Yesterday saw two major pieces of fake news put out by supposedly “credible” sources. The first involved NBC’s Chuck Todd deceptively editing a clip of AG Bill Barr and then lying about what he said regarding the Michael Flynn case (see Chuck Todd Lies About Bill Barr Interview as the Media’s War Continues). But then 60 Minutes, not to be outdone, decided to fib about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just to round things out.

If you’ll recall, Pompeo stated last week that there was ample evidence the Wuhan virus escaped a lab in China.

As the U.S. took the lead for illness and death from coronavirus, the White House moved the focus to the Chinese government. Last Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attempted to resurrect a debunked theory that the virus was man-made in China. https://t.co/MZbfe4LeXi pic.twitter.com/bIjTRfboTg

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 10, 2020

There are two lies in this tweet.

One, the U.S. “took the lead” in infections and deaths only because we are actually honest about our numbers. This is especially true of infections, in which we lead the world in total testing by far. The more you test, the more positives you get. That does not mean we actually lead the world in infections. There’s a reason our death rate is so much lower than other countries. It’s not because we have a magic serum (although our care is better and more prevalent). It’s because we are more accurately reporting infections, which lowers the mortality numbers.

By framing the U.S. as uniquely failing, 60 Minutes is doing China’s bidding, something CBS and others have been more than willing to do over the course of this pandemic. Does anyone really think China, with no therapeutic, was suddenly able to cut their domestic cases to zero? Or that India and Russia, for example, just happen to have extremely mild outbreaks? Of course not. The logical answer is they aren’t testing at high levels and aren’t reporting the real numbers.

The biggest lie told here wasn’t that, though. It was that Pompeo pushed a “debunked” theory that the virus was man-made. In fact, Pompeo did the opposite, proposing it was an accident, something there is plenty of evidence for. The bat in question was not proven to have been sold in any of the markets in Wuhan because the closest native habit was over 600 miles away. Meanwhile, the Wuhan lab was studying coronaviruses in bats at the time. Incompetence and bad lab practices seem far more likely than speculation about wet markets at this point.

Because a lot of @CBSNews and @60Minutes personnel follow me, every single one of you is a tool of the Red Chinese for saying this unless you openly reject this falsehood. https://t.co/bGxJV7aikW

— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) May 11, 2020

Media outlets will either figure out that it becomes infinitely harder to fight cuckoo for cocoa puffs pandemic documentary videos on Facebook when they themselves can't get very basic facts right, or they won't. https://t.co/V8b4lkDQWx

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 10, 2020

60 minutes and other outlets have basically resorted to spreading propaganda on behalf of China's regime by framing it this way. A few months ago it was possible to conclude the reporters doing it are just ignorant, but now this is indefensible and deplorable.

— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) May 11, 2020

Pompeo’s office has responded, calling 60 Minutes and CBS out for their falsehoods.

.@CBSNews intentionally misled its viewers with a report Sunday evening that failed to accurately portray the clear intent of Secretary Pompeo's remarks to Martha Raddatz on ABC News regarding the origin of the virus in Wuhan, China.

— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) May 11, 2020

This reporting — intending to deceive — seeks to obfuscate the Secretary’s core point: the Chinese Communist Party continues to refuse calls for transparency, thereby compounding its cover-up, and further risking American lives.

— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) May 11, 2020

I’d have probably used stronger language, but it’s a start I suppose.

CBS lied here, and it wasn’t an accident. One of the chief pieces of Chinese propaganda going around is to claim the U.S. is falsely blaming the communists for the spread of the virus. By propagating the notion that Pompeo claimed the virus was man-made, something we haven’t seen evidence of yet, they might as well be taking orders directly from Chinese dictator Xi.

Our media are disgraceful, and these “mistakes” always go in one direction. That’s not a coincidence.