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.
Everything that Dan Fagan says about the radically far-left fearmongering rag that is the Anchorage Daily Spews is true, but sadly just the tip of the iceberg of their agenda-pushing, lies and shame.
I have (now had) been a longtime poster of comments under articles on the ADN’s website, even after they stopped allowing comments related to any of their ‘news’ stories, but only in response to letters and editorials, this past spring. But their suppression of honest and civil, but anti-lockdown and generally anti-Establishment opinions, has been growing all year, in line with the hugely accelerating censorship and suppression of free expression online by the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter. Time after time, my freedom-oriented comments would be deleted by the ADN ‘moderator’, while routinely hostile, hateful and vile comments with a leftward bent would be retained. And now, as of this past week, it appears that I have been banned or blocked from their website’s comment sections altogether, although I have never been notified or warned about such action.
The hypocrisy, intolerance and arrogance of the Anchorage Daily News editorial staff and owners apparently knows no bounds. They are contemptible, especially that massively arrogant Dave Hulen, with whom I have had several run-ins in the past, outside of the ADN’s online comments.
It is atrocious. Likewise I too used to post. Politely and with care. No longer, and it is about impossible to access any articles except those that are attempting to spread ‘Covid terror’. They are not a ‘news’paper and need to quite pretending they are. They are so blatantly one sided and very little actual balanced news reporting is ever to be found. I don’t even think they try. Sad as they do have a couple decent writers on their staff.
Couldn’t agree more with all of you. I used to write a letter or two back in the day and when I started getting obnoxious phone calls (around 1995) I decided the hell with it. Such is the selective state of our fascist media in that it parrots only a leftist government agenda no matter who’s in office. But we all know this, I’m well over it and as they continue to divide the nation through lies and deceit. Randolph Hearst would have been proud of, they own the consequences. Wankers all.
You expect the Cowardly Lion of Alaska to take a stand? He’s been MIA since the Wasilla surrender.
Standing tall, indeed.
All that said, what Dave Stieren has said this time could not possibly be more different from what the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services says every day on their website, on the occasional Tuesday afternoon Dunleavy Covid presentations, on the every Wednesday noon hour presentations by eight to ten State of Alaska medical professionals, and in assurances from the Dunleavy administration to the Alaska health care industry. Stieren is reported here to have advised doing exactly what the Commissioner of Health and Social Services and Dr. Zink, repeatedly ask Alaskans to not do. Seldom is there even such a difference between pronouncements made by the executive branch and the legislative branch. I do not believe there has ever been such a difference revealed to the public between state officials in the same state administration. This is not a mixed message but a complete policy reversal on the Chinese flu.
You obviously haven’t seen the CA Health gal dining away, Mayor Lightfoot, Newsom, or the mayor of Denver in the news the last few days….
Stieren committed a terrible faux pas. He actually recommended someone, anyone go out and enjoy himself. Very difficult to continue to peddle your COVID porn when people are enjoying themselves for whatever reason. Cheers –
Just FYI, as of yesterday there were 13.54 million confirmed COVID cases with 268,045 confirmed deaths.in the US, for a death rate of 0.0197965288035451. Statistics from Our World In Data. .00019% death rate is sure worth fearfully shivering in fear to destroy the economy and children’s lives (for a liberal). This is not the stuff that stormed beaches at Normandy.
I like your Normandy metaphor because that is exactly what has been sadly lacking in this entire pandemic year. As others have said, Congress should have at least debated authorizing the White House to assassinate Xing. The US Armed Forces should have done something; taken out a Red Chinese aircraft carrier, stalked and sunk a Red Chinese nuclear sub, or armed people in Hong Kong with missiles. Our lack of response is akin to doing nothing about December 7, 1941. This show of weakness will not end well. When has cowering in the corner prevented a war?
That’s rather radical for the tenuous accusations coming out of COVID. It got ahead of China, Italy and the US and further inciting violent conflict helps no one, lest of all the Chinese people or US citizens.
You moved the decimal point the wrong way, using your numbers that would be a 1.9% death rate.
Math may not have been my strong point, but according to Fauci there are 8-10 unconfirmed cases for every positive so still rather small.
You mean, “confirmed tests with a (supposedly) positive COVID-19 result”, don’t you?
The “test” being used to supposedly diagnose patients as having COVID-19 infection is not a “test” at all, merely a method for amplifying DNA — as its designer continues to insist, despite being silenced and censored by the big tech online fascists. Run the test through enough cycles, as is currently being done, and you would probably find just about everyone being positive for just about every virus out there. These reported so-called “cases” are therefore grossly exaggerated, and all the corporate-media-driven hysteria and fearmongering over this virus is mostly just a pack of half-truths and outright lies.
I do not deny that the Wuhan Virus exists, and that some people have died from it. But in reality, the more I read and observe what the corporate media is daily shoving down our collective throats regarding this pandemic, the more I realize that it is not in fact nearly as bad as it has been presented, and is mainly now just a convenient rationalization for sociopaths in power to push their total-control agenda on a terrorized population.
And, these are death with Covid, not particularly from Covid.
Yep, these stats are well broadcast. AZ and WI for example have delineated the root cause which doesn’t play into the national narrative we’re shoveled daily. And finally, AK is showing similar data whereby all but a couple of deaths the patients had underlying issues – most more than two. That demographic is where our focus should be rather than shutting down schools et al.
Those that stormed the beaches at Normandy, Anzio, Tarawa and Iwo Jima would be ashamed of what this country has become. My late father, who served in the Aleutians, fortunately never had to witness the obscenity of the Clinton presidency.
Sadly my late parents were WW2, Roosevelt democratic activists all their lives, and many in the family still are (far away from here). I could never, and still cannot understand how they could and can espouse the talking points, usually ending up shouting, opposing everything that they stand for in their lives. My father was an avid shooter and gun enthusiast all his life with an extensive collection, even running his own shop when the Gun Control Act Of 1968 came out, but when confronted he still spouted the very policies that he cussed the rest of the day. My family still runs a construction business and continuously complain about illegal laborers hurting their licensed business, but when the subject arises again shouting about rights of illegal aliens to be here. I love my family but sadly can only deal with them in small enough doses to avoid politics.
Well, it’s actually 1.98%, not 0.00019%. That’s using the total cases and total deaths you cites. So you miscalculated by a factor of 10,000. So not a terribly low death rate after all.
If you are paying for even one copy of The Alaska Daily Worker then you are part of the problem. If you are paying for a subscription consider changing the first letter of your last name to an “X” – like the “chairman” you want to have ruling your life.
Unfortunately Governor Dunleavy tossed some wood on the fire when he extended the Emergency Declaration and allowed the liberal elites in Anchorage to progress with their “fascism light” agenda.
Without stopping this circus from the top, there is no hope that ADN, the AKleg or any of the liberal trolls will stop anytime in the near future.
It is amazing to see so many pushing the “wear a mask” agenda on social media when it is obvious that the masks are not helping stop the spread.
I just wish Dr Zink would talk for one day about our body’s immune system and the natural remedies that have seen to help…Vit D, Zinc, Vit C, “probiotics”, sunlight and exercise will do more for a person than wearing a mask and sitting indoors alone.
At some point we need to abandon herd mentality and start thinking for ourselves.
Anyone who still thinks that the mask wearing hysteria, the anti social distancing, and mass quarantining of healthy people via lockdowns, is anything but purely political vs medical…….has either been asleep this entire time or possesses a single digit IQ.
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“Big Mike” has been a meek, quiet disappointment. I am sure that he’s a very nice person, but I did not vote for him to be a nice person. I voted for him to go in and clean house in Juneau, in the style of sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall.
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And FYI….when I see people wearing a mask while driving on the Glenn, all by themselves, alone in their car, then yes, the media and politicians have achieved their political goal of creating mass hysteria regarding the masks.
Hypocrisy…
Conservatives: Cut the budget by cutting back government positions, and cut these bloated government salaries.
Conservatives: Don’t you dare fire this overpaid government employee because he is a good guy and a friend of mine!
Hypocrisy…
Leftists: We must “Do it for the children”
Leftists: A woman has a right to kill her child.
Faith in Dunleavy started eroding during his non-action over the State ‘supreme’ court and their ‘abortion’ money. For some time, I thought him folding on that issue would be a one-off, like throwing an unruly dog a bone. I was wrong. His actions seem to take him farther left each time. Being 6’5″ for him is like an optical illusion that suggests strength and honesty. Should have known his successful background in ‘education’ was an indicator of what his performance as Governor of Alaska would amount to. The American ‘education’ system is what created the young hoodlums rioting, calling themselves anti-fascist and trying to bring down America right now. Each incident of Dunleavy capitulation to the left (there have been several) makes Alaska and the rest of America weaker. Exactly what the leftist socialist democrats want. Maybe he threw the $20 million of citizens’ emergency funding at Anchorage as a ‘gesture’ of faith. A gesture is about all that paltry amount will be to the leftists in Anchorage. Wonder how many Alaskan small businesses could have benefited from that much financial help. It’s a drop in the leftist bucket and useless to squander any more political or financial capital on Anchorage, as long as the radical left think they own it.
Tsk, Tsk, gov. Those are your constituents you are letting down.
Wow, everyone who reads ADN is “hard-left” AND it’s the most widely read newspaper in Alaska? Wait… that means there must be more democrat-retweeting leftists in the state than I thought. It’s amazing Alaska still has republican senators, a republican congressman and governor, and republican majorities in the state house and senate — republicans must have pulled off a miracle! Either that or we’re so fringe we have to turn on even Dunleavy to maintain our delusions.
So, we’ve lost the ability to differentiate between what an an individual states and what he’s paid to do as part of his employment. That’s sad. Regardless if you agree or disagree with Mr. Stieren, he as an individual is muzzled.
It would seem that the Virus has served its purpose as a catalyst to shame and belittle anyone not willing to accept the herd mentality. It has been weaponized from a societal standpoint by using fear and control. It’s also all about the dollar.
When this first started, I decided to watch and see if this was as bad as predicted. Early on, it started to give indication that mass hysteria was being festered and feed by the media. When deaths with covid were not counted separately as deaths from covid, flags started popping up. It would seem no one cares as this practice perpetuates. Yes, Red China released a demon one of many we live with and they need to be accountable. We now have one more virus to add to the other 18 Corona viruses we’ve been living with for who knows how long.
We have a short enough time on this earth and I have decided to not live in fear. I have a life to live.
Dave, do your job as you are paid to do. Live your own life off the clock and give ’em Hell.
We’ve been lied to all along.
redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2020/study-suggests-possible-new-covid-19-timeline-in-the-us.html
google.com/amp/s/amp.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article247457275.html
People had been recovering from COVID for months before the lockdowns were deem absolutely necessary to squash the existential crisis facing the entire planet. And, even better, divide the death rate by 8. We’re no where near justifying killing our economy, making enemies of neighbors, and calling people who just want to provide for themselves and their families “non-essential”.
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