The lab-leak mess

Last week, Jonathan Chait, of New York magazine, took the “liberal media” to task for having rushed to repudiate “the lab-leak theory”—the idea that COVID-19 may have its origins in a research institute in Wuhan, China. The theory, Chait wrote, has recently “gained more and more credibility,” in sharp contrast to last year, when many mainstream journalists dismissed it “out of hand as a conspiracy theory”; in part, “they were deceived by some especially voluble public-health experts. In part, they simply took Donald Trump’s bait, answering the former president’s dissembling with false certainty of their own.” Trump and various right-wing boosters blurred together the possibility that COVID may accidentally have escaped from the lab and the unhinged idea that China released it intentionally as a bioweapon; in story after story, the press, Chait argued, tarred both notions with the same brush of condemnation, asserting as fact that COVID was natural in origin, and that suggestions to the contrary were unscientific, “debunked,” even racist. But COVID’s true origins are unknown, and news outlets, Chait wrote, ought to have “erred on the side of uncertainty” over dogma. “The lab-leak hypothesis may well turn out to be wrong,” he argued—but that won’t make all the hasty rebuttals right. Since Chait wrote, we’ve seen a gusher of opinion essays in the same vein, indicting the mainstream press and prominent experts for characterizing a plausible hypothesis as a conspiracy theory... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-06-02 12:40:56 UTC ]
News tagged with: #al jazeera

Other news stories related to: "The lab-leak mess"


The lab-leak mess

Last week, Jonathan Chait, of New York magazine, took the “liberal media” to task for having rushed to repudiate “the lab-leak theory”—the idea that COVID-19 may have its origins in a research institute in Wuhan, China. The theory, Chait wrote, has recently “gained more and more credibility,” in... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-06-02 12:40:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #naomi osaka #al jazeera


In leaked memo, Apple says 12 employees were arrested last year for leaking information

Apple said 12 of its employees were arrested last year for leaking corporate information to the outside world, according to an internal company memo that itself was leaked to Bloomberg reporters. Cupertino-based Apple is notoriously secretive, but the lengthy memo, posted recently to its... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2018-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #bloomberg reporters


The next entry-level Kindle leaked on a UK store

John Lewis, a high-end department store chain in the UK, briefly listed a new Kindle that's not available from anybody else. It's the upcoming 12th-generation Kindle ereader that Amazon has yet to announce, though its information has leaked quite a few times before Lewis prematurely posted a... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-10-16 03:52:40 UTC ]
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Production studio to replace former Bushwick bread lab

A massive industrial complex in Bushwick that once served as a bread-making facility and bakery is slated for the wrecking ball to make way for one of two sprawling production studios a firm plans in the borough, records show.Manhattan-based real estate firm Bungalow Projects, which is focused... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2024-10-11 17:17:08 UTC ]
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Five things: Bain Capital, lab vacancies, and science fiction becoming reality

Good morning, Boston. Happy National Root Beer Float Day. Here are the five things you need to know in local business news to start your Tuesday, before you go get that Black Cow. The biggest business news of the day — unless you include the continuing Wall Street meltdown — is the finding by... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2024-08-06 10:16:18 UTC ]
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Comic-Con leak sparks rumors of two remastered Soul Reaver games

San Diego Comic-Con is a popular time to announce any big news for the geekdom, but it's also a popular time for big news to accidentally get revealed early. Today, an attendee took a photo of the booth for comic publisher Dark Horse that may have leaked plans for a remaster of two Soul Reaver... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-07-25 22:39:07 UTC ]
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MultiVersus leak suggests Barbie and Mad Max tie-ins are on the way

MultiVersus, the platform fighter that pulls from Warner Bros. properties, could be getting a whole bunch of new stages and characters, according to a report by Kotaku. This includes content from the film Barbie and the Mad Max universe, in addition to more Adventure Land stuff and a potential... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-07-24 16:22:51 UTC ]
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God Knows We're a Mess: Religious Books Address Contemporary Times

Burned out. Exhausted. Traumatized. Suffering. Lonely. Angry. Fearful. Grieving. To judge by many religion books on the fall horizon, we're all a mess right now. PW asked four editors and publishers about new books aimed at uplifting people from the spiritual pits. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Events Programming at Free Library of Philadelphia 'a Hot Mess' After Staff Firings

After the author events planning team at the Free Library of Philadelphia was fired on June 3, some of the authors scheduled to appear there this month are expressing their support for the former employees—some quietly, others publicly. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Morning After: Those geomagnetic storms are messing with farming tech’s GPS systems

Over the last few days, heightened solar activity (and those heady geomagnetic storms) led to outages in the GPS navigation systems that guide some modern tractors from John Deere and other brands. 404 Media reported farmers have been told to pause using high-tech tractors that use GPS systems... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-05-13 11:15:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #science fiction #battery life #major revamp #business model


Spotify Already Messing Around With Audiobook Pricing

Spotify's... interesting pricing plans, it "It" books of March, and more of the day's bookish news: Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-03-01 21:43:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #audiobook #bookish news


Some Authors Were Left Out of Awards Held in China. Leaked Emails Show Why.

When some books, including best sellers, were conspicuously absent from the science fiction Hugo Awards last year, writers and fans became suspicious. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-02-17 13:11:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #science fiction


IAB Tech Lab presents Google with Privacy Sandbox gap analysis following Annual Leadership Meeting

Frustrations over the most critical development in digital media shared at flagship industry conference. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2024-01-31 05:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #digital media


German publisher halts sale of top author’s books after leak reveals he received €600,000 from Putin ally

Broadcaster NDR launches investigation after Hubert Seipel admits receiving support for work on two books on Russian leaderA German publisher has announced a stop to the sale of books authored by a leading journalist and Russia expert after an investigation showed he had received at least... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-11-15 14:31:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #german publisher #russian leader #vladimir putin


The Books We Need Now: A Reading List of Heroines Who Are Hot Messes

As long as you aren’t a sociopath, there’s a good chance you spend a lot of time in your head, thinking about all the dumb stuff you do. Maybe you ruminate about the message you sent to the bachelorette party thread that no one ‘liked’ for the last half-hour, which obviously means the Kristen... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-24 08:52:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #good chance


Despite leaks, Prince Harry’s memoir is the UK’s fastest selling nonfiction title ever.

You don’t really have to do much at this point to absorb passages from Prince Harry’s public therapy tell-all trauma dump, Spare. So much of what’s in the book has already appeared in interviews, profiles and, thanks to a very aggressive British press, as actual text on the internet. Despite the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-12 15:22:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #nonfiction title #prince harry


Review: Sarah Silverman’s ‘Bedwetter’ Musical Has Sprung a Leak

The comedian’s memoir was funny. But when the new show based on it tries for something deeper, it sinks into bathos. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-06-08 02:00:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #show based #sarah silverman


Esper Says Trump Asked About Shooting Missiles Into Mexico To Target Drug Labs

“No one would know it was us,” the former president said, according to an upcoming memoir written by the former Pentagon chief. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2022-05-06 01:41:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir


Hitting the Books: Lab-grown meat is the future, just as Winston Churchill predicted

From domestication and selective breeding to synthetic insulin and CRISPR, humanity has long sought understand, master and exploit the genetic coding of the natural world. In The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology authors Amy Webb, professor of strategic... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-02-19 16:30:24 UTC ]
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Livid Trump Wanted Person Who Leaked Bunker Story Executed, New Book Claims

Trump was taken to the White House bunker during protests last year over the police killing of George Floyd. Continue reading at The Huffington Post

[ The Huffington Post | 2021-07-14 04:58:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #george floyd #police killing