Brownstone Media Bias

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In Defense of Jay Bhattacharya

The deceptive description of the policy proposed in the GBD as a “let it rip” strategy was fueled by the purposeful – or perhaps recklessly ignorant –mischaracterization of the GBD by Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci.Prof. Bhattacharya calls not for letting the virus “rip,” but, instead, for Focused Protection. Focusing resources, attention, and care on those persons who are vulnerable while rejecting the utterly unprecedented practice of locking down whole societies is emphaticallynota “let it rip” strategy.
Brownstone     Jan 13, 2023

We Must Have the Truth

science

Although the CDC acknowledged playing a role in the growing distrust in science, none of their professed forms of atonement, such as promising to share data faster and doing a better job of translating science into policy will restore trust without a process that includes honest debate.
Brownstone     Jan 13, 2023

Pandemic Potshots and Other Epigrams

Outrageous government policies are often shrouded by fogbanks of bureaucratese and political deceit. But a snappy sentence can sometimes puncture the veil and spur the ridicule that policy-makers richly deserve. Following is a round-up of verbal harpoons I flung at Leviathan last year.
Brownstone     Jan 12, 2023

Rumors of the Lab Leak Began with US Intelligence

The first known mention of the idea that the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese lab appeared on January 9th 2020 in areport byRadio Free Asia(RFA). This was just days after the virus had first entered public consciousness, and at the time, no deaths had yet been reported and few people were worrying about the virus – including, it seems, the Chinese, who were claiming it wasn’t even clear whether it was spreading between humans.
Brownstone     Jan 12, 2023

Covid Controls Removed in China but Persist in the US

Emanuel and the lockdown crowd he caucuses with lament that the return of freedom to the Chinese people “could have been done responsibly.” Too much freedom too fast according to Emanuel et al. He writes that rather than gradually giving it back with experts like him fully in charge, “China ended zero Covid in the most dangerous way possible – precipitously.”
Brownstone     Jan 12, 2023

Facebook Is Dead Unless You Post Something that Does Not Matter

If some website offered a deal to users – you post pics of lunch, cats, and flowers, and we give you ads – and it worked, fine. That’s normal terms of use. That’s not what is going on. Via explicit and implicit pressure, combined with irresponsible management, Facebook turned over its entire business model to government to deploy on behalf of regime interests. The customers and stockholders were the victims.
Brownstone     Jan 12, 2023

How Can We Trust Institutions that Lied?

We have a choice: either we continue to passively accept institutional false information or we resist. What are the checks and balances that we must put in place to reduce conflicts of interest in public health and research institutions? How can we decentralise the media and academic journals in order to reduce the influence of pharmaceutical advertising on their editorial policy?
Brownstone     Jan 12, 2023

How Long Did It Take Them Realize that Human Rights Matter?

We face the question of how to purity test our leaders—both official and unofficial—in light of all the devastation we’ve witnessed during the response to COVID-19. If you believe, as I do, that the importance of this issue presently eclipses that of any other, then every step should be taken to select for leaders who opposed lockdowns as early and as vocally as possible.
Brownstone     Jan 12, 2023

The Boy Who Trapped Death in a Nut

lifestyle

Life is a messy, risky, and at times lethal adventure, and while it’s perfectly acceptable and in fact compassionate to try to lower this risk to some extent, a complete elimination of all risk would create a dull, lifeless world devoid of conviviality and meaning. The people of Jack’s town are willing to accept some level of pain, sadness and suffering in order to reap the concomitant rewards that come with living life to the fullest.
Brownstone     Jan 11, 2023

The Travel Ban Wrecks Commerce, Constitution, and Civility

travel

Fiancés and other nonimmigrant family members cannot reunite with their loved ones after years separated. Unfortunately, my family will remain divided, just like countless others, until this Administration decides whether it will defend our Constitution, freedoms, and economy on the world stage or keep doubling down on failed policies until there’s no republic left.
Brownstone     Jan 11, 2023

Ineffective Maltruism

The current fad of the financially fabulous is Effective Altruism, which essentially involves promising to give your money while you are still alive to causes and organizations that “do good,” while simultaneously tethering them to your whims through financial dependence. A very specific example of this is the massive money going to barely-surviving but purportedly legit media organizations (or you can just buy the Washington Post.) You get good press when you own it.
Brownstone     Jan 11, 2023

The Censorious Scott Gottlieb Was a Major Influence on Lockdowns

The person and role of Gottlieb is a paradigmatic case of why and how solving the mysteries of the lockdowns and mandates is such a complicated undertaking. It’s not just about government intervention and it’s not just about private corruption. It’s about a complicated relationship between the two, involving a range of public and private actors in and out of government who seized control of the policy machinery to achieve private ends at enormous public expense.
Brownstone     Jan 11, 2023