--- title: The COVID Files the Media Ignored - June 22, 2026 description: Legacy media buried key ODNI Covid files. We unpack the silence and why citizen journalists now do the real reporting. canonical_url: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/the-covid-files-the-media-ignored-june-22-2026 language: en-GB date: 2026-06-22T15:02:21Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/the-covid-files-the-media-ignored-june-22-2026. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 1661 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/the-covid-files-the-media-ignored-june-22-2026. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ![Newspaper - Are We Getting All The News?](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/images/daily_update/2026/june/june22/jun222026-article.png)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](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gabbard-spotlights-fauci-covid-origin-questions-final-act-intelligence-chief-amid-succession-fight) 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](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/between-two-bridges/small-business-big-voice) 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](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/north-carolina-news/bar-owners-covid-19-shutdown-lawsuit-to-get-more-clarity-june-9?highlight=WyJjb3ZpZCIsMTksImNvdmlkIDE5Il0=), 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](https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx) 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. ```json { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#reuel_sample_e0470786cd" }, "dateModified": "2026-06-22T15:02:21Z", "datePublished": "2026-06-22T09:54:29Z", "description": "Legacy media buried key ODNI Covid files. 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