In June 2021, comedian Jon Stewart said he believed there was a chance COVID-19 could have come from a lab leak in Wuhan China.
Stewart said this on Stephen Colbert’s late night show.
John Stewart champions the "lab leak" theory explaining the origins of COVID-19, "Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science." pic.twitter.com/I0DcoHjMDG
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 15, 2021
Stewart said this during a time when a major part of Left identity meant mocking anyone who brought up the lab leak theory. Needless to say the condemnations of Stewart came fast and furious. Colbert himself jokingly accused Stewart of working for Republican Senator Ron Johnson who had expressed the same view about the lab leak theory.
I saw the clip and am concerned to see Stewart promoting the conspiracy… even if it's just for laughs.https://t.co/nMr5omPoX4
— Dr. Kiki Sanford (@drkiki) June 15, 2021
Jon Stewart went all-in on Wuhan lab-leak theory of #COVID19 origins: Really, Jon?
“I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science.”https://t.co/YV1E52MNeJ— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 15, 2021
This week we learned both the Energy Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations believe the likely origin of COVID was an accidental lab leak in the US-funded Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
#FBI Director Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China. pic.twitter.com/LcBVNU7vmO
— FBI (@FBI) March 1, 2023
Former President Donald Trump said early on during the pandemic that his administration had evidence that the virus had leaked from a lab abroad, even calling COVID the “China virus.”
Of course whatever Trump said, the Left needed to go in the complete opposite direction of. Truth had nothing to do with one’s view on this subject. The deep emotional need to be on the other side of Trump was always crucial (and still is).
So this is like Russiagate, or like the Hunter Biden-laptop scandal, when the Left already made up their minds that Trump definitely colluded with Russia, despite a two-year investigation showing otherwise, and Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings amounted to nothing, despite any evidence to the contrary.
Similarly, the Left has also already had their minds made up on where COVID came from–and it’s definitely not from a lab in China.
Now that even federal agencies under the Biden administration are saying the lab leak theory is likely true, folks on the Left aren’t going to just accept it is true. If they did, they’d have to eat the crow they so deserve from being completely wrong on every front for the past three years.
Colbert’s business model is to mock half the country and serve his Left audience.
So he did bring up this new information that was so controversial on his show when Stewart said it two years ago…but by mocking the Energy Department.
“Stay in your lane” he said to the department during his monologue.
Still trying to figure out how a comedian like @StephenAtHome is trying to tell government agencies to "stay in their lane."
Actually, I'm going to need all the celebrities who were little string puppets for the past two years to close up shop.
Watch @jackhunter74 & I discuss: pic.twitter.com/33UnX386H1
— Hannah Cox (@HannahDCox) March 1, 2023
Now, Colbert is a comedian. His job is to be funny. Not to report the news.
But leftists’ shock and awe against Stewart in 2021 was precisely over them believing he was promoting a conspiracy theory that was seen as detrimental to society.
The outrage wasn’t about comedy. It was about crossing the political tribal line.
Now, Colbert wants to slyly dismiss this new information that runs counter to his and his audiences’ sensibilities about what Americans are supposed to believe about the lab leak theory. Left identity intact!
Or as Stewart put it this week, recalling his Colbert controversy two years ago, “The larger problem with all of this is the inability to discuss things that are within the realm of possibility without falling into absolutes and litmus-testing each other for our political allegiances as it arose from that.”
Exactly.
The job of Stephen Colbert and his guests is to parrot whatever current Left identity dictates they must say. Or as Stewart put it, “The part that I don’t like about it is the absolutes and the dismissive like ‘f–k you, I’m done with you. I will never forgive you, you have crossed an unforgivable line. You’ve expressed an opinion that is antithetical to mine, or not mine.”
So when you express an opinion on Colbert that crosses this unforgivable line, that is cause for great controversy. When years later it is shown that the controversial person was right all along, you downplay what he was talking about in the first place.
Again, Left identity intact. And it’s worth pointing out that to do so, Colbert must resort to attacking the very government he’s been simping so hard for all along. Make it make sense.
Colbert is a host who regularly lectures the Right on politics and morality. The way this type of gig usually works, and I would argue Jon Stewart and the late Rush Limbaugh did this too, is that when they are lecturing the audience they take a strong moral high ground. If they appear right in their stance over time, all the better.
But if they get caught in a lie or untruth, they resort to the defense, ‘but I’m just an entertainer.’
They are entertainers. They are also much more than that too, and they know it.
Comedy requires making fun of all kinds of subjects. But when that subject is the origin of the most dangerous global virus in modern history, and you’re habitually peddling things to your audience that are clearly not true…
Maybe it’s time to stay in your lane.
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