Credibility crisis: Washington Post 'perhaps the worst' among outlets that dismissed COVID lab leak theory

The Washington Post rejected the COVID lab leak theory as a "conspiracy theory that was already debunked" in a since-corrected report that helped launch a trend of dismissing potential pandemic origins before uncovering the facts. 

The theory that COVID originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was embraced by FBI Director Christopher Wray last week and a recent bombshell report indicated that the U.S. Energy Department believes the virus likely started in the lab. While the sentiment was expressed by top Trump administration officials nearly from the outset, many mainstream media organizations were quick to dismiss the theory. 

In 2021, journalist and media critic Drew Holden suggested The Washington Post was "perhaps the worst offender" among news outlets in outright dismissing the lab-leak theory from the start. 

In February 2020, the Post published a story initially headlined, "Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked," that blasted Cotton for parroting a "fringe theory suggesting that the ongoing spread of coronavirus is connected to research in the disease-ravaged epicenter of Wuhan, China." 

FBI DIRECTOR SAYS COVID PANDEMIC ‘MOST LIKELY’ ORIGINATED FROM CHINESE LAB

The Post was forced to issue an embarrassing correction to reporter Paulina Firozi’s story. 

"Earlier versions of this story and its headline inaccurately characterized comments by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) regarding the origins of the coronavirus. The term ‘debunked’ and The Post’s use of ‘conspiracy theory’ have been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus," Post editor’s wrote. The report’s headline was changed to "Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus fringe theory that scientists have disputed."

Even in the corrected version, the Post continued to refer to the notion that COVID originated from a lab leak as a "fringe theory" and cited experts who "dismissed the possibility the coronavirus may be man-made."

An insider at The Washington Post slammed the Cotton-centric story, calling it a "dumb article written by a general assignment reporter."

The Post was also among the liberal outlets that relied in part on the word of Peter Daszak, whose nonprofit funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology for years. Daszak's organization sent $3.4 million in National Institutes of Health grants to the Wuhan lab between 2014 and 2019, according to the Wall Street Journal, but his involvement with it didn't prevent him from playing a key role in early media dismissals of the lab-leak idea.

CREDIBILITY CRISIS: MEDIA ‘FACT-CHECKERS’ WERE EAGER TO DEBUNK COVID LAB LEAK THEORY, HAD TO ISSUE CORRECTIONS

Daszak was among the experts featured in a Washington Post video report from April 2020 fact-checking the lab-leak claim.

The 10-minute video highlighted the two labs being geographically close to the wet market in question at the time and the various longstanding safety concerns the facilities had before the pandemic. But the Post's fact-checking team seemed to give the Chinese scientists and government officials the benefit of the doubt when reporting they "adamantly denied" that COVID could have come from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Post concluded that it was "doubtful" the virus came from the lab.

"The balance of scientific evidence strongly suggests… the new coronavirus emerged from nature, be it in the Wuhan market or somewhere else," the Post fact-checker said. "Too many perfect coincidences would have had to take place for it to have escaped from a lab, but the Chinese government has not been willing or able to provide information that would clarify lingering questions about any possible role played by the Wuhan labs."

In May 2021, the Post added an "update" to its video report, saying "several new pieces of evidence" have emerged since April 2020.

"No natural cause has been identified for the virus and some prominent scientists said they are more receptive to the lab-leak theory," the update read in part.

CNN DISMISSES REDFIELD THEORY CORONAVIRUS CAME FROM WUHAN LAB AS 'CONTROVERSIAL' AND 'WITHOUT EVIDENCE'

Additionally, The Post's veteran fact-checker Glenn Kessler penned a "timeline" in May 2021 laying out how the lab-leak theory "suddenly became credible" over the course of 18 months.

While Kessler acknowledged "history books will reward" Cotton if his assertion about the lab-leak was indeed correct all along, he appeared to downplay the Trump administration's stance at the time.

"The Trump administration also sought to highlight the lab scenario but generally could only point to vague intelligence. The Trump administration’s messaging was often accompanied by anti-Chinese rhetoric that made it easier for skeptics to ignore its claims," Kessler wrote.

A spokesperson for The Washington Post told Fox News Digital, "The Post regularly updates stories to reflect new information."

One of The Post's own newsletter authors didn't use the term "debunked" like some of their colleagues but heavily emphasized that Trump and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were pushing a "unsubstantiated" theory about COVID's origins. 

"The facts: Scientists and some government officials have for months floated varying ideas on the outbreak's origin. But as the Trump administration and the president's reelection campaign have moved to shift blame to China from the White House's own response to the virus, the unproven theory the disease was hatched in an accident at a Wuhan lab has gained traction. Never-mind that a growing body of scientific evidence shows the virus was the product of a ‘natural process,'" Post reporter Jacqueline Alemany wrote in May 2020. 

In recent days, billionaire Jeff Bezos’ newspaper has covered Wray and the Energy Department’s embrace of the lab leak theory. However, national columnist Phillip Bump continued to downplay the likelihood with a Feb. 27 piece headlined, "The weighted politics of the debate over covid-19 origins," that eventually admitted the pandemic might have started in a Wuhan lab after all. 

CREDIBILITY CRISIS: EGG ON MEDIA’S FACE AFTER DISMISSING COVID LAB LEAK AS 'DEBUNKED' CONSPIRACY THEORY

"Past human infections with novel coronaviruses followed the animal-to-human pathway, hardly conclusive proof but a consideration that led to initial assumptions about what had occurred," Bump wrote. "The argument for what’s now known as the ‘lab leak’ theory is almost entirely circumstantial. The central consideration is that there were coronaviruses being researched at a facility in the city where the virus first emerged." 

Bump reiterated that the origins of the pandemic are still not clear before admitting what the Post once called a "conspiracy theory" could ultimately be true. 

"It may end up be that it did somehow escape from the lab in Wuhan, which would prompt a number of other questions if it turns out to be so. It remains very plausible in the moment, if not more plausible, that the virus spread first from an animal to a human at the Wuhan market," Bump wrote. "What is clear, though, is that any new report bolstering the idea that the virus leaked from a lab will be used to score political points. Anyone looking to dunk on China or the media or the scientific community or President Biden or authority figures of any range of occupations and authorities can engage in a new round of I-was-right-all-along posturing. And, who knows. Maybe those people will even end up actually being right." 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.