[boublepop]

While this is a “major” newspaper in the sense that it has a large readership, it’s also the Danish equivalent of the Sun. And they are know for chasing whatever they can to get a story and having no morals. Their editor in chief spent a year in jail for buying credit card transaction information about celebrities to stalk to spy on them.

This doesn’t mean they don’t have truth in their reporting, only that whatever truth is there is accidental and just seen as a tool to get attention or exact revenge on the governments which he has a personal vendetta against.

[delusional]

You're right that they're known as quite sensationalist, blowing even trivial stories up to some huge scoop. I don't think it's fair to say truth is accidental to them though. Their journalists did just win the most prestigious danish award for journalism "Cavlingprisen" for a story written for EkstraBladet.

There's value in an antagonistic press.

[boublepop]

Certainly there is value in having an antagonistic press, but the “gotcha” here is a lie.

Throughout the pandemic numbers have reported how many people where hospitalized with Covid. Because that is the important number to be concerned about, since this is the number that is pressuring the hospital system. This articles is Henrik Qi’s personal “gotcha” saying “haha, I told you so, actually only 3/4 of those hospitalizations are because of covid!!” And then trying to paint a picture of the media collectively having failed the readers for not “discovering” this earlier.

Now this is a lie for two reasons, it implies incorrectly that there was previously a statement that 100% the people in the hospital with covid where there solely because of covid, which was never the case. And secondly it is a lie because the hints that covid is actually 27% less severe is an implicit accusation that someone who has covid and heart failure and is admitted does not stress the system exactly as much as someone admitted only because they have covid.

The punkis wasn’t lied to by the government. The media didn’t fail the people. What actually happened was that the most important number was reported accurately and now Henrik Q finally got another number that he thinks is more important. Why does he think that one is more important? Because he doesn’t care about the healthcare system failing, what he cares about is only his personal risk of ending up hospitalized if he gets covid. And that’s fine, it’s not illegal to be selfish, but it’s not a failing of the government for not focusing on metrics you personally align with your own hypothesis.

It was quite clearly communicated and makes perfect sense that during covid we where looking at number of hospitalizations with covid compared to the capacity to support hospitalizations with covid, and lockdowns and other actions where planned based on ensuring those didn’t collide.

If the hospital system had broken down, it would have helped no one that Henrik could jog along and go “Well actually 27% of the people that can’t get treatment for covid or other illnesses only need that because of the other illness not because of covid”

Anyways I appreciate your perspective but I’ll stand by my viewpoint. The truth contained in this reporting is incidental to their agenda, it’s not the focus of it at all.

[throwawayay02]

I can tell you you sound very biased.

In my own European country most people certaintly do not know what distinction is made by the health authories around "with" versus "from" covid. We also no longer have data on the effects per comorbidity. Broken down per vaccine or if had prior infection. Even speaking of side effects was completely verboten. Everything is kept very nebulous and I believe it is mostly because of incompetence, but also some malice and distrust of the public to handle the truth.

So no, any reporting that seeks to puts their feet to the fire and clarify their data is important, and if it gives someone clicks good for them. I want the press to ask questions, not just parrot the media conference.

[sharken]

Correct data is the foundation for making an informed decision.

In this case the actual hospitalizations have been inaccurate, so that very important decisions have been made on inaccurate data.

The real problem in Denmark is the inability to maintain the same hospital capacity as just 12 months ago.

It feels a bit too convenient that the inaccurate numbers support more lockdown and restrictions.

The new and accurate numbers for hospitalizations will hopefully lead to serious reform of the health care system, it is sorely needed.