CBS news did a piece on NYC hospitals and the virus in New York.

That piece contained a video lie. Specifically, it showed scenes from a chaotic Italian hospital with lots of patients.

The problem, of course, is that the scene wasn’t in New York. The hospital was in Italy. Thousands of miles away.

Which leads any rational person to: why was this done? What would lead one of the foremost establishment media outlets to claim chaos in an NYC when they were showing an entirely different scenario? If hospitals in New York are in such hellish conditions, surely there’s plenty of potential videos verifying that.

When confronted with this, CBS quickly blamed an editing error. And because it’s one of the perks of being establishment media, the usual suspects (CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, etc.) quickly came to the defense of the editing error narrative.

This story led to a #filmyourhospital narrative. People were encouraged to film what was actually going on at hospitals near them.

Which makes sense: if hospital conditions are as dire as we are being told, filming your hospital would confirm that.

But again, outlets such as the New York Times were quick to denounce this movement as a conspiracy theory. Such denunciations are usually the first indication that those outside of the establishment are on to something.

I have no first hand knowledge of New York hospitals. They may be quite awful at the moment.

But it’s always a healthy thing to ask, when confronted with an odd story (from whatever source): am I being lied to? Is there outside verification? And who might benefit from such a lie?