Why Did the Los Angeles Times Incite Fear and lies about COVID-19?
The ethics of journalism in a pandemic like the coronavirus is worth exploring. Let’s take a look at the LA Times.
Like all mainstream media, the Times was covering the coronavirus in China and other countries, reporting positive tests that were popping up in the US. The first coronavirus case in the US was Jan 21, 2020, in the state of Washington. On January 30, WHO declared the virus an international public health emergency.
But California, and especially Los Angeles was pretty quiet as far as numbers. In fact, we had no deaths in all of Los Angeles County, with a population of over 10.7 million people, until March 11! Then, on March 19, we had a second case.
This is positive news! Yes, 2 died, but there’s the fact that the other 10.7 million people in the county were fine. The LA Times mentioned the 2 cases, and then ignored them, apparently so as not to compare us with the shocking numbers coming from China and Italy.
Omission of facts is a lie. The Times was hiding Los Angeles behind other countries. And the Times continued to spread fear to its readers, with headlines such as these.
- Doctors and nurses brace for coronavirus onslaught: ‘What happens if I end up on a ventilator?
- Is Newsom right? Could California see 25.5 million coronavirus cases in two months?
- L.A. County gives up on containing coronavirus, tells doctors to skip testing of some patients
- Eerie calm before the storm gives ER doctors time to prepare, worry about what’s to come
- Officials long warned funding cuts would leave California vulnerable to pandemic. No one listened.
First and 2nd coronavirus deaths in LA County
The first death here was on March 11. The announcement of her death was 15 paragraphs down.
The patient was not an L.A. County resident but had been visiting after extensive travel over the last month, including a long layover in South Korea.
In a follow-up article, the Times wrote that the 68 year old had 2 serious underlying conditions, and just never woke up one day. She tested positive for coronavirus. However, reading the details as a lay person, it’s clear it was a heart attack. The county refused to test her elderly husband, with no reason given.
By this time, the country was already in panic mode. The photos of hoarding, selfish people had been all over social media for a few days. Thanks, people and media! This was the worst response possible when we needed a good plan for everyone.
Seeing this hysteria, why didn’t the Los Angeles Times calmly point out that other countries are not us? No one had ever compared the US to Italy before…so why now?!
On March 19, they wrote about the 2nd coronavirus death in LA County:
A man with an underlying medical condition became the second person to die from the coronavirus in Los Angeles County, officials announced Thursday, and the total number of confirmed cases rose by 40 overnight to 230. [the actual announcement was “complications from coronavirus”.]
Why are these 2 deaths noteworthy?
LA County is the biggest county in the country, with over 10.7 million. People are watching. The Governor is watching. We have numbers, people. Be responsible in your reports, LA Times!
Of course, 2 deaths in older people, with significant pre-existing conditions, is not unusual, and didn’t mean the whole city of millions would suddenly die. Flu deaths have been documented from similar coronaviruses for many years.
We all knew that this wasn’t just an ordinary flu or cold: it spreads rapidly, and although nobody knew much about it – including the CDC – we knew that it kills those with poorer or weak immune systems. But that’s about it; not many facts at all.
This didn’t stop Barbara Ferrer, Director of the LA County Health Dept.. Even before we had ANY deaths, on March 6 she held a press conference announcing that LA County had 6 “assumed” cases of cornonavirus. She called it a National Emergency.
On March 11 she held another one:
Public Health issued a Health Officer Order to prohibit group events and gatherings, require social distancing measures and the closure of certain businesses, including bars, gyms, movie theaters and entertainment centers.
This would have been a good opportunity for the Times to consider whether the LA County Health Dept was the best source for their news stories.
The best domino effect ever!
Barbara Ferrer’s press conference caused Gov Gavin Newsom to act (or act like a lunatic), and he banned large gatherings, while suggesting social distancing. He said he depends mostly on county health officials to advise him on how to run the state (a very dangerous policy), so this little tickle in his ear from Ferrer sent him over the edge. He panicked big time, and shut down everything she didn’t.
Eric Garcetti, our mild-mannered Mayor, kicked up his heels, too.
“Nobody is locked down, and we encourage you not to be locked,” he said. “This is not ‘shelter in place’ like a school shooting, this is stay at home because you’re safer at home. And the only people who should be leaving home and going out are those whose jobs are critical to the safety, the health and security of the city, as well as the economy of recovery for us and the nation during this crisis.”
(As somebody who has lived through this for a month, we are horribly locked down, enough to make our forefathers tear out their hair from frustration at our loss of civil liberties.)
In the next 8 days the whole country began to unravel, and governors of other states, like lemmings, joined California, and ordered lockdowns. All businesses, schools, and arts, dead. Fake news, rumors, and magic cures popped up.
The Times missed this opportunity to tamp down the craziness, and stick to the facts. They jumped on the bandwagon of desperation and despair.
True, scientists were giving us very little info on this coronavirus. But no information shouldn’t mean gross misinformation. Journalism that incites fear and panic is as bad as fortune telling – but more deadly. Maybe news organizations should have looked around at history, before jumping the gun.
The LA Times had published over 2000 articles about COVID_19, as of March 23, but none of them pointed out our relative safety. We had 2 deaths from complications of the coronavirus. in an area of 10.7 million people.
The Times also started a new section, Coronavirus Today. Every day they list the numbers confirmed or dead for the state, US, and World. Nothing about Los Angeles county, where the numbers are so low. Why? Because good news isn’t news!
The paper hasn’t always been this tense and hysterical, like a barky little dog. They even published an editorial about epidemic coverage, ridiculing the predictions of doom and population decimations. Back in 2015.
Op-Ed: Ignore predictions of lethal pandemics and pay attention to what really matters
Prophets of doom have been telling us for decades that a deadly new pandemic — of bird flu, of SARS or MERS coronavirus, and now of Ebola — is on its way. Why are we still listening?
Predictions of lethal pandemics have — since the swine flu fiasco of 1976, when President Ford vowed to vaccinate “every man, woman and child in the United States” — always been wrong.
Coincidentally, moments after I read this, the author, Wendy Orent, just replied to a comment on Twitter! The argument was between Carl T Bergstrom, predicting a catastrophe, the kind she makes fun of in this editorial, and Aaron Ginn, a tech guy with an opposite position, based on current numbers.
I tweeted to her to ask if she still thinks epidemic predictions are overblown, and she replied:
Guess what? This pandemic really matters. I wish we had had the capacity to handle things the way South Korea did. Test, trace, isolate. But the failure of our leadership means staying home and maintaining social distances is all we’ve got right now. #SouthKorea did it right.
— (((Wendy Orent))) (@WendyOrent) March 23, 2020
Haha! She deflected the question into a Trump-bash! Jump over there to see how it ended.
And another, more recent article on pandemics, from, Dr Marc Siegel: Op-Ed: The new coronavirus isn’t a threat to people in the United States — but flu is
But human minds jump to worst case scenarios. I wish I could convince someone walking down the street in Los Angeles today that he or she is a million times more likely to encounter the flu virus than the new coronavirus, but I know that the emotional center — the hard wiring of the brain — is too strong, fed as it is by news-stoked fears.
This article was interesting, because it stressed fear, the consequences of a terrified populace, and of course, mentioned the source of the panic – the news.
Fear is the enemy
I’ve been a member of the LA Press club for over 2 decades. I’ve had a feature in the LA Times for many years. But I truly feel I can’t trust them now. Leaving out news = fake news. Fear-mongering has been rampant in many newspapers, but the Los Angeles Times has won Pulitzers! They are one reason why I started writing about the COVID19 scare myself.
When the newest owner bought the Los Angeles Times, he wrote: “My family and I fervently believe that the Times, the Union-Tribune and our other titles must continue to serve as beacons of truth, hope and inspiration binding our communities,” Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong wrote.
Dr. Soon-Shiong, I don’t think they’re doing too well on the hope part.
Fear is the enemy. Please stop, Los Angeles Times.
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