A number of reporters from mainstream media outlets have recently admitted that the Wuhan “lab leak” theory was originally dismissed because it came from Republicans.
Jonathan Karl, ABC News Washington correspondent admitted to ABC’s “This Week” host on Sunday that the lab leak theory was not taken seriously because it came from the Trump administration but, “now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry.”
“Yes, I think a lot of people have egg on their face,” Karl said. “This was an idea that was first put forward by Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, Donald Trump, and look, some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them. Because Trump was saying so much else that was just out of control ... he said flatly this came from that lab, and it was widely dismissed ... but now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry.”
Besides Trump and Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) argued that the origin of the virus should be investigated because it does not appear to have come from the animal market, as claimed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Here’s what we do know, this virus did not originate in the Wuhan animal market. Epidemiologists who are widely respected from China have published a study in the international journal The Lancet have demonstrated that several of the original cases did not have any contact with that food market. The virus went into that food market before it came out of that food market,” said Cotton.
“So we don’t know where it originated, but we do know that we have to get to the bottom of that. We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level four super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases. Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question,” added Cotton.
New York Times reporter David Leonhardt also said on Sunday that many journalists disregarded the lab leak theory because Cotton proposed it.
“I think people made this mistake. I think a lot of people on the political left and a lot of people in the media made the mistake. They said, ‘wow if Tom Cotton is saying something, it can’t be true.' Or they assumed that. And that’s not right,” he said on CNN.
In addition, NBC’s Chuck Todd from “Meet the Press” admitted that investigation into the origin of the virus got neglected because of politics and anti-Republican sentiment.
“The WHO has dismissed the idea for months, most scientists scoffed at it, and for many, the lab leak idea got tangled up in politics,” said Todd.
Mainstream media outlets are now giving the idea of the lab leak theory credibility and urging for a new probe into the origin of the virus, pointing to China’s refusal to share crucial raw data.
