On Wednesday, Josh Christenson at the New York Post (as well as conservative cable networks) reported on a hearing organized by Sen. Rand Paul featuring a CIA whistleblower:
A CIA whistleblower appeared publicly for the first time Wednesday to testify to a Senate panel that Dr. Anthony Fauci improperly “influenced” intelligence analyses about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic — to downplay findings that it most likely resulted from a laboratory accident in China.
Special operations officer James Erdman III delivered his testimony about the wide-ranging “cover-up” after being subpoenaed by the Senate Homeland Security Committee — and against his own agency’s wishes.
Fox's Jesse Watters proclaimed "Anthony Fauci is in big trouble. The little man in a lab coat got a lot wrong and never fessed up to any of it!" But there has been no story on this Senate hearing on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, or NPR. Not only that, you can’t find it on the websites of The New York Times or The Washington Post.
This underlines that they don’t want to revisit any angle of the Covid response that challenges the established St. Anthony Fauci narrative. PBS News Hour gushed over Fauci in a two-part interview in 2024, not to mention he starred in a fawning PBS American Masters documentary in 2023.
There was a minute and a half on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, where the host threw a bone to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), as "Facts First" CNN labored to underline the lab-leak theory is still just one theory. MS NOW wouldn't be caught dead mentioning this news.
CNN's Jake Tapper indulged Sen. Ron Johnson for a minute Wednesday on Rand Paul's anti-Fauci whistleblower hearing, and "Facts First" CNN labored to underline the lab-leak theory is still just one theory. But at least it surfaced. (MS NOW wouldn't be caught dead mentioning this.) pic.twitter.com/XKTgHP9XLW
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) May 15, 2026
TAPPER: Let's turn to another subject I know you want to talk about. During a Senate hearing earlier today, you heard from a CIA whistleblower who accused intelligence officials and specifically Dr. Anthony Fauci of downplaying the possibility that the origins of COVID came from a Chinese lab. Dr. Fauci declined to comment when we reached out to him to respond to the hearing you held.
But I think it's fair to say that the most objective assessment of the situation is that there continue to be highly respected evolutionary biologists reporting in respected peer reviewed journals who suggest, though nothing is proven, that they continue to think it was a natural spillover from an animal reservoir. Now, I might disagree. You might disagree, but it seems like there's still lots of opinions but no definitive proof one way or the other. A CIA spokesperson called this hearing nothing more than dishonest political theater, and that the CIA had already assessed COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak. Efforts to undermine the conclusion are disingenuous. So this is Trump's CIA saying this. What was your reaction to that?
JOHNSON: Well, first of all, what we learned, we already knew or certainly suspected, but it just confirmed what we knew or suspected. You go back to the end of January, early February, when you see Fauci assembling this group of people who are probably still saying, well, this might have sprung from nature. They're all people he'd given millions and millions of dollars of grants to. And those are the same people he assembled in the center of the CIA.
NewsNation’s Marni Hughes offered a story on Thursday morning, also featuring the negative tweets from the CIA spokeswoman on the "dishonest political theater" allegation. Both sides are represented. Why can't the liberal broadcast networks do this much? Or the newspapers?
NewsNation’s Marni Hughes offered a story on anti-Fauci whistleblower hearing on Thursday morning, also featuring the negative tweets from the CIA spokeswoman. Both sides represented. Why can't the liberal broadcast networks do this much? pic.twitter.com/cCid9XLnC7
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) May 15, 2026
