Tucker Carlson cites report he admits he hasn’t confirmed as true to spread conspiracy theory that coronavirus started in a Chinese lab
Carlson: “Almost nobody in American journalism has dared to write about it. The few who have were immediately attacked as dangerous conspiracy theorists”
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From the March 31, 2020, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight
TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): On February 6th, scientists from the South China University of Technology uploaded a paper on the origins of coronavirus. Where did it come from? Well this offers some clue. At the time the official death toll in China from the coronavirus was 564. The paper made a number of notable observations and claims that are worth knowing about and that's why we are telling you. We want to be clear that we aren’t endorsing any of these conclusions, we haven’t independently confirmed them. We can't.
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Now this paper's been online for nearly two months and so far it has been virtually ignored in this country. Almost nobody in American journalism has dared to write about it. The few who have were immediately attacked as dangerous conspiracy theorists. Instead of assessing what seemed like the rational conclusions presented in the Chinese paper, there was a spate of American news stories and academic research designed to show that the coronavirus absolutely could not have been engineered in a Chinese lab. They sounded supremely confident of that, but do they really know it? And the answer is no they don't. As a factual matter it is impossible for Western scientists to settle the question either way. So instead of doing that or admitting that, they amped up the rhetoric hoping you wouldn't notice the difference.