New York Times Spouts Misinformation, Then Published ‘Disinformation Experts’ Fretting About … Misinformation

New York Times Spouts Misinformation, Then Published ‘Disinformation Experts’ Fretting About … Misinformation

Harold Hutchison on July 6, 2023

The New York Times reiterated a false claim that vaccinated people could not spread COVID-19 in a Wednesday article about a federal judge’s ruling against the Biden administration’s coordination with social media companies.

Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday that prohibited Biden administration officials, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services, from contacting social media companies to push for “the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” The NYT reported in one article about the decision that Doughty had “previously expressed little skepticism” about “debunked” vaccine claims.

“In one previous case, Judge Doughty accepted as fact the claim that ‘Covid-19 vaccines do not prevent transmission of the disease,’” the NYT article reads.

“This is an absolutely extraordinary passage in a NYT article from yesterday about the court ruling against the govt’s right to suppress speech on social media,” journalist David Zweig tweeted. “It cites a correct statement as evidence of a judge referring to a ‘debunked claim.’”

The NYT also published a Wednesday article that cited multiple “disinformation researchers” who were frustrated with the court ruling and argued that the government’s coordination with social media platforms is okay so long as there is no “coercion.”

“It’s bananas that you can’t show a nipple on the Super Bowl but Facebook can still broadcast Nazi propaganda, empower stalkers and harassers, undermine public health and facilitate extremism in the United States,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British non-profit, told the NYT in the piece profiling the reactions from “disinformation” experts.

Doughty cited in Tuesday’s ruling a report the group sent to the U.S. surgeon general’s office on the so-called “Disinformation Dozen,” which were accounts allegedly involved in sharing “anti‑vaccine content.”

“Fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts,” an October 2021 study published in the Lancet reads.

This is an absolutely extraordinary passage in a NYT article from yesterday about the court ruling against the govt’s right to suppress speech on social media

It cites a correct statement as evidence of a judge referring to a “debunked claim”https://t.co/DgDiCEFEPTpic.twitter.com/mfWVD6n2yb

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) July 6, 2023

During a Congressional testimony in June 2022, Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as response coordinator during the COVID-19 pandemic under the Trump administration, said that government officials who promised that vaccinated people couldn’t transmit the virus were not “lying,” but “hoping.”

The NYT did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.