Something I don't see people bring up is that the MSM, namely the liberal media like CNN, MSNBC etc. early on reported on the negative side-effects of the vaccine and never retracted those statements. I saw it on tv, they ran coverage of really rare events like people getting blood clots or going to the hospital sick. I have no doubt this played into the vaccine hesitancy people have and give ammo to the anti-vaxxers, as they can point to legitimate sources reporting on bad side-effects.
Pithy gallows humor aside, I'm not sure if this is something that warrants a retraction, the problem is its all perfectly reasonable and rational under journalistic ethics and Capitalism, but obviously harmful to public discourse and health. Those incredibly rare side effects are real, there's nothing false about reporting them, thus a retraction isn't really in order. The problem of course is where the emphasis lies. :citations-needed: says it again and again, the atomic unit of propaganda is emphasis. These news agencies aren't even maliciously spreading misinformation or anti-vax propaganda, but because their financial interests demand they run what people will read, they have to give voice to the extreme and shocking minority opinion/worst case scenario. These minority/rare cases become the emphasis of reporting, as reporting on the 99.9% of successful cases just doesn't make for very 'interesting' news and gets less viewers.
This systemic corruption due to Capitalism seeps down to the individual level (which of course then constitutes larger social phenomenon), as it leads to availability bias happening in the general public. Even though the events news reports on or minority viewpoints are EXTREMELY uncommon, everyone has heard about them, and often repeatedly. Thus, people subjectively assume those things are actually much more common than they really are just because it so easily comes to mind. Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking Fast and Slow" is a great resource for learning more about these kinds of heuristics and biases if you're curious. For me, it's maddening to see Capitalism so clearly exploit them, unintentionally or not (advertising being a great example of intentional exploitation), and ultimately cause us harm.
Something I don't see people bring up is that the MSM, namely the liberal media like CNN, MSNBC etc. early on reported on the negative side-effects of the vaccine and never retracted those statements. I saw it on tv, they ran coverage of really rare events like people getting blood clots or going to the hospital sick. I have no doubt this played into the vaccine hesitancy people have and give ammo to the anti-vaxxers, as they can point to legitimate sources reporting on bad side-effects.
Well yeah. Gotta get them clicks fam.
Pithy gallows humor aside, I'm not sure if this is something that warrants a retraction, the problem is its all perfectly reasonable and rational under journalistic ethics and Capitalism, but obviously harmful to public discourse and health. Those incredibly rare side effects are real, there's nothing false about reporting them, thus a retraction isn't really in order. The problem of course is where the emphasis lies. :citations-needed: says it again and again, the atomic unit of propaganda is emphasis. These news agencies aren't even maliciously spreading misinformation or anti-vax propaganda, but because their financial interests demand they run what people will read, they have to give voice to the extreme and shocking minority opinion/worst case scenario. These minority/rare cases become the emphasis of reporting, as reporting on the 99.9% of successful cases just doesn't make for very 'interesting' news and gets less viewers.
This systemic corruption due to Capitalism seeps down to the individual level (which of course then constitutes larger social phenomenon), as it leads to availability bias happening in the general public. Even though the events news reports on or minority viewpoints are EXTREMELY uncommon, everyone has heard about them, and often repeatedly. Thus, people subjectively assume those things are actually much more common than they really are just because it so easily comes to mind. Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking Fast and Slow" is a great resource for learning more about these kinds of heuristics and biases if you're curious. For me, it's maddening to see Capitalism so clearly exploit them, unintentionally or not (advertising being a great example of intentional exploitation), and ultimately cause us harm.