The Patriot Post® · CBS Caught Peddling Fake News
CBS News has been exposed for staging a “news” story regarding testing for COVID-19. The segment in question appeared on “CBS This Morning.” It showed a long line of cars at a drive-in testing facility that was being run by the nonprofit organization Cherry Health, in which people were presumably being tested. CBS used the footage as part of a story featuring Michigan’s Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who blamed the federal government for failing to provide her state with enough testing resources to address the state’s pandemic needs. It served as an obvious hit piece against President Donald Trump’s leadership during this national crisis.
Furthermore, the story aimed to promote ObamaCare as a shining example of how the law enabled Cherry Health to meet the healthcare needs of the community. Of course, President Trump and Republicans have worked against that law, so the story doubled as a swipe at callous Republicans on top of relaying how the federal government’s supposed lack of support during this pandemic was putting immense strain on the health facility.
This story also has a Joe Biden connection. “Perhaps it’s not a surprise that two months ago Cherry Health hosted a campaign event for former Vice President Joe Biden, where he was lauded by Gov. Whitmer,” The Wall Street Journal observes. “Mr. Biden also promised at the event to further expand ObamaCare, which was no doubt welcome news to Cherry Health officials. Mr. Biden also had kind words for Ms. Whitmer.”
An employee of Cherry Health contacted the media watchdog Project Veritas, which released undercover videos showing several employees claiming that the long line of cars was staged, and that it was done at the behest of CBS reporters and their own boss.
CBS News denied that it staged anything and placed the blame for any apparent staging on the Cherry Health facility, though it removed the segment in question from the web. Cherry Health CEO Tasha Blackman offered the following explanation: “I did not instruct any of our staff to get in their cars as part of the line of vehicles.” Notice that neither CBS News nor Cherry Health denied that the line of cars was staged.
Irrespective of these lame denials, what this fake news once again demonstrates is the deeply biased mindset of the mainstream media, which eagerly promotes “news” stories that support a leftist narrative. Add this latest episode to the long-running series of MSM promulgation of fake news that comports with former CBS anchor Dan Rather’s infamous “fake but accurate” standard. There’s ABC News’s fake Syrian video, CNN’s scripted anti-Second Amendment rally, the staged photo of a migrant woman running with her two children among gas canisters, the migrant kids in cages taken during Barack Obama’s presidency but falsely attributed to President Donald Trump, and the Covington Catholic high-school boys being falsely labeled racists and accused of harassing a Native American on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. These are just a few of the more recent instances.
The news media have a responsibility not to be set up — to get the facts straight and report them, not to perpetrate a narrative. That in a nutshell is the overarching problem with Leftmedia.