The COVID Files the Media Ignored

Episode summary:

Are you getting all the news, or just the stories legacy media wants you to see? In this Wilmington Standard Daily Update, we highlight how major networks and local outlets quietly ignored a key ODNI document release on Covid‑19 and what that silence says about today’s media. We dig into how fear, Fauci, and lockdown policies reshaped small business, churches, and voting — while corporate media chose to protect the narrative instead of inform the public. Then we point to the rise of citizen journalists and independent outlets that are doing the work the old media establishment refuses to do.

What you’ll learn / Key moments

• 00:01 – Are you getting all the news? Framing how much media decides what you hear — and what you don’t.
• 00:09 – ODNI Covid‑19 documents, Fauci, and why the release barely registers in legacy media coverage.
• 00:31 – Fear, shutdowns, and mail‑in voting: how media helped sell the Covid narrative.
• 01:08 – Media bias, collapsing trust, and why inconvenient stories end up in the editor’s wastebasket.
• 02:18 – Citizen journalists, new platforms, and the shift in where real reporting now lives.

What you can do

If you are tired of corporate media deciding which facts are “safe” for you to know, it is time to build your own news diet. Follow and support independent journalists and outlets that cover stories like the ODNI release instead of burying them. Share this episode with someone who still leans on the big networks and challenge them to compare what gets covered — and what gets ignored. And stay connected with The Wilmington Standard for clear, conservative coverage that makes media bias visible and helps you sort real news from narrative. 

Are you getting all the news?

This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Monday, June 22, 2026.

Last week, outgoing Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a whole trove of documents, including investigations into the origins of COVID-19.  It was the culmination of one of her promises – and that of President Trump – to open up these files for public review.

You would think that a major dump of documents that talked about where a disease came from that nearly destroyed our economy and did permanently close many small businesses would be a major news item.  Or a government inquiry into one man – Dr. Anthony Fauci – who was largely responsible for the fear and overreaction that caused our children to be masked and shut down churches and assemblies – but not riots – would at least make the weekend edition.

Except it didn’t. 

Using Perplexity to survey major national and local news sites, we did not find any dedicated coverage of this document release of the Office of the Director on National Intelligence (ODNI) from ABC, NBC, CBS, or from Wilmington outlets like WECT, Port City Daily, and StarNews.

Media bias is not solely about how an issue is covered – it also helps determine what issues are covered.  Maintaining the fear of COVID-19, vaccine requirements, keeping people isolated, and fundamentally changing voting habits through mail-in ballots was the bread-and-butter of traditional media in the backpocket of liberals who depended on these social and cultural shifts to advance their agendas. Up until Elon Musk acquired Twitter and restored some semblance of free and dissenting speech, any discussions to the contrary were squashed by algorithms and faceless fact checkers. 

No wonder the legacy media will not report on this document release.  Just the barest hint that what they were told by the government was wrong – or the fact that they did not do their jobs and get other opinions and dig further into the problems – sort of like being journalists – would further call into question the reason for them being around in the first place.  With just 28% of the American population having any kind of confidence in the mass media, a report by the ODNI stating the media got a big story really wrong will naturally end up in the editor’s wastebasket. 

The burden falls on the average citizen to aggregate the news.  Fortunately, as more and more individuals get tired of how the news is done, we are seeing more and more citizen journalists rise to the task of bringing you the news.  People like Nick Shirley -  a YouTuber who broke the Minnesota story on corrupt daycares - Catherine Herridge -  who is second-to-none in intelligence investigations -  and Nick Craig who has the pulse on everything in North Carolina are proving that real journalism hasn’t disappeared – it has just moved.

The big question now - who will you trust to bring you the news?

For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample.  Thanks for listening.