Where Does Tom Cotton Go To Get His Reputation Back?
https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-tom-cotton-go-to-get-his-reputation-back  Last week, Reagan administration Labor Secretary Ray Donovan  who was best known for saying, Which office do I go to, to get my reputation back?  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 theres anyone in politics who has the right to repeat Donovans statement today, its Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR). 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. Last January 30, he said that Wuhan has Chinas only biosafety level-four super laboratory that works with the worlds most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus. He later urged the Chinese to [o]pen up now to competent international scientists.  We still dont know where coronavirus originated. Could have been a market, a farm, a food processing company. I would note that Wuhan has Chinas only biosafety level-four super laboratory that works with the worlds most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/CtuU2czBLp  Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 30, 2020  The media backlash was immediate, harsh, and unrelenting. The New York Times (mis)informed its readers last February that Cottons conspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed by scientists.  Business Insider inveighed against Sen. Cotton with the ponderously long headline, A GOP senator keeps pushing a thoroughly debunked theory that the Wuhan coronavirus is a leaked Chinese biological weapon gone wrong.  Vox warned that, if the media did not quash Cottons words, the conspiracy theory could persist and undermine trust in public health authorities at this critical moment.  Face the Nation even gave Chinas ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, a platform to accuse Cotton of instigating racial hate crimes against innocent Chinese Americans. Its very harmful, its very dangerous to stir up suspicion, rumors and spread them among the people, said Cui. It will fan up racial discrimination, xenophobia, all these things that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus.  Since Bidens inauguration, however, the possibility of a lab origin has become mainstream, but the media have only taken baby-steps to set the record straight  and not to repair Cottons wrongly besmirched reputation, but to cover their own tracks. The Washington Post quietly edited a story from last February titled Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked. The headline now reads, Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus fringe theory that scientists have disputed.  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 WaPos fact-checker Glenn Kessler really fringe?  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. The experience  being quoted in the February 17 Washington Post article in a manner that materially misrepresented my views  was eye-opening, Ebright wrote in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Watching the first rough draft of history being written as a partisan exercise, rather than a journalistic exercise, was dismaying.  Sen. Cotton believes the media went to such lengths to bury this theory about COVID-19s origins, because I was one of the first people to say it, and then President Trump said it, as well, and lets just say most folks in the media dont care for our politics. So, if its coming from us, they immediately want to discount it.  The legacy media might be tempted to call that a conspiracy theory, as well  if not for the fact that so many journalists have admitted their anti-Republican bias caused them to spike the story for a year. Not necessarily. Cotton recently derided Bidens efforts as too little, too late, 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. I can bet what theyre going to find in 90 days. Its exactly what theyve found over the last 18 months: inconclusive evidence, he said. Because China has been concealing the evidence and probably has destroyed a lot of it.  Thats why its 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, said Sen. Cotton late last month. If the CCP must pay a price for delay, their allies in the media should, too. 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, Raymond Donovan, 90, Dies; Labor Secretary Quit Under a Cloud. Thirty-six years after Donovan left public life, the Times still cant 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. The views expressed in this piece are the authors own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. 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