Could someone please check and see if China bought and paid for airtime on 60 Minutes Sunday evening? Because if they didn’t, then 60 Minutes just gave China an enormous propaganda boost for free.

This featured story could not be any more slanted. When your premise is that both the Trump administration and the communist Chinese government are equally dishonest, where does one even begin?

President Trump is blaming China’s government for the pandemic. The outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan. The administration has said, at times, the virus is man-made or that, if it’s natural, it must have leaked out of a Chinese government lab. Both the White House and the Chinese Communist Party have been less than honest. And so, in China, and the U.S., the work of scientists like Peter Daszak is being undercut by pandemic politics.”

“Pandemic politics,” 60 Minutes claims, means that Peter Daszak lost his NIH funding to work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology because the Trump administration is run by Orange Man Bad who blames poor China for everything that’s happened, which means that Daszak can’t work with China to find a vaccine.

Oh, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a conspiracy theorist. 60 Minutes wants everyone to know that as well.

Last Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pomepo attempted to resurrect a debunked theory that the virus was man-made in China.”

Mike Pompeo on ABC’s “This Week”: Look, the best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point.”

He did have reason. Days before, the director of national intelligence said there was “wide scientific consensus” the virus was not man-made.”

Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week”: Your Office of the DNI says the consensus, the scientific consensus was not man-made or genetically modified.”

Mike Pompeo on ABC’s “This Week”: That’s right. I agree with that.”

The same day pompeo (sic) tried to have it both ways, President Trump repeated the theory of a Chinese lab accident.”

When Secretary Pompeo talked to ABC last week, he actually did NOT try to have it both ways. Pompeo apparently initially misspoke, and then corrected himself when Martha Raddatz asked him for confirmation to say that he agreed with the current intelligence assessment that the virus was not man-made, as can be seen here in the actual interview.

60 Minutes, while giving the Chinese Communist Party a luxurious lap dance (I hope they paid well!), dishonestly left out Raddatz’s question and Pompeo’s correction. They must think they are pretty clever, and they are fully committed to the idea that the Secretary of State was trying to “resurrect” a conspiracy theory because, after all, the Trump administration lies just as much as the Chinese government does.

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

The problem is, don’t you think that would have been the headline in ABC’s reporting last week if Pompeo had insisted that the virus was man-made? It wasn’t. The problem is that this particular smear is cleverly done, and if you didn’t know what Pompeo actually said to Martha Raddatz a week ago, you could buy the 60 Minutes spin.

This is not what Pompeo claimed. And the belief this walked out of a lab is not partisan, it's about China's lax protections. Describing that as conspiratorial is a concession to the CCP.

— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) May 11, 2020

And as for yanking the money from Peter Daszak because that money might have ended up in Chinese hands at the Wuhan lab… well, I’m not sure if CBS or 60 Minutes has noticed, but Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance is hardly the only group in the entire world that is searching for a vaccine for COVID-19. Framing this story as if ONLY this scientist and this team has a chance of finding a cure or a vaccine is so blatantly insane, I hardly have words. And yes, there SHOULD be greater scrutiny for any NIH money that might end up in China! Why on earth should we put all our hope on China to find a vaccine for this?

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

Better question: why is 60 Minutes – and by extension, CBS – going all in on this lie? It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with parent company Viacom trying to keep China happy, could it? Hmmmm.

Remember when the NBA bent over backward to make sure that their lips were firmly planted on China’s rear end, in order to make sure they could make money for the NBA in China? I hope CBS/Viacom/60 Minutes have considered what their moral equivocating is worth in yuan.

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Featured image: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on April 7, 2020, via U.S. Department of State Flickr, photo by Freddie Everett, government work under public domain