Media Backpedals On Wuhan Lab Leak Theory

'Egg on their face': Media backpedals on Wuhan lab leak theory

Paul Sacca

The mainstream media did some major backpedaling this week on the potential origin of the coronavirus. After months of brushing off the possibility that COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory, left-wing journalists now admit that they are taking the Wuhan lab leak theory seriously, even after they said the theory was "debunked" months ago. Backtracking journalists are blaming former President Donald Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for the media previously dismissing the now-feasible lab leak theory.

"I think a lot of people have egg on their face," ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl told Martha Raddatz on Sunday. "This was an idea that was first put forward by Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, [and President] 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, and because he was, you know, making a frankly racist appeal talking about 'kung-flu,' and the 'China virus,' his notion ... he said flatly this came from that lab, was widely dismissed ... but now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry," Karl said on ABC's "This Week."

Last week, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler posted an article titled, "How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible." The article stated, "The Trump administration's messaging was often accompanied by anti-Chinese rhetoric that made it easier for skeptics to ignore its claims."

New York Times reporter David Leonhardt openly admitted that a "lot of people, including a lot of in the media, leaped to dismiss the lab leak theory because of where it was coming from, and the reality is we don't yet know how Covid started."

"Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd conceded a "growing number of scientists are increasingly open to the lab leak possibility."

"And for many, the lab leak idea got tangled up in politics and conflated with the idea that the Chinese deliberately released the coronavirus into the world," the NBC host said.

"All these reporters scrambling to defend their own records on the lab leak theory are exposing their own hypocrisy & ignoring their basic error. Just report the facts," he wrote on Twitter. "Don't act like its your job to tell us whats ok to think or talk about. Own up to it when you fail your readers."

The theory that the coronavirus originated from a lab has gained traction in recent weeks. 

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee say there is "significant circumstantial evidence" that COVID-19 originated from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the Chinese military may have been involved.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who last year "strongly" said coronavirus "evolved in nature and then jumped species," now says he is "not convinced" that COVID-19 emerged naturally, and he recommends an investigation into its origin.