A reader told me recently he appreciated our honesty – unlike what you see in the media elsewhere.

“You and your writers tell it like it is,” he said. “Your newspaper is the only one my mother reads any more.”

He paid us this compliment in front of a dozen people I respect. You can imagine how good that made me feel.

Throughout this ordeal, we have aimed to be accurate and report the facts. But we have also worked to avoid excessively dwelling on bad new and to seek out and find good news to report as well.

A friend sent me an article by Jared Dyson of Liberty Loft, a conservative non-profit in South Carolina I’d never heard of.

Dyson wrote that The Wall Street Journal reported on how many people stayed home in SC after the reopening. The article shares how many small businesses are just not seeing customers return. But is there an explanation for this? Dyson believes there is.

First, the media has continued their onslaught of fear mongering. As SC started to reopen, the media ran multiple articles highlighting the risks. Others have argued about how SC didn’t take appropriate measures to reopen safely. Despite this continued fear mongering

Despite this continued fear mongering from the media, we have learned the virus is not as deadly as once feared.

We also have learned that the virus has spread more than we believed.

Many people refuse to go out because the media frightened them. They believe they will die if they step outside.

Another reason many people may not go out to shop at open businesses is that more of them are essentially unemployed and have no income.

Without an income, they have little money to support local restaurants and other local businesses. Rather than eat out, they eat at home. It hurts restaurants and local businesses that rely on their patronage.

While the stay home orders were meant to protect people, they may have hurt more people than they protected.

You hear from the media that covid-19 deaths in the US are more than 70,000 with 316 of those deaths in little SC.

Tragic as it is to lose 316 of our fellow South Carolinians, it is a small number compared to New York with more than 20,000 deaths. 316 is tiny in our state which has more than 5.2 million residents.

The media seem to love reporting these higher numbers, Dyson wrote.

“If you look at real numbers from the CDC, it tells a far different story.

“As of May 1, the CDC only lists 37,308 deaths from the corona virus. That does not help the media’s narrative at all.”

The media need the higher totals to push the fear. Fear drives a response and a story they want you to believe.

We hope you don’t lump us in with the fear mongers. Yes, we report the daily case and death count from Department of Health & Environmental Control officials.

Yet when they refused to release numbers publicly by zip code we protested and the governor ordered them to show more respect for the public’s good sense.

So I ask you, how are we doing at the Chronicle? Are we accurate and fair? Please write me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com

Next: What you are telling us

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