“I think it’s a shame,” HBO comedian Bill Maher told Dr. David Katz, “that people like you who sound reasonable — maybe it’s not the exact one true opinion you hear somewhere else — has to go on Fox News to say it.”
For years, I have told liberal friends that they miss important stories by not paying attention to Fox, because most other TV media eschew non-progressive perspectives they oppose (but perhaps fear we might support).
Last month, Katz wrote a New York Times op-ed, entitled, “Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?” Rather than the current lockdown strategy, the physician advocates “a middle path” where “high-risk people are protected from exposure” and “low-risk people go out in the world.”
Once upon a time, social media promised regular folks a chance to communicate and even organize without government interference or media filters.
Not so much these days.
Last week, I decried Facebook removing posts informing people about planned anti-lockdown protests, reportedly “on the instruction of governments” in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska because those protests might violate “stay-at-home orders.”
This week, YouTube removed a video that you and I must not see, with California Drs. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi explaining why they think the lockdowns are bad policy.*
“Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations,” clarified YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, “would be a violation of our policy” — and will be blocked.
Our society’s first principle is freedom of expression.
The idea? Unfettered information will best lead us to the truth.
Increasingly, our social media and news outfits no longer trust us with information not heavily controlled by them.
Which means we cannot trust them.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* The doctors also confirm, as I suggested might happen, that medical personnel are being pressured to “add COVID” to death reports.
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