A CASE STUDY IN MEDIA BULLSHIT

On May 4, a 35 year old man named Sebastian Yellow was found dead in a park in Montezuma Co, Colorado. He tested positive for COVID-19. It appeared he had died from respiratory failure. His blood-alcohol level was also .55, which is far above the threshold that could bring about a coma or death. The attending physician ruled this as alcohol poisoning. Later, the state reclassified this death as COVID-related, as the individual was positive for the virus and had died from respiratory failure. This has caused the county coroner and government to cry foul and now the national media - as well as some INTERNATIONAL media - have picked this story up. Some state officials are now suggesting there should be CRIMINAL charges brought against whoever reclassified the cause of death.

Why is this single case important enough to make international, or even national news when a single autopsy result in a very rural county isn't more than local news? The answer is pretty simple: There have been coordinated efforts over the last month or so to completely discredit the COVID death counts - this narrative has been pushed by conservative media sources as well as social media, where you see silly memes on a daily basis joking about how things like smoking deaths have dropped due to the virus. A study was done last week suggesting that over 50% of these stories are being spread by bots on social media. And just like with anything else, you can always find a few doctors willing to say whatever, so there are numerous doctors quoted as saying the counts are exaggerated. Generally, however, there have been few clear examples of this happening - just broad statements. THIS one puts a simple, understandable story and a face to that narrative - which is why it now has legs. "See - we told you they were making up numbers...the COVID death count is bullshit."

There is more to this story than just death counts, however. This is VERY political. Montezuma County is in the SW of Colorado - at the "Four Corners". It is a very rural and conservative county with a population of around 25,000. It is a small "red" enclave in what has become a "blue" state. The last time a Democrat received more than 40% of the vote there for President was 1968. They are political orphans. Recently, Montezuma County has objected to the way the state is handling the virus and requested to count their COVID numbers differently than the rest of the state. This story is an attempt at throwing shit on the state government to accomplish this request. Other conservative media outlets like Fox affiliates and New York Post took the story national, realizing it provides a memorable anecdote to their recent narrative. Now the conservative British tabloid Daily Mail have given it international press, realizing the same.

It's important to consider that historically 25-30% of all autopsy results list an incorrect cause of death. This is not a COVID thing, this is a medical thing. Studies going back as far as 1983 produce similar results. I am 100% certain there are deaths erroneously attributed to COVID, and I am equally certain there have been COVID deaths that were missed. The point here is there will be some gray area. We aren't counting deaths from this virus any differently than we have other recent viruses. It won't be exact and expecting it will be is unreasonable.

In the real world, we have a dude who died of respiratory failure that was found postmortem. He tested positive for COVID and also tested with a really high blood-alcohol level. Either of these factors or the combination of both could have killed him. The coroner picked one, state officials picked another. In the conservative "news-sphere", this is an example of leftists inflating death counts to undermine America's economy and try to embarrass the "party of patriots" in the upcoming elections and here is an example of them doing just that.

This is how media works. All sources have some form of bias - always have - and there are biased news sources to validate any opinion that exists. The most effective forms of bias don't come from spreading outright lies, however, although that has certainly grown and has been proven to be impacting as well. People are capable of fact-checking if they want to. Its fairly simple to determine whether content is factually correct, although you wouldn't know that from your Facebook feed. The most effective bias is much more subtle and includes things like choosing what gets press. Agenda-setting.

So....when you see this story over the next few days and wonder why only conservative national news sources like Fox, NYPost, The Blaze and Daily Mail are carrying it, it isn't because "the liberal media doesn't want you to see this...". In actuality, the local CBS affiliate broke the story and the Denver Post (considered to be somewhat leftist) actually wrote the piece that all of the right-wing sources are circulating. The real story here is the only news sources that view this as "national" news are the ones that see it as an example to validate the narrative they've been selling for the past month.