We awake from fears of an Ebola pandemic in America. Now let’s ask who’s responsible…

Larry Kummer, Editor

12 years ago

Summary: The initial infection in America has burned out. Nina Pham is in “fair” condition; Amber Vinson’s condition private at the family’s request. Many of those exposed, including the deceased man’s (Thomas Duncan) fiancée, have cleared quarantine. Some who contracted the disease in West Africa but received modern treatment have recovered (nurse William Pooley and an unnamed doctor treated at Emory U). The US health care system is rapidly learning and mobilizing. There is progress even in West Africa, with defeat of Ebola in Nigeria. The assurances of the experts appear, so far at least, to have been (again) proven correct.

It’s time to begin analysis of the hysteria that briefly gripped much of America. Who caused it? Why? Most importantly, what will we learn from this? Greater threats lie ahead for America.

I recently visited someone who has an African violet in their house. Should I stay home from work for three weeks?
— David Waldman of the Daily Kos (@KagroX) 20 October 2014

Conservatives screaming “fire” at a tiny flame
It’s a plan!
Some on Fox News fight the narrative, speak the truth
Guessing about the after game festivities
Looking at the big picture
Other posts about Ebola
Examples of conservatives’ fear-mongering about Ebola

(1) Conservatives screaming “fire” at a tiny flame

By now even journalists are emboldened to say the obvious: “Ebola hysteria: An epic, epidemic overreaction“, CNN, 20 October 2014. But they’re not so brave as to discuss how this happened. The public did not just panic. People incited panic for political gain. Mostly of them were conservatives. Some moderates and liberals have joined the chorus of fear-mongers, but relatively few. I have a long — and sadly only partial — list at the end of this post. A roll of dishonor, because they make an effective public policy response to Ebola more difficult.

(2) It’s a plan!

Conservatives exploit our fear about Ebola (and terrorism, etc) for the same reason Liberals do so about climate (super-typhoon Vongfong “was the strongest storm on earth since Haiyan last year“): it works. When we grow stronger it will no longer work, and they’ll stop. Meanwhile …

Campaign strategy: “Cry of G.O.P. in Campaign: All Is Dismal“, New York Times, 9 October 2014
Mission accomplished: “Poll shows Alarm, anxiety as election looms“, POLITICO, 20 October 2014 — “An overwhelming majority of voters in the most competitive 2014 elections say it feels as if events in the U.S. are “out of control” and expressed mounting alarm about terrorism, anxiety about Ebola …”

(3) Some on Fox News fight the narrative, speak the truth

Let’s congratulate Fox News for having a few people who debunk the conservative party line. That’s a rare thing in our increasingly partisan media, on either Right or Left.

(a) Shepard Smith, Anchor and Managing Editor for Fox News, 15 October 2014 — Transcript here; video here.

{F}or the next few minutes I’m going to give you the facts on Ebola. … {T}oday, given what we know, you should have no concerns about Ebola at all. None. I promise. Unless a medical professional has contacted you personally and told you of some sort of possible exposure, fear not. Do not listen to the hysterical voices on the radio or television or read the fear provoking words on-line. The people who write and say hysterical things are being irresponsible. Here are the facts….

… We do not have an outbreak of Ebola in the U.S. Nowhere. We do have 2 health care workers who contracted the disease from a dying man. They are isolated. There is no information to suggest that virus has spread to anyone in the general population in America. Not one person in the general population in the United States.

Suggestions have been made publicly that leaders and medical professionals may be lying to us. Those suggestions are completely without basis and fact. There is no evidence of any kind of which we at Fox News are aware that leaders have lied about anything regarding Ebola. I report to you with certainty this afternoon that being afraid at all is the wrong thing to do. Being petrified is ridiculous.

The panic that has tanked the stock market and left people fearful their children will get sick at school is counterproductive and lacks basis in fact or reason. There is no Ebola spreading in America. Should that change, our reporting will change. But there is nothing to indicate that it will.

Best advice for you and your family at this moment get a flu shot. Unlike Ebola, flu is easily transmitted. Flu with resulting pneumonia killed 52,000 Americans last year alone. A flu shot will reduce your chance of getting flu. So get one.

Conservative voice babbled in outrage, such as long-winded nonsense by Rush Limbaugh (“Shep Smith was crying so much during his reporting from New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina, his mascara was running”), rebuttal by rant by radio host Mark Levin (“Shep is a liberal.”), and this by the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer:

“Shepard Smith is a card-carrying liberal. He has been outed as an active homosexual, so he’s down with the entire homosexual agenda. People think he’s on Fox so he’s conservative. Anything but. … Why would he want to support President Obama? Because President Obama supports the homosexual agenda”

(b) Juan Williams, political analyst for Fox News (doesn’t fit the conventional Left-Right mold; see Wikipedia) on “Fox News Sunday“, 19 October 2014:

I think the media has been terrible on this story, just irresponsible. … The Republicans are using it to try to undercut the president, he’s incompetent, other instances of incompetence. The Democrats are now shifting and rushing as we approach the midterms.

To me this is all politics and it’s just so disconcerting when you think it’s a human situation, there’s going to be human error. We’re trying to deal with it. … And yet, people are like Chicken Little, sky is falling. This is crazy. It’s sad.

(4) Guessing about the after game festivities

What might be the eventual effects of this fear-mongering? In America truth is tribal, so there are no consequences for false predictions so long as they conform to tribal truths. Many predictions of climate doom made 16 years ago have failed, as have predictions of inflation and hyperinflation from QE — with no loss of confidence among the faithful of Left and Right, respectively.

So I expect no consequence from conservatives’ fear-mongering if they prove false. I hope I’m wrong, for I believe we must recover the ability to learn if we’re to survive the 21st century.

“Dr. Rand Paul Should Be Held Accountable for Whipping Up a Frenzy About “Incredibly Contagious” Ebola“, Brian Beutler, The New Republic, 20 October 2014
“The Embarrassment Of Being American Today“, Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 20 October 2014
Historical context: “18 Terrifying News Stories You Didn’t Know Were Media Panics“, from the invaluable Cracked.com, 20 October 2014 — Ebola will become #19, another learning FAIL.

(5) Putting this in a larger context

“The Revelations of Marilynne Robinson“, New York Times, 1 October 2014 — Excerpt:

“What it comes down to — and I think this has become prominent in our culture recently — is that fear is an excuse: ‘I would like to have done something, but of course I couldn’t.’ Fear is so opportunistic that people can call on it under the slightest provocations … Fear has, in this moment, a respectability I’ve never seen in my life.”

… we have become overwhelmingly fearful and that our fear has become a respectable excuse for not acting as we should … How it has come to keep us at bay from our best selves, the selves that could and should “do something.”

(6) Other posts about Ebola

Appendix: Examples of conservative fear-mongering about Ebola

“Former SC GOP director: Execute anyone who comes into contact with Ebola — ‘it’s just math’“, 5 October 2014
“I do think you have to be concerned. It’s an incredibly transmissible disease that everyone is downplaying, saying it’s hard to catch.” — Dr. Rand Paul (Senator, R-KY), interviewed by Glen Beck, 1 October 2014 — No, it’s not “incredibly transmissible”.
Examples (with links): “Inside the Bizarre Right-Wing Panic over Ebola Virus Coming to the US“, Amanda Marcotte, AlterNet, 7 october 2014 — “The conservative mindset is tailor-made for opportunities for paranoia and isolation.”
Examples (with links): “Obama/Ebola Hysteria Is Reaching Dangerous Levels“, Chez Pazienza, The Daily Banter, 11 October 2014
“Americans short on reasons to trust“, Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Prof Law, U TN; the Instapundit), op-ed in USA Today, 13 October 2014 — “The seemingly professional CDC and Secret Service look overwhelmed and discredited.”
“Scott Brown: Anyone with Ebola can ‘walk across’ our ‘porous’ border“, Washington Post, 14 October 2014 — Brown is the GOP candidate for Senate in NH.
“If you want to live, ignore the CDC“, Dr. Richard Amerling, World News Daily, 18 October 2014 — He “warns government incapable of protecting citizenry”
Quotes, but no links: “6 Dumbest Right-Wing Moments This Week: Ebola Stupidity Rages On“, Janet Allon, AlterNet, 18 October 2014 — “Trump ups the ante with an insane tweet about the president.” And five other equally dumb comments.
“George Will says a sneeze or cough could spread Ebola“, PolitiFact, 19 October 2014 — Follow-up article here.
Painful to read transcript of “Fox News Sunday“, 19 October 2014 — Experts paired against fear-mongering politicians, leaving watchers either ignorant or laughing (gallows humor) at America.
“Rand Paul’s claim that the White House suggested Ebola transmission is like AIDS“, Washington Post, 20 October 2014 — See the video here.
“A ‘Dark Winter’ of Ebola terrorism?“, Marc A. Thiessen, op-ed in the Washington Post, 20 October 2014

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