Boston did that in January.

In December, CBS Sacramento went out of its way to put the words “died suddenly” in a headline about the passing of a 85-year-old former local mayor. Isn’t that a tad unusual? Network is playing this game, too. Former women’s professional golfer Kathy Whitworth was 83 when she “died suddenly” on Christmas Eve. Watch our clip! PBS made it clear in the headline that soccer journalist Grant Wahl experienced a “sudden death” in December.

Another entertainment death? CNN was not to be outdone by NBC... let’s get it in the tweet:
 

South African rapper Costa Titch died suddenly this weekend -- hours after performing at a music festival. He was 28.https://t.co/pupRZskObc

— CNN (@CNN) March 12, 2023

And the lead sentence of the attached article. Notoriously pro-vaccine Fox News made sure to have “died suddenly” in the subhead to its article on Reddick’s death. With Wahl, Fox was even more blatant with the headline: “Second World Cup journalist 'died suddenly' after Grant Wahl passes away: report” Leftist Daily Beast:
 

Qatari reporter Khalid al-Misslam “died suddenly while covering the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” the Gulf Times tweeted. https://t.co/yzjGjthVD2

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 13, 2022

Leftist New York Daily News:
 

💔 Popular actor, star of ‘The Wire,’ ‘John Wick’ movies, Lance Reddick, dies suddenly at age 60 in L.A.

The Baltimore native studied at Rochester and Yale.

He was scheduled to appear on 'The 'Kelly Clarkson Show' just next week.https://t.co/wwTx0TZYFP

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 17, 2023

We could go on and on. Here’s a few more:
 

• People magazine.
• UK establishment newspaper The Independent.
• Business publication Fortune.
• USA Today.
• And, even sports news site Pro Football Talk, which is owned by NBC.

Are we cherry picking? That can be argued, but a lot of these prominent placements sure seem mighty gratuitous.

“‘Died suddenly’ posts twist tragedies to push vaccine lies,” the AP headline shrilled in February.

Would anyone be surprised to see ruling regime “journalists” twisting their own overinflated sense of outrage to push more readers to their struggling sites?

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