Throughout Chris Cillizza’s long career as a “journalist” and “political commentator,” he has shown himself repeatedly to be a dutiful propagandist for the left, never daring to get even close to an independent thought and instead faithfully reflecting whatever the political and media elites wanted him to think. And that is still largely the case, but these are unusual times, and even Cillizza has demonstrated a shocking level of independence for a leftist journo, even daring to say that Donald Trump, the veritable focus of evil in the modern world, may have been right about something. Et tu, Cillizza? Yes: for the left, it has come even to this.
Cillizza wrote on X Monday: “I screwed up. Back in May 2020, I wrote how Anthony Fauci had ‘crushed’ Donald Trump's lab-leak theory for how Covid-19 originated The CIA said over the weekend that they now believed the virus leaked from a lab.”
To get an idea of how big this admission is, consider that Cillizza’s Substack bears a heading that boasts about Trump’s disdain for him: “So What: Donald Trump once called me ‘one of the dumber and least respected of the political pundits.’ So I got that going for me. I write about politics — mostly — with humor, transparency, and authenticity. 2-3 posts a day.” Well, he writes about politics, anyway, and actually approached some transparency and authenticity in his Monday thread on X.
Cillizza noted a recent assessment from the CIA — and they wouldn’t lie to us, now, would they? “Here's a CIA spokesperson: ‘CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting.’” Since this so sharply differs from what the CIA and the entire political and media establishment were telling us at the time, it is worth crediting, even though it does come from the CIA. And Cillizza was man enough to recognize its implications for his previous “reporting.”
Cillizza followed up the CIA assessment with this: “Which, if you’re keeping track, is what Donald Trump and lots of prominent conservatives — most notably Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton — have been saying for a very long time now. And, candidly, they have taken a lot of s**t for it. Including from me.” He even added: “My belief back then was that if this was a debate between Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci on the origins of a pandemic-level virus, I was going to go with the guy who spent his entire career studying this stuff, not the reality TV-star-turned-president.” And: “Except, it now appears that the reality TV-star-turned-president was right. And Anthony Fauci was wrong.”
Wow! Is Cillizza independently wealthy? Does he plan to retire and never work in the left’s propaganda mills again? Or are the facts of the COVID hysteria now virtually impossible to deny, such that even ferociously partisan hacks such as Cillizza have to admit that or risk losing whatever tattered shreds of credibility they may still have left?
Cillizza goes on to explain why he came to the conclusions that he did at the time and adds a word of caution that all leftist “journalists” would do well to take to heart: “The lesson: Be skeptical — of experts or anyone else — when dealing with a rapidly-developing and changing situation where no one has the ability to see a 360-degree view.”
And regarding Trump: “The other major mistake I made was that I let my belief that Trump just, well, said stuff, get in the way of the possibility that he could be right.” And: “My belief at the time was that Trump was just making it up. Like, he wanted to blame China for the virus. And it having leaked from an infectious disease lab — whether accidentally or intentionally — made that case much easier to make.”
Related: Bitter Division Among Leftists: Should They Be Civil to Trump Supporters or Not?
These admissions are remarkable, but they’re likely to remain unique. Other leftist propagandists are likely to prefer the world of shadows and echoing the party line to the world of light and simply reporting the facts accurately. Nevertheless, Cillizza’s willingness to admit his error is a noteworthy crack in the left’s propaganda edifice. Dare to dream! Maybe Cillizza will be the harbinger of a new trend of leftist propagandists remembering that they’re supposed to be journalists and starting to report the facts without spin.
Yeah, you’re right: too outlandish to happen. Still, more and more people every day are catching on to their game. If Cillizza had to admit all this, more admissions could follow, until the whole propaganda machine grinds to a halt. Talk about big dreams!
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