How Alex Berenson Lies About The Pandemic For Profit
Alex Berenson is feeding his followers Covid disinformation not because he believes it, but because it makes him money.
(image via Fox)
by Ben Cohen
The Covid-19 pandemic has created an immensely lucrative industry for unscrupulous characters willing to peddle disinformation for profit. There are layers within this industry — from batshit crazy Alex Jones conspiracy theorists to New Age supplement peddlers and Trump loyal media commentators — each has their own schtick for their particular audience. And in the social media age of self publishing and self promotion, they are accountable to no one.
Alex Berenson has fast become one of the most dangerous anti-vax, Covid denying scam artists on the planet. The former New York Times reporter and author has created an immensely profitable niche as a more sophisticated disinformation merchant. Berenson has been spreading provably false claims about the pandemic for the past year, and no matter how wrong he is, how many of his predictions fall flat, or how many times he is publicly humiliated, Berenson just keeps on going.
The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson published an absolutely devastating takedown of Berenson’s major claims about the pandemic, demolishing his arguments so thoroughly that it left no room for debate. Wrote Thompson:
As his [Berenson’s] conspiratorial nonsense accelerates toward the pandemic’s finish line, he has proved himself the Secretariat of being wrong:
He has blamed the vaccines for causing spikes in severe illness, by pointing to data that actually demonstrate their safety and effectiveness.
He has blamed the vaccines for suppressing our immune systems, by misrepresenting normal immune-system behavior.
He has suggested that countries such as Israel have suffered from their early vaccine rollout, even though deaths and hospitalizations among vaccinated groups in Israel have plummeted.
He has implied that for most non-seniors, the side effects of the vaccines are worse than having COVID-19 itself—even though, according to the CDC, the pandemic has killed tens of thousands of people under 50 and the vaccines have not conclusively killed anybody.
Thompson even engaged with Berenson, emailing him specific questions so that he could defend himself. Unsurprisingly, Berenson failed the test spectacularly:
In our emails, Berenson further argued that many of the perceived benefits of the vaccines are illusory. “It is very hard to distinguish the course of the epidemic this winter in countries that have vaccinated heavily, such as Israel and the UK, and those that have not, such as Canada and Germany,” he wrote.
This is hogwash. In the U.K. and Israel, hospitalizations have fallen by at least 70 percent since mid-January, and they remain low. In Canada, hospitalizations fell by significantly less, and in Germany, the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases has more than doubled since mid-February; its government has debated a new lockdown.
From the efficacy of masks to predicting the Coronavirus death toll, almost the exact opposite of what Berenson says always turns out to be true. In fact trying to find a single, solitary instance where Berenson’s predictions have held up is almost impossible.
How to create fear
In backwards Covid denial world, Covid is nothing to be worried about, but lockdowns and vaccines are. This despite almost 3 million deaths worldwide, and many more instances of debilitating ‘long covid’ that impacts people of every age.
The techniques Berenson uses to perpetuate this backwards reality are extraordinarily cynical. He has become a master of misrepresentation, misdirection and innuendo. Berenson takes the facts and tells you that what you are seeing is not what you are seeing. When vaccines are shown to work, it really means they don’t work. When lockdowns and masks work to curb the spread of covid, it really means they are exacerbating it. Berenson uses incomplete, cherry picked data to make his points that no one outside of covid conspiracists takes seriously.
Berenson is so confident of this imaginary universe that he is completely unafraid of tweeting out idiotic statements like this:
For the record, when a peer reviewed scientific study (or “vaccine church”) uses this language, “Very rare” means “Very rare”. “Investigating” means “Investigating”. “Unlikely to be linked” means “Unlikely to be linked”. “Potentially related” means “Potentially related”, and “Safety profile is unchanged” means “Safety profile is unchanged”.
Berenson, who has no scientific or medical credentials, may think it is amusing to mock the incredibly important work scientists do, but while people are still dying from Covid and vaccines are providing the only reliable way out of this mess, the sane world does not.
The grift
If Berenson worked in any other field, he would have been fired or shunned by his peers for peddling gibberish and not having the faintest idea what he was talking about. Fortunately for Berenson, he has an entire media ecosystem that exists to propagate disinformation for overt right wing political purposes. Berenson has been a featured guest on Fox News, specifically Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham where he is celebrated for going against what Carlson calls “the approved script”. In other words, Fox is a safe place where Berenson can spread provably false bullshit because it inadvertently hurts Joe Biden and the Democrats. On Carlson’s show, Berenson even admitted as much.
“Honestly, Twitter has been pretty good to me,” he said. “They have basically allowed me to ask—and I have a couple hundred thousand people on there. You allow me on, Fox allows me on.”
Moments like this reveal the actual play here. Berenson likely does know what he is talking about — he just has a vested interest in pretending otherwise.
After The Atlantic piece was published, Berenson tweeted this out:
Berenson’s self published books may be so laughably stupid that not a single major media outlet will review them, but they have apparently been incredibly profitable. By continuing to spread verifiably false information about the pandemic and the vaccine, Berenson gets to boost his brand and promote his book series on channels he is still “allowed” to lie on. He has hit on the winning formula lots of other shameless grifters floating around the right wing eco chamber have: lie about something that hurts Democrats, get invited on Fox News, make lots of money selling books. The pandemic was a golden opportunity for grifters with at least a little credibility to make themselves known, and Berenson has played the game perfectly. As a former serious journalist for a serious outlet, he has been welcomed into the right wing disinformation machine with open arms. The more he lies on Fox News, the more he gets invited on. The more he gets invited on, the more he lies. Fox News gets to hurt the Democrats, and Berenson gets to flog his books.
Someone with a conscience might grow tired of this sordid charade, but not Berenson. He is doubling down until the pandemic is over, no matter how much damage he causes.
“There has been no surge,” Berenson told Sean Hannity back in April of 2020. “Kids, children, almost anybody under 30 is at no risk to this—no serious risk from this virus.”
Three surges, millions of sick children, and over 563,000 dead Americans later, he apparently still expects to be taken seriously.
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Republicans Have Royally F**ked Up
The "Two Santa Claus Theory" that helped the GOP win elections and rig the economy for 40 years has officially imploded.
by Justin Rosario
In 1974 Republican strategist Jude Wanniski came up with “The Two Santa Claus Theory” that would ostensibly ensure Republicans could never lose elections again. It is very simple and exceedingly cynical. The theory, as Thom Hartmann writes, works as follows:
First, when Republicans control the federal government, and particularly the White House, spend money like a drunken sailor and run up the US debt as far and as fast as possible. This produces three results – it stimulates the economy thus making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy, it raises the debt dramatically, and it makes people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Claus.”
Second, when a Democrat is in the White House, scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!” This will force the Democrats in power to cut their own social safety net programs, thus shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus.
Bill Clinton went along with this by declaring the “era of big government is over”, paving the way for almost two decades of Republican economics that had devastating effects on the middle class and poor. After George W. Bush drove the economy off a cliff, Obama was left with such an enormous mess to clean up that it constrained his agenda long enough for Republicans to get back into power.
The Two Santa Claus con in practice delivered 40 years of dividends to the GOP. Record levels of poverty. A devastated middle class. More wealth accumulated by the 1% than at any other time in human history. It has been the greatest redistribution of wealth in history, and everything the GOP could hope for.
But then they got too greedy.
In 2017, Republicans passed their usual huge tax cut for the rich and then spent the rest of their time dismantling vital government programs. A less insane party might have reversed course, even if just temporarily, when Covid struck, but Republicans doubled down, depriving the country of the economic help it desperately needed.
The GOP instead doled out a trickle, giving more to the rich and just enough to allow the country to limp along without collapsing completely. It’s not entirely clear what the thought process here was. Were they hoping to keep things stable enough for Trump to win? Did they assume Trump would lose and hoped Biden would be left with a mess that would make the 2008-2009 collapse look mild in comparison? Or, did they balk at the idea of even letting a Republican president and a Republican Senate help the non-rich?
Regardless of why the GOP refused to do their job, Biden walked in the door of the White House with a wounded economy. But it was Hollywood wounded. You know, where the hero gets shot in the leg, limps for twenty minutes but then somehow shrugs it off and is back up and running full speed in time for the big action scene? We’re about to do that. With three multi-trillion dollar shots of adrenaline just to make it even more exciting.
In fact, the outlook for the economy is so good, we’re starting to hear whining about it being, I kid you not, too good…
Overheating The What Now?
As Biden’s economy starts to take off, you’re going to increasingly hear this phrase: “Overheating (or overcooking) the economy.” The overly simplified idea is that if we peasants have too much money, we’ll do something stupid, like spend it. That will lead to inflation, when the prices for goods spiral out of control, and then we’ll all be poor again.
The funny thing about inflation is that it only seems to be a concern when a Democrat is president. There was an awful lot of hand-wringing over inflation during the Obama years and this fear was used to justify the austerity that hurt millions. In fact, it was almost exactly twelve years ago when economist Paul Krugman noticed the inflation scare-mongers swing into action:….
This is an excerpt of today’s Members Only piece. Continue reading here and get a 2 month free trial on a Banter Membership!:
Alex, keep up the good work you are doing. One day Americans will wake up and appreciate the truth you bring (and are being punished for it). You are a brave man. They cannot shut your voice forever. There is always another way.
He tells the truth you don't want to hear.