By DAN FAGAN
The fear of COVID-19 has created more pain, suffering, and death than the virus itself. The solution has been worse than the problem.
The media’s intentionally injected unprecedented stress into the hearts of the average Alaskan in recent months. The Anchorage Daily News is chief terrorist among the many fearmongers. The paper has consistently and relentlessly attempted to petrify the public over the potential dangers of a virus where 99.5% of those infected under the age of 70 survive.
The purveyors of dread at the ADN will tolerate only coronavirus doom and gloom. Calming fears over the virus is the worst sin possible according to the intolerant, joyless, and free speech-suppressing radicals running Alaska’s largest newspaper.
The Ryan Binkley-owned paper published a hit piece on former radio talk show host Dave Stieren on Monday. Stieren is currently a handsomely paid top advisor for Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. He’s also a wildly charismatic, entertaining, and funny character. He’s everything the joyless liberals running the ADN are not.
“Governor’s outreach director urges people to go out and ‘party like it’s New Year’s Eve’ before Anchorage closes bars,” the ADN headline read.
Reporter Aubrey Wieber didn’t care much for a recent Stieren Facebook post encouraging locals to go to their favorite bar before the Anchorage lockdown kicks in December 1.
“Monday night, go to your favorite bar and party like it’s New Year’s Eve,” posted Stieren. “Dress up. Uber. Whatever. Do it. “
Stieren’s call for people to support local businesses and going back to living their lives is counter to the message Wieber and his fellow doomsayers at the ADN have been preaching. A quick glance at Wieber’s Twitter feed and you quickly learn he is a man of the Left. Wieber often retweets Matt Buxton, a liberal blogger on the payroll of Leftist swamp creature and high-powered lobbyist Jim Lottsfeldt. Buxton is also paid by Democrat Mark Begich.
Wieber described Stieren’s post this way: “The mixed messages highlight an ongoing contrast between local and state approaches to preventing the spread of the coronavirus and even the public statements of state government versus the private actions of state leaders.”
Wieber’s story goes on to do what the media does best, fan the flames of fear, anxiety, and panic over the virus.
“On Nov. 24, the state reported a record 13 deaths,” wrote Wieber.
What Wieber conveniently left out is the 13 fatalities on Nov. 24 represents a backlog of cases caused by a delay in death certificates reported to the state health department. Wieber’s story suspiciously gives the clear impression 13 Alaskans died on Nov. 24 of COVID-19.
Wieber also didn’t tell his readers the coronavirus death rate for the nation is four times as high per capita as it is in Alaska. That’s even with the recent spike in COVID-19 related fatalities in the state.
Stieren has since shut down his Facebook page. That’s a shame. It’s what the ADN wanted. The Leftists running the paper are thought police tyrants and bullies. They demand silence from those opposing their fear-based worldview. Comply or risk punishment.
The real test will come with Dunleavy. Only hard-core Leftists now read the Daily News. How could someone not brainwashed with the poisonous and deadly ideology possibly stomach the deceptive content in the paper?
But will the governor cave to the demands of his enemies in the media? We know he’s shown a propensity to cower to his foes.
If the governor fires Stieren over this it will further erode his standing with his ever-shrinking and skeptical base. There’s nothing wrong with what Stieren posted. We need to support local businesses. We should go back to living lives that are free and without government micromanagement.
Lockdowns don’t work. They destroy lives and bring on deadly stress. The ADN is wrong to needlessly scare us. Anchorage interim Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson is wrong to shut down the city.
Let’s grow a pair and start living our lives again.
Dan Fagan hosts the number one rated morning drive talk show in Alaska on Newsradio 650 KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans.
