Opinion

The week in whoppers: Iron Dome lunacy, the NYT’s data fail and more

Diary of disturbing disinformation and dangerous delusions:

This ‘analysis’:

The Washington Post’s Iron Dome argument defies logic. NY Post composite

We say: Try to follow the logic here: Author Yigal Levy seems to argue  that Israel’s Iron Dome, which destroys 90 percent of Hamas’ rockets, saving countless Israeli lives, prolongs the Gaza-Israel conflict by making an Israeli ground assault unnecessary. Such an attack would produce more casualties, fuel more anti-Israel criticism and give Jerusalem more incentive to find “a political solution.” Huh? Would he prefer there were no Iron Dome and more casualties — on both sides? Where do they find these people?

This headline:

NY Post composite

We say: Mixed data? Sorry, Gray Lady, but the numbers couldn’t be clearer — as even your own story admits: “During the first three months of this year,” it notes, the subways saw “1.63 felonies, which include murders, rapes and assaults, for every million riders” — up from 1.48 per million in the same period in 2020, and 1.0 in 2019. Assaults during the first quarter of 2021 were highest “in over two decades.”

This quote:

As many as one-third of parents were either on the fence or opposed to sending their kids back to school this fall.”— UFT boss Michael Mulgrew, in a Daily News op-ed column Wednesday, referring to a recent survey of 100 NYC families

Michael Mulgrew was twisting facts again with regards to school reopenings. Robert Miller

We say:

Talk about twisting facts! That survey (hardly scientific, with a sample size of just 100) actually found a mere 15 percent of families unlikely to send their kids back to full-time, in-person classes next fall. Besides, any lingering fear is on . . .  Mulgrew. He and the United Federation of Teachers spent the past year pushing the myth that schools are COVID spreaders and had to be kept closed, even as the scientific consensus said otherwise.

Spot the difference:

“As for the idea that the [COVID-19] virus may have leaked from a lab accidentally, the Fact Checker concluded that it was an unlikely possibility . . . [requiring] many unexpected coincidences.” 

The Washington Post, Dec. 4, 2020

If the laboratory leak theory is wrong, China could easily clarify the situation by being more open and transparent. Instead, it acts as if there is something to hide.

The Washington Post, May 17, 2021

The Wuhan Institute of Virology AFP via Getty Images

We say: How nice to see voices once so dismissive of the possibility that the coronavirus leaked from Chinese now, in effect, admitting their mistake. When the New York Post ran an opinion suggesting that might be the case, Facebook actually labeled it “False Information” and stopped people from reading it.

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board