Vaccines & Impeachments: Is the Media Force Feeding Chaos? (Sekulow Recap)

By 

Logan Sekulow

|
January 29, 2021

3 min read

Public Policy

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Is the mainstream media force feeding you into chaos?

Today on Sekulow/The Logan Sekulow ReProgram, we talked vaccines and impeachment. Is the media forcing chaos to get ratings and clicks?

The upcoming impeachment trial – which we’ve already said is likely D.O.A. – is taking up a lot of the news cycle, but we’re also hearing a lot about vaccines this week. This morning we received news about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Between that, the looming impeachment trial, and a lot of other issues happening right now, I can’t help but feel like the media is just desperately tossing out misleading headlines in a ploy to get our attention. And what they’re really doing is causing you to feel internal chaos that will send you down a spiral, leading you to the next article or story.

But that’s nothing new with the media. Especially since the advent of the twenty-four hour news cycle. One of these examples today is on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccine studies showed they had an effective rate of higher than ninety percent. The main headline on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, coming out of the mainstream outlets like Politico and the New York Times, were fixating on a number.

That number is sixty-six percent effective, which is an interesting thing. While that is part of the data, sixty-six percent effective, the next line that’s buried in their data is that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a one hundred percent effect rate for preventing death, severe hospitalization, or hospitalization in general due to COVID-19.

The sixty-six percent effective rate that the media is hyping with their scary headlines refers to contracting the virus, period. This is why we have to call out the media when something like this happens because the headline should be something like, “Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine: One Hundred Percent Effective Against Death and Hospitalizations.”

And for what it’s worth, I don’t even think you’re going to have much of a choice in which vaccine you receive at this point. I don’t know anyone that has gotten vaccinated that has said, “I want that one.” There’s no menu. It’s not an option right now. You’re going to get what you get.

My co-host, Will Haynes, made the following point about what the media is doing with these headlines:

Because of the way the rollout happens, the way they’re ordered, the government is helping with shipping across the country; you’d think the media would want to boost up confidence; but when they lead, across the board, we’re seeing these headlines that say “sixty six percent effective.” That’s not going to boost public confidence in something when most people, as we know, see the headline and move on.

So now you’re going to have a bunch of people who go in and decide to wait on the vaccine based on these misleading headlines. It’s borderline unethical journalism, and quite frankly, it’s dangerous.

The full broadcast is complete with a lot more talk about misleading headlines, vaccines, impeachments, and a whole lot more.

Watch the full broadcast below.