Alex Berenson responds to NYT attack on his COVID-19 'tirades'
Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson reacts to article criticizing his viewpoint on handling the coronavirus pandemic.
Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson defended himself Wednesday against his previous employer who took issue with his coronavirus reporting, saying he will continue his investigative reporting even if his "friends in the media don't like me."
"Honestly, I'm not really that interested in that piece. I, I have a lot of work to do, writing about what's happening now with the lockdowns, what we're doing with masks. You know what we're doing with a vaccine going forward? There are huge public policy issues here on the table," Berenson said on "The Story." "And I think that's what we should be focused on. A number of people have written, you know, pieces about me in the last couple of months because they don't like what I write."
"I try to write factual," Berenson said. "You know, I try to link everything to government documents or publish stories. So that's what he's questioning."
New York Times writer Ben Smith wrote an article critical of Berenson and his "lack of empathy on Twitter."
"Mr. Berenson believes that the impact of the coronavirus is regrettable, mostly inevitable and overstated: That lockdowns are useless, masks don’t help and politicians are too worried about the deaths of old people who were going to die soon anyway," Smith wrote in the article. "Mr. Berenson plays down counterevidence — even when it is firsthand or expert."
"As far as I'm concerned, that piece is actually better than a couple of the other pieces that have been written," Berenson said in response. "He said I was aggressive. Yeah, I'm aggressive. I'm an investigative reporter."
The author of "Unreported Truths About COVID-19 and Lockdowns" said the reason he is getting targeted is because he calls out journalists who've made mistakes.
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"They've made a lot of mistakes in the last couple of months. And one reason that the reporters don't like me, and it's not just the Times, it's that I call people out on mistakes," Berenson said, noting he criticized media for misreporting the amount of Hospital beds used in Houston, Texas. "I'm going to call that out on Twitter. I'm going to call that out on your airwaves. I don't care if my friends in the media don't like me."
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