How big is the pack of lies?

Several days ago I posted Pravda reporting, here we are.  My point is how accustomed we have become to major stories advanced by the mainstream media to support a particular social or political or philosophical narrative turning out to be completely untrue or to have little or no evidence to support it (a single anonymous claim by an insider does not constitute evidence).  I wrote:

I need to start keeping a list of these blind lies which keep getting repeated by the mainstream media without any regard to the rich data which either refutes or calls into question the narrative.  Of course we have the heritage of the three year Russia Collusion propaganda campaign which was nothing built on even less.  There was the whole Ukraine call charade, the Potemkin village performances of impeachments one and two.  The General Michael Flynn folderol, etc.

But those are oldies.  

Here I sit, post-surgery, doped up on pain-killers and I can come up with some very obvious ones off the top of my head (a dangerous thing to do in my condition.)

CBS baseless accusations against DeSantis

Mainstream Media dismissal of Hunter Biden's computer until once again proven real.

Mostly peaceful riots.

January 6th insurrection (mostly peaceful protests based on the charges).

Hiding the fact that no Capitol Police Officer was murdered by protestors.

Hiding the fact that there was hardly any evidence supporting the charges against Derek Chauvin. 

Hiding the fact that George Floyd was already in mortal distress at the beginning of the encounter owing to overdoses of several drugs.

Complete misrepresentation of the contents of the Georgia Voting bill despite its availability online.

Etc.  Just top of mind.  Every single one of these was, by empirical evidence or by reason, untrue when first reported and increasingly obviously untrue as time progressed.  

The American mainstream media has accelerated onto the Pravda path towards publishing propaganda rather than facts. 

And in the week or two since then, I keep coming across additional examples.  Listed, they are a stunning indictment.  I will try and build up something a little more formal than the post surgical addled list above.

I intend to omit simple error.  As Phil Graham, an earlier publisher of the Washington Post used to say "News is only the first rough draft of history."  As such, it is necessarily subject to error if you are going to get as much information to as many people as quickly as possible.  

I also want to steer clear of the stories which are popular but improbable.  "White Supremacists Leave Nooses on Campus" type of stories which seem almost always to end up being the work of some misguided and unthinking advocate of Critical Race Theory who wants to raise societal awareness of systemic racism and simply has no evidence to do to make his/her case.  As many have noted, "the demand for evident racism far exceeds the supply."  

The paper would be remiss to not report the claim even if it is likely false and is only at fault if it persists in advancing the story past the point where it becomes readily apparent that it was a manufactured outrage.

But persisting with a non-story?  That is up for grabs.  I laugh every time at David Chapelle's skit on an example of this sort of story, that advanced by Jussie Smollett with his claim to have been attacked by MAGA hat wearers in the early hours of the morning in downtown Chicago in midwinter.  

Double click to enlarge.

I want to focus on, instead, those stories where the mainstream media persist long past the point where significant evidence suggests the original interpretation was wrong.  Stories that are advanced for a political or ideological purpose rather than as a means of informing people.  Stories which are invoked months and years later, long after they have been overturned.  

The original list is a good starting point.  I'll eventually get these in chronological order and link to essays overturning the original reporting.

• Complete misrepresentation of the contents of the Georgia Voting bill despite its availability online.
• CBS baseless accusations against DeSantis regarding the effectiveness of his Covid policies
• Hiding the fact that no Capitol Police Officer was murdered by protestors.  Originally claimed January 7th, 2021.  Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died from strokes one day after January 6th riots - Washington Post.  
• January 6th insurrection (mostly peaceful protests based on the charges).
• Mainstream Media dismissal of Hunter Biden's computer until once again proven real.
• Russia placed "bounties” on the heads of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.  Originally claimed in July 2020.  
• Mostly peaceful riots.
• Hiding the fact that there was hardly any evidence supporting the charges against Derek Chauvin. 
• Hiding the fact that George Floyd was already in mortal distress at the beginning of the encounter owing to overdoses of several drugs.
• Adulation over Governor Cuomo's policies in New York despite the early and commanding evidence that the state had one of the highest death rates per million in the country.
• UVA Rape Culture 
• Russia Collusion 2016-2019
• The possible lab origins of Covid-19 (May 2020)
• US investigators corroborate some aspects of the Russia dossier.  This was claimed by CNN despite the CIA and FBI having already dismissed the dossier as a compilation of rumors and unsubstantiated allegations.  (February 10, 2017)
• Carter Page meeting with Russians (2016)