A look at headlines and local media coverage and how it can shape opinion and emotion.
The media coverage of Attorney General Peterson’s 48-page opinion that concluded, “… early treatment options will free [physicians] to evaluate additional tools that could save lives, keep patients out of the hospital..”
So much has been written on the topic of censorship and propaganda. Here are a few questions I’m asking about what I’m seeing in the media.
- Balanced coverage? How was the recent 48-page Nebraska AG opinion covered in the media? Full width, above the fold, or side-lined?
- News is emotion, not logic? If, as Stephen Petty’s teacher told him, it’s about emotions, not logic, then what does the headline ‘People are dying unnecessarily‘ full width coverage, above the fold, tell us?
- No news is good new? What if you just don’t report a story in print, and don’t promote it online? Coverage of UNL’s Turning Point USA sponsored Candid COVID Conversations event covering early treatment for COVID
- Who can be disciplined or charged? Will physicians, pharmacists, the media, or those in government be held accountable for withholding information on early, effective, out-patient COVID-19 treatments.
- Who owns the local news outlets? And, why should we care?
Coverage of the AG Opinion “… early treatment options will free [physicians] to evaluate additional tools that could save lives, keep patients out of the hospital”
Compare the headlines and links below covering the October 14, 2021 opinion from the Nebraska Attorney General’s office on whether doctors in Nebraska can be disciplined for using off-label treatments for COVID-19. The Attorney General’s final conclusion was “Allowing physicians to consider these early treatments will free them to evaluate additional tools that could save lives, keep patients out of the hospital and provide relief for our already strained healthcare system.” Which of these pieces are sourced? Why do you trust one story over another?
Lincoln Journal Star – “Doctors can give unproven drugs” 10/16/21 by Matt Olberding.
Omaha World-Herald, “Nebraska AG: Doctors can’t be disciplined for prescribing controversial drugs to treat COVID” 10/15/21 by Julie Anderson OWH online link
The Daily Herring, “Nebraska Attorney General Calls Out Pharmaceutical Misconduct“, October 17, 2021 by Joe Herring
The Defender – “Groundbreaking: Nebraska AG Says Doctors Can Legally Prescribe Ivermectin, HCQ for COVID, Calls Out FDA, CDC, Fauci, Media for ‘Fueling Confusion and Misinformation’ 10/18/21, by Megan Redshaw. The Defender provides news and view for The Children’s Health Defense. The Defender article on censorship.
KFAB radio – KFAB may have reported the AG’s opinion, however this writer personally heard no reference to it, or to an interview of the AG Doug Peterson on the topic.
Dr. Maslonka’s opinion gets full width coverage, above the fold
Lincoln Journal Star – “People are dying unnecessarily” 10/15/21 by Matt Olberding. Olberding’s piece references Dr. Maslonka’s letter to the editor, printed on pg. A6. To quote Olberding’s article, referring especially to patients from rural areas, Dr. Maslonka says “patients.. don’t believe that they are that sick, and they sometimes refuse therapies that could help them in the early stages of the disease, such as antiviral medicines or monoclonal antibody injections.” Other quotes from Dr. Maslonka letter:
Regarding his thoughts after a patient’s wife laments the prognosis of the immanent death of her husband of 21 years, “I kept thinking how this didn’t have to happen.”
Blaming excess deaths on a choice not to be vaccinated, Dr. Maslonka concludes, “This is a warning to all those who value health and the confidence in your providers to successfully treat you or your loved ones if ever unfortunate enough to need the ICU. No politicians or constitutional scholars can defend you, only you alone have the capability to protect yourselves. It isn’t about freedom at this point: it’s about community.”
Questions:
Has Dr. Maslonka used the MATH+ Hospital Treatment Protocol, and if so, why does he not report on his experience?
Why would people, rural or not, have faith in – as Dr. Maslonka says, “therapies that could help them in the early states of the disease,” when the media not only do not report on early treatment, such as I-MASK+ and AAPS treatments, but dismiss and disparage such information?
What does Dr. Maslonka think of the information presented at the UNL Turning Point USA Chapter event?
What would Dr. Maslonka’s opinion be of the 2018 universal flu vaccine discussion at the Milken Institute?
‘Candid COVID Conversations‘ – “…vaccines might be one chapter, with even darker chapters to come. We have to take action now.” Dr. Peter McCullough
On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, the local UNL chapter of Turning Point USA, with help from a few generous donors, hosted internist, cardiologist, and medical journal editor, Dr. Peter McCullough, forensic industrial engineer, Stephen Petty, and Martin Cannon, trial lawyer with the Thomas More Society. Below represent a search of reporting on the event, and some quotes from the participants. Which reporting best represented the event?
KLIN Radio “Drive Time Lincoln” 10/13/21 by Jack Riggins. Riggins interviews Dr. Peter McCullough after the event. A direct link to the podcast could not be found. Link to all KLIN podcasts. In the interview McCullough says, “[COVID-19] is a treatable illness.” McCullough recommends several remedies for early treatment, some available at truthforhealth.org and steps to take before hospitalization. A caller to the show reported a standing-room-only crowd.
UNL Daily Nebraskan “TPUSA Candid COVID Conversations” 10/13/21, by Nick McConnell. McConnell includes a few sources in his piece. Two sources of note, Johns Hopkins University, one sponsor of the October 2019 Event 201 exercise, and The Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise article on Dr. McCullough, and his fall from grace. The Johns Hopkins link is interesting in that it provides a small window into some adverse reactions to the COVID-19 injection as reported to VAERS. The Bartlesville Excaminer-Enterprise link, though, is devoid of any source references to support most of the claims made.
Lincoln Journal Star “Critics of mask rules draw crowd” 10/14/21 by Jenna Ebbers
Quotes from the event:
Dr. Peter McCullough, internist and cardiologist, after reviewing the dangers of the spike protein in the infection and the vaccine, clinical concerns about vaccine testing, and VAERS vaccine adverse events reporting deaths and harms from the COVID-19 vaccine Dr. McCullough said, “People have asked me, ‘Dr. McCullough, what’s behind all this?’ Some people say this has been going on for 70 years. This is the best book, if you are to read on this, very factual, thousands of references, Peter Breggen, COVID-19, Global Predators….we can continue to have our freedoms.. because if we allow this to happen I think we’re going to head off into a deep precipice. And, I think the vaccines might be one chapter, with even darker chapters to come. We have to take action now.”
Martin A. Cannon, with the Thomas More Society, said, “This kind of gathering is pretty valuable, but it’s also rare… This is the kind of conversation that should be going on in the media, in academia, but the fact that it’s rare points to the problem I want to talk about… If we are to govern ourselves, we must have the right knowledge to speak, but to hear – my right to speak is your right to hear. You have the right to speak, hear, debate, to determine truth and to act upon it. But, you cannot do those things if you do not have access to information. Our dependency on the internet has made it so that our information is easily controlled. When I was in school you went to the library, and you pulled down all of the primary sources. Beautiful, wonderful books. And,… no one was running around pulling the books off the shelves. They are still there, and I suggest you make use of them.” “Seek out primary source information. Buy books and spread them around. Seek out primary source information and preserve it when you have it.”
Stephen Petty, forensic industrial engineer hygienist, testifies as an expert witness against companies like Monsanto. He listed 25 harms from mask-wearing, saying that neither the N95 or cloth masks provide protection. Claiming that aerosols can linger many days and travel over fifty feet, Mr. Petty recommended introducing additional fresh air into the environment as the better action. He referenced the news that Dr. Gottlieb made when he told CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ that the 6′ distancing was arbitrary. Mr. Petty made equipment recommendations for treating air. During the panel discussion Mr. Petty told a story about his teacher telling him that persuasion is about emotions, and that logic doesn’t work
At the 1:36:00 minute mark, following are some quotes from panel participants in response to moderator Kathleen Kauth’s question regarding UNL’s Safer Community App:
1:37:39 Dr. Peter McCullough responds, “The one part that really should be rejected is the testing part of it. None of the tests (crowd applauds), none of them are FDA cleared to be used in asymptomatic people. They’ve never even been studied in asymptomatic people. And, what we know about them is when they are deployed, they basically generate false positive test results. People don’t, they’re not infectious unless they are sick. So, none of these passports, none of it applies unless you’re sick. So, you can imagine a fully vaccinated person, with their passport, and they’ve got a hot fever and nasal congestion, and they go into a cafeteria and just cough all over the place. It’s a completely useless system because it doesn’t do what it’s intended to be done. It is purely based on symptoms… and the World Health Organization, June 25th, said, ‘Stop it, stop asymptomatic testing.’”
1:39:10 Martin Cannon, “The law cannot adequately respond to those problems. All of our antenna go up and we want the law to do something. It’s not suited for it. The constitution is great when you need to push back against the government. But in only can constrain…”
Additional COVID-19 information is widely available, several sources are available here.
Local media ownership
Media ownership links are here, scroll about half way down.
Edited 1/8/2023 – formerly titled “They burn witches, don’t they”