{"id":555965,"date":"2021-06-07T17:20:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T21:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=555965"},"modified":"2021-06-07T17:20:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T21:20:59","slug":"where-does-tom-cotton-go-to-get-his-reputation-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/where-does-tom-cotton-go-to-get-his-reputation-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Does Tom Cotton Go To Get His Reputation Back?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhere-does-tom-cotton-go-to-get-his-reputation-back%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=555965&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1233120790-1.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Last week, Reagan administration Labor Secretary Ray Donovan \u2014 who was best known for saying, \u201cWhich office do I go to, to get my reputation back?\u201d \u2014 passed away at the age of 90. Donovan made his famous quip after being acquitted on charges that he defrauded taxpayers, allegations that cost him his job, his business, and (thanks to the media) his good name. And if there\u2019s anyone in politics who has the right to repeat Donovan\u2019s statement today, it\u2019s Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR).<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Cotton endured more than a year of media smears for daring to question the prevailing orthodoxy that the COVID-19 virus originated in a Chinese wet market, rather than the Wuhan Institute of Virology.<\/p>\n<p>Last January 30, he <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenTomCotton\/status\/1222971592403226628\">said<\/a> that \u201cWuhan has China\u2019s only biosafety level-four super laboratory that works with the world\u2019s most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus.\u201d He later <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenTomCotton\/status\/1226549891360546817\">urged<\/a> the Chinese to \u201c[o]pen up now to competent international scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"14.068965517241\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We still don\u2019t know where coronavirus originated. Could have been a market, a farm, a food processing company.<\/p>\n<p>I would note that Wuhan has China\u2019s only biosafety level-four super laboratory that works with the world\u2019s most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CtuU2czBLp\">pic.twitter.com\/CtuU2czBLp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenTomCotton\/status\/1222971592403226628?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 30, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The media backlash was immediate, harsh, and unrelenting.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times (mis)<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/02\/17\/business\/media\/coronavirus-tom-cotton-china.html\">informed<\/a> its readers last February that Cotton\u2019s \u201cconspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed by scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Business Insider inveighed against Sen. Cotton with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/coronavirus-bioweapon-tom-cotton-conspiracy-theory-china-warfare-leak-2020-2\">ponderously long<\/a> headline, \u201cA GOP senator keeps pushing a thoroughly debunked theory that the Wuhan coronavirus is a leaked Chinese biological weapon gone wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vox <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/3\/4\/21156607\/how-did-the-coronavirus-get-started-china-wuhan-lab\">warned<\/a> that, if the media did not quash Cotton\u2019s words, \u201cthe conspiracy theory could persist and undermine trust in public health authorities at this critical moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFace the Nation\u201d even gave China\u2019s ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, a platform to accuse Cotton of instigating racial hate crimes against innocent Chinese Americans. \u201cIt\u2019s very harmful, it\u2019s very dangerous to stir up suspicion, rumors and spread them among the people,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/02\/09\/chinese-diplomat-coronavirus-gop-senator-112820\">said<\/a> Cui. \u201cIt will fan up racial discrimination, xenophobia, all these things that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since Biden\u2019s inauguration, however, the possibility of a lab origin has become mainstream, but the media have only taken baby-steps to set the record straight \u2014 and not to repair Cotton\u2019s wrongly besmirched reputation, but to cover their own tracks. The Washington Post quietly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/washington-post-correction-tom-cotton-covid-lab-leak-theory\">edited<\/a> a story from last February titled \u201cTom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked.\u201d The headline now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2020\/02\/16\/tom-cotton-coronavirus-conspiracy\/\">reads<\/a>, \u201cTom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus fringe theory that scientists have disputed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But note that the story retains its bias and does not improve its accuracy. Is a theory deemed credible by Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci, a significant group of experts, and even WaPo\u2019s fact-checker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/from-impossible-to-credible-how-the-legacy-media-is-desperately-spinning-their-wuhan-lab-flip-flop\">Glenn Kessler<\/a> really \u201cfringe?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And a more concerning fact has come to light about the story: Rutgers University chemistry professor Richard Ebright says the same Washington Post article deliberately removed all his comments giving credence to the possibility that the coronavirus came from a lab.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe experience \u2014 being quoted in the February 17 Washington Post article in a manner that materially misrepresented my views \u2014 was eye-opening,\u201d Ebright <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arkansasonline.com\/news\/2021\/may\/30\/cottons-theory-on-virus-origin-no-longer-dismissed\/\">wrote<\/a> in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. \u201cWatching \u2018the first rough draft of history\u2019 being written as a partisan exercise, rather than a journalistic exercise, was dismaying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Cotton believes the media went to such lengths to bury this theory about COVID-19\u2019s origins, because \u201cI was one of the first people to say it, and then President Trump said it, as well, and let\u2019s just say most folks in the media don\u2019t care for our politics. So, if it\u2019s coming from us, they immediately want to discount it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The legacy media might be tempted to call <em>that <\/em>a conspiracy theory, as well \u2014 if not for the fact that so many journalists have admitted their anti-Republican bias caused them to spike the story for a year.<\/p>\n<p>New York Times writer David Leonhardt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/nyt-writer-admits-media-dismissed-claim-of-wuhan-virus-origin-because-cotton-said-it\">confessed<\/a> last month on CNN, \u201cI think a lot of people on the political Left and a lot of people in the media made this mistake: They said, \u2018Well, if Tom Cotton is saying something, it can\u2019t be true.\u2019 They assumed that, and that\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maggie Haberman of the New York Times claimed that Trump\u2019s involvement made the story \u201cinstantly political.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And NBC reporter Ken Dilanian said that the lab origin theory of COVID-19 \u201cwas dismissed at the time, because it was the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople like Tom Cotton were writing op-eds and going on TV just raising questions,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2021\/06\/04\/meghan_mccain_tom_cotton_questioned_covid_origins_and_was_treated_like_alex_jones_by_media_now_raising_questions.html\">said<\/a> Meghan McCain, and they \u201cwere treated like [they] were Alex Jones with a tinfoil hat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the media won\u2019t apologize, could Sen. Cotton at least be happy that they\u2019ve finally given his views a fair hearing? Not necessarily. Cotton recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2021\/05\/27\/cotton_biden_covid_origin_probe_designed_to_avoid_conflict_with_china_kicking_the_can_down_the_road.html\">derided<\/a> Biden\u2019s efforts as \u201ctoo little, too late,\u201d predicting that the months of lost time and administrative inaction will prevent the United States from ever uncovering the real origins of the novel virus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can bet what they\u2019re going to find in 90 days. It\u2019s exactly what they\u2019ve found over the last 18 months: inconclusive evidence,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause China has been concealing the evidence and probably has destroyed a lot of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s time to lower the boom on the Chinese Communist Party and to make them pay for what they have done to the United States and done to the world,\u201d said Sen. Cotton late last month.<\/p>\n<p>If the CCP must pay a price for delay, their allies in the media should, too.<\/p>\n<p>So, where is the media\u2019s collective <em>mea culpa <\/em>to Sen. Cotton? How long will he have to wait for the reporters who mocked him to admit he was ahead of the curve?<\/p>\n<p>Ray Donovan gives us a good idea of how the media treat their victims. The New York Times, which pumped so much oxygen into the baseless charges that ruined his life, reported his death with the headline, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/06\/05\/us\/raymond-j-donovan-dead.html\">Raymond Donovan, 90, Dies; Labor Secretary Quit Under a Cloud<\/a>.\u201d Thirty-six years after Donovan left public life, the Times still can\u2019t resist tarring him with discredited claims of wrongdoing. But as the truth continually comes to light thanks to news websites like this one, the only reputation the legacy media have destroyed is their own.<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Reagan administration Labor Secretary Ray Donovan \u2014 who was best known for saying, \u201cWhich office do I go to, to get my reputation back?\u201d \u2014 passed away at &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279521,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1233120790-1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Where Does Tom Cotton Go To Get His Reputation Back?","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1233120790-1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Where Does Tom Cotton Go To Get His Reputation Back?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}