Cognitive Dissonance: Nets Cause Confusion With Conflicting COVID Reports

Nicholas Fondacaro | May 14, 2020
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***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***

What makes a crisis, such as the one we’re all living through, worse is when the public gets mixed and/or conflicting messages about what to expect. This causes confusion and anxiety. And that’s exactly what the broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC have been creating with their schizophrenic evening news reports that reach millions of people.

Throughout the crisis, and most notably in recent days, they would bounce back and forth between what they wanted their viewers to feel. They would go from pitying the unemployed who couldn’t feed their kids, to decrying efforts to reopening the economy. Or chide President Trump for promoting and unproven treatment, while they did the exact same thing. But Thursday night’s newscasts could cause rhetorical whiplash.

CBS Evening News was arguably the most blatant. In their opening report, they fawned for the congressional testimony from Dr. Rick Bright, an HHS scientist who claimed he was fired for opposing hydroxychloroquine, and that his warnings were ignored (both claims have already been disproven).

“Bright told lawmakers he was ousted last month after refusing to embrace the drug chloroquine as a possible COVID cure,” announced senior congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes. She also noted that while Trump touts the drug, “recent studies have shown the drug could cause fatal heart problems.” The tone of the report was that Trump was promoting something that could kill people.

But just a few minutes later, anchor Norah O’Donnell became an ally of the drug when leading into their “Race to a Cure” segment. Reporting: “Tonight, the NIH is testing a potential coronavirus treatment that combines hydroxychloroquine with an antibiotic that fights infections like pinkeye.”

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