On January 6, EkstraBladet, one of Denmark’s largest tabloids, publicly apologized for its failure covering the COVID-19 pandemic by publishing official messages without questioning them. In the apology, the newspaper calls the coronavirus “the monster under our beds,” admitting they did not press authorities enough about differences between sick with and sick from COVID-19.
The move echoes Germany’s newspaper BILD’s piece published (https://t.me/COVID19Up/10508) back in August, when it apologized for the outlet’s fear-driven COVID-19 coverage.
Here is a translated segment of the EkstraBladet’s apology:
“For almost two years, we – the press and the population – have been almost hypnotically absorbed by the authorities’ daily corona numbers.
“We have started at the fluctuations of the number pendulum when it came to infected, hospitalized and dead with corona. And we have been given the importance of the pendulum’s smallest movements laid out by experts, politicians and authorities who have constantly warned us about the dormant corona monster under our beds. A monster just waiting for us to fall asleep so it can strike in the dead of night.
“The constant mental alert has worn enormously on all of us. Therefore, we – the press – must also take stock of our own efforts. And we’ve failed.
“We have not been vigilant enough at the garden gate when the authorities were required to answer what it actually meant that people are hospitalized with corona and not because of corona. Because it makes a difference. A big difference.
“Of course, it is first and foremost the authorities who are responsible for informing the population correctly, accurately and honestly. The figures for how many are sick and died of corona should, for obvious reasons, have been published long ago, so we got the clearest picture of the monster under the bed.
“In all, the messages of the authorities and politicians to the people in this historic crisis leave much to be desired. And therefore they lie as they have ridden when parts of the population lose confidence in them.”
