The goal of mass media is to encourage people to panic and feel that something horrible is going on. That is what, as they used to say “sells newspapers” (in 21st century, “motivates clicks”). If people realized that the death rate due to Covid19 is under 1 in 1000, and compared that to the “normal” death rate in America which is roughly 8 per 1000, and that most of the deaths are of people who were very old (older than “baby boomers”) or very sick to begin with, they might not panic. They would ask politically incorrect questions such as “Why did we close schools” or “Why did they close shuls” or “Why did they close down businesses” or “Why did they deprive some many people of their parnassah”. So not exaggerating the impact of Covid10 would cause people to question their betters, and what sort of society would you have if the commoners didn’t know their place? Where would people like Cuomo be without media that twist the facts to make them more sensational? It is no accident that the highest awards in journalism, the Pulitzers, are named for someone reknown for “yellow journalism”.
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