1. OK, I'm calling bs on "news" of "COVID parties"—college students TRYING to get COVID. It has all the failure hallmarks of moral panic, Chomsky's 4th filter of manufactured consent (flak) & confirmation bias. Let me lay out why you should be skeptical. https://abcnews.go.com/US/alabama-students-throwing-covid-parties-infected-officials/story?id=71552514

2. The main story everyone is linking to is this ABC News piece, which weirdly has video of upstate NY but the text is all about Alabama? And if you read it closely, the signs of moral panic & manufactured consent are glaring through out.

3. A quick primer of what moral panic is, from Wikipedia quoting the British sociologist John Scott. Mass media will whip people up into HYSTERIA about imagined problems without, disgustingly, doing little interview and sometimes NO interviewing of alleged people involved!

4. When I started reporting on Michael Johnson "intentionally" trying to spread HIV in 2014, it had been a moral panic nightmare for months: news outlets repeated officials' charges without INTERVIEWING THE ALLEGED CRIMINAL OR ANY VICTIMS.

Same is happening w "COVID parties."

5. Look at this WEAK ASS ABC "news" story, and read this charge CLOSELY.

6. In the video, which is about NY except for quoting AL's, McKinstry says, "College kids are having COVID parties where they're getting tickets, they’re buying tickets, to come to the party & they will invite a couple of people who have tested positive for COVID...

7. ...so if you are the first person, so if you are the first person testing positive for COVID, then you win the money. "

An outrageous claim, right? But one with things a REPORTER could find.

Where are the tickets?

Where are the invites online?

WHERE ARE THE KIDS?!

8. ABC News doesn't have one reporter who can find even ONE COLLEGE KID who has SEEN or GONE TO these parties?

No! Instead, they quote a fire chief: "We did some research. Not only do the doctors' offices confirm it but the state confirmed they also had the same information."

9. Well, if the fire chief can do "some research," WHY CAN'T ABC NEWS? ABC can't call the doctors or the state? Can't get on Facebook/Insta/TikTok & find ads of these parties? Can't find ONE KID who went?

And here's the Chomsky propaganda model at work, filter 4 (h/t @skyedali)

10. ABC News (and now, derivatively, CNN the Today Show --competitors of ABC!!!- etc.) Take the officials' account and promote straight up govt propaganda. They don't report. They don't find the alleged disease-spreading monsters -they repeat govt claims!

11. Why would ABC News

and CNN https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/us/alabama-coronavirus-parties-trnd/index.html

and NBC
https://www.today.com/health/alabama-students-hold-covid-19-parties-see-who-will-get-t185773

repeat propaganda of govt sources in poorly sourced "news" stories, not even bothering to report?

12. @democracynow's Amy Goodman explains Chomsky's propaganda model here, perfectly (take 5 minutes to watch, I'll wait before upping Tweet 13)

13. This story engages in confirmation bias—it advances the narrative that COVID is being spread by wild, unruly, selgfish, greedy young ppl at parties.

This lets gov off the hook for PUTTING YOUNG PPL AT RISK NOT AT PARTIES BUT IN SERVICE AND RETAIL JOBS!

14. ABC has failed—UTTERLY FAILED—at the most basic call of journalism: FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED! But the call to kiss ass of officials + put out viral content which will confirm biases, all while spending no money on reporting, was too great.

Journalist MALFEASANCE!

15. Why do I care so much? BC this happens ALL THE TIME w HIV. W Michael Johnson & NuShawn Williams, media invented Black predator HIV+ monsters, rather than dealing with the AIDS pandemic & the crisis of ONE IN TWO BLACK QUEER US MEN BECOMING HIV+! https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2016/croi-press-release-risk.html

16. And now, we have a GOD DAMN GLOBAL PANDEMIC, & poor young ppl are being sent back into classrooms, & service workers are being sent to their dorms, & young ppl are being forced to work at the Gap so y'all can shop.

And you're gonna make up INTENTIONAL COVID PARTIES?

GTFOH!

17. And EVEN IF you could find one or two such parties (but first, I want the receipts, the guests, the invites, an eye witness, or the covid "winning tickets"), the framing that THIS would be why this awful disease is spreading is, again, JOURNALIST MALFEASANCE, ABC/CNN/NBC.

18. Gotta take a break before I launch a story and get back to my book, but MY GOD, ABC (and every lemming "news" outlet repeating them), this is an EMBARRASSMENT to our profession.

Do some damn reporting!!

//

19. When I was 1st reporting the HIV case, Johnson was in jail. I started by finding every classmate at his uni & wrestling teammate on FaceBook & messaged them.

Working alone, it took ONE HOUR to start finding interviews.

ABC CAN'T MUSTER EVEN THAT?

20. I eventually interviewed Johnson in jail, which took some weeks.

But I think ABC should be ashamed for broadcasting a thinly sourced story relying entirely upon two local officials. If they can't find a single piece of corroborating evidence on their own, it's not news!

21. Ahem, via @RadielD, a similar story being retracted elsewhere https://twitter.com/RadielDancliffe/status/1278732980215676928

22. Retraction of a similar story in Washington in May via @NeilFischerTV h/t @michael_w_busch https://twitter.com/neilfischertv/status/1258558984522350593?s=21 https://twitter.com/neilfischertv/status/1258558984522350593