What was the real cause of the COVID-19 pandemic? Were journalists too quick to dismiss the ‘lab leak’ theory? We’ll look at why several leading publications are revisiting their reporting from a year ago and giving what some once called a conspiracy theory another look.
Paul Farhi & Jeremy Barr, Washington Post: “The media called the ‘lab leak’ theory a ‘conspiracy theory.’ Now it’s prompted corrections – and serious new reporting.”
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post: “Timeline: How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible”
Aaron Blake, Washington Post: “Jon Stewart goes all-in on the lab leak theory”
Dan Kennedy: “Why it matters: Tracking the media’s dismissal of the Wuhan lab theory”
Alison Young, USA Today: “Could an accident have caused COVID-19? Why the Wuhan lab-leak theory shouldn’t be dismissed”
Samuel Chamberlain, New York Post: “China official insists COVID lab-leak theory ‘absurd’ in Blinken call”
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Nadia Kounang, Amanda Sealy & Andrea Kane, CNN: “Uncovering the origins of the virus that sparked a pandemic”
Stevie Zhang, First Draft: “The unproven lab leak theory, Wuhan lab and virus origin: Reporting best practices”
Pulitzers recognize journalism’s best
Paul Farhi, Washington Post: “Reporting about racial justice and the pandemic dominates Pulitzer Prizes”
Richard Prince, journal-isms: “Pulitzers shout out post-Floyd reckoning”
Harrison Mantas, Poynter: “14 local news organizations were recognized with Pulitzer nods this year”
Megha Rajagopalan, Allison Killing & Christo Buschek, BuzzFeed: “China secretly built a vast new infrastructure to imprison Muslims”
Kristen Hare, Poynter: “California Sunday Magazine closed last year. It just won a Pulitzer”
Joe Hernandez, NPR: “Darnella Frazier, who filmed George Floyd’s murder, wins an honorary Pulitzer”
Mikki Kendall, CNN: “Darnella Frazier’s Pulitzer citation is not enough”
Syreeta McFadden, NBC: “View: What giving a Pulitzer Prize for filming George Floyd’s murder to Darnella Frazier really means”
Pay to put it in the book
Joshua Benton, Nieman Lab: “Bad blood? The Wall Street Journal apparently wants its reporters to pay to use their own reporting in books”
IAPE@Work: “IAPE will fight unilateral imposition of new policy on books and projects”
Celine Castronuovo, The Hill: “Union condemns new Dow Jones policy on Wall Street Journal employees’ outside work”
Toobin returns to CNN
Brian Stelter & Oliver Darcy, CNN: “Jeffrey Toobin is back at CNN eight months after exposing himself on Zoom”
David Bauder, Associated Press: “Jeffrey Toobin returns to CNN after Zoom call incident”
David Moye, HuffPost: “Jeffrey Toobin admits masturbating on Zoom was ‘moronic and indefensible”
Erik Wemple, Washington Post: “Opinion: CNN still hasn’t explained its decision to reinstate Jeffrey Toobin”
Alla E. Dastagir, USA Today: “The problem with Jeffrey Toobin’s apology”
Ben Smith, New York Times: “Anthony Weiner’s not coming back. But he has nowhere to go.”
Are they out there?
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker: “How the Pentagon started taking U.F.Os seriously”
Niall McCarthy, Forbes: “Global UFO sightings are taking off again”
Dani Di Placido, Forbes: “The media is taking UFO sightings seriously – should we?”
Jason Abbruzzese, NBC: “Obama on UFO videos: ‘We don’t know exactly what they are’”
Doug Reardon, FOX 17 West Michigan: “UFO sightings up in 2020: a Michigan expert explains why”
Journey’s end for American Way
Dawn Gilbertson, USA Today: “End of an era: American Airlines is retiring its in-flight magazine, joining Delta and Southwest”
Grace Lieberman, Dallas Morning News: “American Airlines to discontinue in-flight magazine after 55 years”
Associated Press: “The American Way is doomed. The airline in-flight magazine, that is.”
