Are businesses paying for destruction in hyperbolic COVID reporting?

Pratt on Texas Listener Club member Steven provided the following as Word of the Day usage for the word abdicate:

“The press would prefer us to believe that they are the guardians of our republican institutions and without them, our nation would be forever in the grasp of tyranny and politicians with malign intentions. The problem is that over time they increasingly cheerlead for those who espouse tyrannical designs and wish to alter the republic into a unitary Socialist nation which was NOT the intent of the Founding Fathers.

“The two latest egregious examples are how they have declared their preferred candidate for President to have won in spite of the fact that not a single electoral vote has been cast nor have election results been certified anywhere, and how suddenly once again we have to be concerned about the Wuhan flu; never mind that regular flu might well spirit away more people this flu season than the Wuhan flu has done all year.

“The press continues to gleefully abdicate its responsibilities to inform the public and keep the powers that be on their toes in favor of cheerleading for the results they want and to panic as many people as possible. And if the press’s continued abdication bodes poorly for the country by making informed debate nearly impossible and by insulating the politicians they adore from the consequences of their actions and words to the point of destroying the republic? The press says, “So be it.””

Steven is right and local media is none better having been providing not context, but hyperbolic panic over COVID numbers to the point that many people have again stopped going out to do business with the advertisers that support those local media sources.

Local news tells you on the hour that COVID cases are exploding when, in fact, Texas’ active case count has been declining daily since last week with an active case count of only 135,231 on Tuesday. That represents less than 4/10ths of one percent of the 29 million Texas population with active infection and most of those cases are very mild to asymptomatic (likely 90% + of those cases.)

This panic has real long term costs.

Business owners being undermined by local press panic should seriously consider if they are not actually paying for their own destruction by providing advertising support for the hyped reporting devoid of proper context and meaningful questioning.

Update: Del Rio News-Herald ceases publication, blames virus cutback – the losses are due to lockdowns and orders that curtailed business with advertisers.