The World and Everything in It: May 18, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like my friends the Harts. Thank you Matthew and Laura for recommending the podcast to me several years ago in our church community group here in Winston Salem, North Carolina. I hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD: Good morning! How much authority does a city council have when it comes to discrimination and first amendment rights? An Atlanta suburb turns out for a heated debate.

FRANK AUMAN: Diversity of thought and the ability to disagree, should not be subject to government punishment.

PAUL BUTLER: Also an update to the chaotic situation at the southern border. Plus learning to cook Indonesian style as a way of preserving culture. And WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas on who we trust in our government and institutions.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, May 18th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BUTLER: And I’m Paul Butler. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Debt ceiling / Biden trip » President Biden is in Japan this morning for G7 Summit.

It will be a shorter trip than planned. Biden scrapped visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea amid ongoing debt ceiling talks.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan:

SULLIVAN: The work that we need to do bilaterally with Austrailia through the Quad and with the Pacific Islands, whereas the final stretch of negotiations over the debt limit cannot be done at a later date.

Biden will return from Hiroshima on Sunday.

Debt-limit talks shifted into an encouraging new phase Tuesday. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy:

MCCARTHY: Now the president and Leader Schumer have finally backed off the idea that they won’t negotiate.

Those negotiations are mainly over a GOP proposal to reduce overspending while raising the debt ceiling.

Staffers from the White House and the speakers office are continuing talks while the president is away.

Montana TikTok ban » Montana is the first state in the nation to entirely ban the social media video app TikTok. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: In a statement, the governor said “Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.”

US intelligence agencies have warned that China could use the app to spy on Americans or spread misinformation online.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Rubio report / NIH funding » COVID-19 most likely leaked from a Chinese Lab. That’s the conclusion of a new 300-page report published Wednesday by Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Select Intelligence Committee.

The report points to a mountain of circumstantial evidence. Rubio said that in 2019.

MARCO RUBIO: They had a drill at one of their airports where they specifically said we are drilling against a novel COVID pandemic coronavirus, using terminology that wasn’t even familiar to anybody until March or February of the next year.

The report says leaders of the Chinese Communist Party knew about “a serious biocontainment failure or accident” at a lab in Wuhan more than a month before global health officials found out, and that the CCP actively worked to cover it up.

The FBI also firmly believes the virus escaped from the lab, though there is no consensus across U.S. government agencies.

NC pro-life override » In North Carolina, Republican state lawmakers have overturned Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a new pro-life law.

State Representative Kristin Baker:

KRISTIN BAKER- As a mother, as a physician, and as a legislator. I am proud to support Senate Bill 20 with a vote to override the veto. And I urge you to join me in doing so.

The new law protects the unborn from abortion after 12 weeks of gestation, with some exceptions for rape, incest and medical issues.

Meanwhile, Nebraska is also considering a law that protects unborn children after 12 weeks of pregnancy. In South Carolina, Republicans are trying to pass a pro-life “heartbeat” law.

FL help to border » Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to send reinforcements to the Texas-Mexico border, more than 1,100 Florida National Guard soldiers and law enforcement officers.

He said many of the immigration-related problems Florida faces begin at the nation’s southern border.

RON DESANTIS: Last year, 72% of all human trafficking victims were illegal aliens, many coming across the southern border.

Florida will also send planes, drones, and boats.

DeSantis previously sent support to the U.S. southern border in Texas and Arizona in 2021 after requests from the governors of those states. 

Ecuador Nat Assembly » Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has dissolved the country’s legislature. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Lasso had been locked in a showdown with legislators who wanted to impeach him for allegedly not stopping a deal between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company. He denies the accusation.

In disbanding the National Assembly, Lasso made first use of the Ecuador presidency’s nuclear option under the constitution in conflicts with the legislative branch.

The president appeared to have the support of the armed forces but faced opposition from powerful indigenous groups.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: How much authority does a city council have when it comes to discrimination and first amendment rights? Plus, an update on the border crisis.

This is The World and Everything in It.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: It’s Thursday, May 18th, 2023.

You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad to have you along. Good morning, I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Up next, ordinances that purport to ban discrimination.

Over the last few years, local communities have passed nondiscrimination ordinances. Many add sexual orientation and gender identity to a list of protected categories. This raises questions about protections for religious groups that agree with Biblical teachings on gender and sexuality.

BUTLER: WORLD associate correspondent Lindsay Wolfgang Mast recently visited an Atlanta suburb where leaders are wrestling with these very questions.

LINDSAY WOLFGANG MAST, REPORTER: On a bright May morning, downtown Tucker, Georgia starts to bustle. It’s Tucker Day, the town’s annual festival and parade.

SOUND: [PARADE]

Vintage cars, community groups, and marching bands make their way down Main Street. Mayor Frank Auman says this—a thriving downtown, new sidewalks, safer parks—is the kind of thing he wanted for Tucker in 2016, when the city of 36,000 incorporated and elected him the town’s first mayor. He went on to win two more terms.

FRANK AUMAN: Hey good morning.

But for the last four years, he’s been fighting efforts to pass a local nondiscrimination ordinance—or NDO—a move he fears could spoil the diverse town’s unity. Such an ordinance imposes fines on small businesses and organizations found guilty of discrimination against many classes already covered by federal or state laws, but adds sexual orientation and gender identity to those lists. The proposed ordinance could exempt houses of worship to some extent, but not religious organizations providing social services. Not creative professionals. And not religious organizations involved in commercial work.

At Rehoboth Baptist, a busy church in Tucker that houses a school and multiple ministries, Pastor Troy Bush says he’s alarmed at the prospect.

TROY BUSH: It creates a scenario whereby the city of Tucker will have the right to force any religious organization to hire people that do not support that religious organizations beliefs, their message or their mission. And we believe that is a an egregious affront to our religious liberties and the First Amendment.

Calls for a Tucker NDO—started years ago. In 2018, nearby Doraville adopted the state’s second nondiscrimination ordinance—Atlanta has had one for two decades. Doraville had just elected the state’s first transgender council member Stephe Koontz. Koontz wanted to pass an ordinance to serve as a model for other small Georgia cities considering the same move. The Doraville council waived a first reading and passed it the night it was introduced…

DORAVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEETING: Council Member Fleming? No. Council Member Geierman? Yes. Council Member Naser? Yes. Council Member Patrick? Yes. Council Member Hillard? Yes. Council Member Koontz? Yes. Motion passed 5-1.

Next, it was Clarkston, then Chamblee, Decatur, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, East Point. Over the next 20 months, other small cities nearby passed their own version of Doraville’s ordinance. At least one other waived a first reading. Others heard just a handful of public comments. And all use the same language that leaves first amendment protections vulnerable. It exempts religious organizations conducting worship services—but doesn’t safeguard religious beliefs.

Greg Baylor, Senior Council with Alliance Defending Freedom says the language in the Tucker ordinance goes too far, too fast.

GREG BAYLOR: This is a dramatic departure from what is customary and normal when it comes to religious exemptions and non discrimination ordinances.

Pressure for a Tucker NDO grew as more cities passed them, but Mayor Auman thought passing it was outside the scope of a city council’s purpose. It seems he wasn’t alone in that assessment. Here’s Doraville’s council member Koontz talking to Atlanta’s WXIA-TV in 2019:

KOONTZ: I was told by Jeff Graham that a lot of city attorneys believed that it was illegal for us and that we didn’t have the authority to be passing ordinances like this.

Jeff Graham, whom Koontz mentions there, is the executive director of Georgia Equality, a political action committee promoting LGBT causes and candidates across the state.

In 2021, Mayor Auman tried to land a compromise: a resolution stating that Tucker was welcoming, tolerant, inclusive.

AUMAN: We just felt like something needed to be said, because we're being maligned as well, if you don't pass this law, of course, you hate us and that sort of thing, which is ridiculous. So we passed a resolution as a way of stating our feelings on the subject.”

But that wasn’t enough for some council members. Earlier this month, they placed a first reading on the agenda five days before a meeting.

This version raises the stakes. It would protect perceived sex and perceived gender identity. It could intrude even further on the hiring practices of churches and religious organizations.

Word started to get around. Residents filed through a metal detector—the first time the council has ever used one. Outside the 115-person room, an overflow crowd hoped to get in.

The council heard nearly 90 minutes of public comment, evenly split on support.

Some expressed concerns about religious liberties. Mayor Pro-Tem Anne Lerner brushed off those concerns.

ANNE LERNER, MAYOR PRO-TEM: We’ve heard the past few days we’re taking away religious freedoms and religious rights but there’s a protection there, as you said, the US Constitution, there’s laws that protect that.

But is it really that simple? Again, Greg Baylor:

GREG BAYLOR: Think about Jack Phillips, an ADF client in Colorado who's been in litigation literally for years and years and years. He didn't just say, here's the First Amendment, you can't come after me. He had to go into court and endure years of of time consuming and distressing litigation.

And that’s not the only case. A Colorado website designer has also taken a similar case all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing she shouldn’t be forced to design wedding websites for same-sex couples. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision soon.

Back at the meeting, the mayor presented fourteen reasons he’s still opposed to Tucker’s NDO. Among them: Someone could be prosecuted based on how they allegedly “perceived” another person. There’s room in the wording for pedophiles to become a protected class. What happens to a kosher deli, or a halal restaurant? Where’s the evidence of the scope of a discrimination problem? And yes, what about first amendment rights? Auman told attendees:

AUMAN: Diversity of thought, diversity of thought, and the ability to disagree, should not be subject to government punishment.

Auman suggested the council continue to take input, and delay a vote until after the Supreme Court rules in the 303 Creative case. Pastor Bush agrees that slowing down to get thoughtful buy-in is wise.

BUSH; The way this ordinance has been crafted, it is going to bring harm, especially to people of faith.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: an update on the Southern Border.

The pandemic immigration rule Title 42 ended a week ago. Everyone from Capitol Hill to the banks of the Rio Grande expected an immediate surge of immigrants—beyond the massive numbers already crossing the border. But that didn’t happen, at least not yet.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: The number of border crossings have dropped by 50 percent since last week, but border communities remain on alert. Politicians disagree about how to return to pre-pandemic immigration policy. Advocates worry this disagreement will further complicate the immigration crisis going forward. WORLD correspondent Bonnie Pritchett spoke with immigration advocates and policy analysts about what lies ahead.

ANTHONY BLINKEN: Globally, there are more than 100 million people on the move today compelled to leave their homes in search of security and better lives. 

That’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken telling reporters why millions of people have migrated to the U.S. Southern border.

BLINKEN: That is more people than at any time in recorded history. And in our own hemisphere we are facing an unprecedented migration challenge…Twenty million people are displaced across this hemisphere.

Global migration notwithstanding, immigration advocates and policy analysts blame Washington—specifically Congress—for a decades-long failure to pass a substantive law about immigration and border security.

President Bill Clinton signed the most recent one in 1996. He introduced the measure in a State of the Union address. 

BILL CLINTON: All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. That's why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more.

That speech earned him a standing ovation from both sides of the House chamber. The law he signed a year later had its critics and still does. But it passed in the House 333 to 87.

Last week, hours before Title 42 expired, the Republican-controlled U.S. House passed the Secure the Border Act of 2023 or H.R. 2. It passed 219 – 213 along party lines. Two Republicans voted no.

The bill focuses heavily on border security by resuming construction of a border wall and creating a nationwide employment verification system. It would also limit asylum claims and increase grants to law enforcement agencies for border security.

Like Clinton’s immigration law, H.R. 2 has its critics.

Like Rep. Greg Casar from Texas.

GREG CASAR: That’s why this Republican, anti-immigrant bill H.R. 2 is cruel, extreme, and not based on fact.

Isabel Soto is policy director with The LIBRE Initiative. She agrees the bill is shortsighted, but she doesn’t dismiss it.

ISABEL SOTO: It might be an unfair categorization to say, you can't create a bill if it's not gonna go anywhere. Because I mean, it has gone somewhere, it's passed the house, right? This is an effort to do something. And at this point, it's and it's we've gotten, unfortunately, to this point, that doing something is a lot. Just trying to get anything done is a lot.

Jennie Murray is the head of the National Immigration Forum and found little she could support in the bill. She noted a common concern with H.R. 2.

JENNIE MURRAY: It can't be deterrent and enforcement only. That's not a starting place. It has to be there. We have to have order. But there have to be solutions as well.

Without those legislative solutions, Democratic and Republican presidents rely on administrative policies. Since March 2020, the U.S. Border Patrol has processed migrants who crossed illegally into the country under Title 42. It permitted agents to return some migrants to Mexico or their home countries without hearing an asylum claim.

On May 12th, Border Patrol returned to its pre-COVID operational standards under Title 8. That policy requires agents to process all asylum claims with a few exceptions.

The Biden administration plans to release migrants with a Notice to Report to immigration officials at a later date. Politicians and advocates on the right and left disagree with that interpretation of Title 8.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sued, arguing that immigration law requires Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants while they await decisions on their asylum claims.

A federal judge agreed on May 11 - the day before Title 8 went into effect. U.S. District Judge Kent Wetherell II issued a temporary restraining order that prohibits Border Patrol from releasing migrants on parole.

That same day, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's interpretation of Title 8.

LEE GELERNT: We believe it's unlawful in the same way the Trump administration asylum bans were unlawful I argued those case in the Trump administration. We prevailed in those cases.

That’s ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt on NBC’s Meet the Press arguing that Biden’s executive decision violates immigration law by limiting who can claim asylum.

Immigration reform advocates argue the ever-shifting rules demonstrate the need for Congress to act.

MONICA WEISBERG-STEWART: It's total frustration.

Monica Weisberg-Stewart chairs the immigration and border security committee for the Texas Border Coalition. She lives in a Texas border town. So, this issue hits close to home. She worries the Republican-supported bill doesn’t offer a realistic solution.

WEISBERG-STEWART: What came out into that bill was enforcement only. We know straight out enforcement only is not the way to go. And at the same time, you have the Democrats on the other side saying, if you don't just deal with all the immigration without the enforcement, then we're not going to come to the table either, which to me is they need to do their job.

Weisberg-Stewart, Isabel Soto, and Jennie Murray agree immigration law must go beyond enforcement to create legal pathways into the U.S.

WEISBERG-STEWART: We need visas based on supply and demand, we need a guest worker program that actually works. We need farm workers, we need construction workers, we need individuals to be able to, to actually come in here legitimately, we need a process that works.

The National Immigration Forum partners with immigration advocates including faith-based organizations in promoting reform on Capitol Hill. Murray said their own polls indicate 79 percent of Evangelicals want immigration reform legislation. Their influence in the debate gives Murray hope Congress will address immigration reform this session.

MURRAY: So look, I think it's viable. And I think everybody's ready to lose a little and gain a little hopefully. We want to be a place of order, a place of safety, but we want to be a beacon of hope, as we have been for so many hundreds of years now. And we want to continue to be both of those things. Right? And we can be.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: A study from the National Institutes of Health back in 2021 warned parents about wearing masks around babies. Government experts telling us that infants who can’t see their parents’ faces are likely to be delayed in physical and emotional development.

Of course, seeing a parent smile is part of how a baby learns to smile, too.

And not just babies, it turns out.

A story out this week out of Japan reports growth of a new industry: classes and coaching to learn to smile! Or relearn, really. Japan’s mask mandate ended earlier this year but after three years of required use, some Japanese are finding the transition back to life without masks uncomfortable.

Some say they’ve forgotten how to smile. Others are just feeling insecure about their smiles. And the fact that many haven’t seen smiling faces around them since 2020 seems to be one of the largest factors leading to the problem.

So what’s to be taught to otherwise emotionally healthy adults?

Well, back to basics. Stretching techniques, facial relaxation, and instructions on when it’s appropriate to smile and when it’s not.

This story comes from The Guardian. One smile-education coach reports that business is booming. And that’s sure to bring a smile to the face of the instructor, and who knows? Maybe that’s part of the therapy.

It’s The World and Everything in It

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 18th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: tourism and traditions. Tourism is a crucial part of the local economy in many places, such as in Bali, a province of Indonesia. Locals rely on it for much of their income. But tourism can also help preserve the culture of the region by promoting traditional flavors and foods.

REICHARD: So what if, instead of just feeding tourists, a chef taught them how to cook in the traditional Balinese way, so that travelers could take a taste of local culture back home with them? Here’s WORLD reporter Amy Lewis.

SOUND: [MORNING MARKET]

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: In Ubud on the Indonesian island of Bali, the local market opens at 4 am. Some come early to buy offerings for their Hindu altars. Others purchase plucked chickens and spices for the day’s meals. But many are here to feed their town’s three million annual tourists.

KOMANG: Now I can show you the spices. Ok, we have four types of ginger for you to make Bumbu Bali.

Komang is a local tour guide, driver, and cook. Like most people in Ubud, he depends on tourists for his entire income. The last few years were difficult because of COVID restrictions.

KOMANG: Maybe you know Indonesia, like especially in Bali, we die. Nothing job, because we work tourism. Not active. It mean we just stay at home.

After two years, thousands of vaccinated tourists are back. And that means Komang goes to the market every morning to buy fresh spices and vegetables. Not just to feed tourists…but to help teach them traditional Balinese-cooking. He’s happy to share his food and culture.

More than 60 cooking schools dot the island. Some recipe ingredients are typical island fare: There are chilies, bananas, and coconut. But the dishes are steeped in centuries-old tradition and indigenous spices—sometimes up to 15 spices in one sauce.

MADE: For the ingredient of the sauce you have to chop because today we use traditional way.

Made is a chef at his uncle’s school in Ubud.

MADE: We use our blender. Bali Blender. Mortar and pestle, and we have the big one over there. Manual way today, yeah, so no electronic.

Ketut Budiasa is Made’s uncle. He’s a trained chef and runs cooking classes in Ubud.

KETUT: I graduated from food and beverage University. I'm school for two years, and then I work in a separate hotel in Bali.

Ketut helps travelers take a taste of Balinese culture back home with them. He started teaching them in his home, but soon there were way too many aspiring cooks in his kitchen.

KETUT: Good morning. My name is Ketut. (My name is Silver.) Good morning. Welcome to Ketut Bali Cooking Class.

On this late April morning, he has guests from America, Australia, Germany, Holland, Indonesia, and Singapore. His two open-air kitchens include a dozen gas stoves each and some very sharp knives.

MADE: For the recipe today we will make peanut sauce. I think everybody know peanut sauce because in Bali, this is for everything, every meal. For the satay, spring roll, the plain rice, salad, french fries. (laughs)

Between preparations of mie goreng and curry chicken, some of Ketut’s ten employees distribute portions of market-fresh ingredients for the next recipe. They whisk away used dishes as if it’s a cooking show and the participants are experts.

Achieving the sliding and rocking motion of the mortar and pestle proves challenging. Made offers a tutorial, but the peanut sauce still ends up chunky. That’s when the blender back home would come in handy.

Ketut and Made want participants to feel confident that they can cook these foods at home, even if it takes more time. They understand that some ingredients—like banana leaves—can be hard to get in some places. Made readily offers substitutes.

MADE: Today we use banana leaf. Do you have at home? Ah! Haha! But if you don't have you can change the leaf with lettuce, bok choy, cabbage.

Komang, the driver and spice-buyer, lights the grill. It’s a simple metal box with two rods across it. They keep the chicken satay and banana leaf-wrapped fish from falling into the coconut husk charcoal fire.

After more than two hours of chopping and mashing and cooking under Made’s and Ketut’s watchful eyes, participants sit down to eat. It’s almost cheating for the students to say the food is good—because they made it. But Ketut’s whole team has been working since 4 am to ensure the participants’ success.

MADE: Later we give you the recipe after finished cooking. We have the electronic one. Ah.

Ketut’s passion and teaching skills mean that class participants from all around the world learn some age-old cooking methods. They also experience the nuances of Balinese spices. It’s just a pinch of the vast array of flavors God has made.

Komang drives back to town with satiated students armed with recipes, memories, and the taste of Balinese dishes fresh on their tongues.

Days later, when they arrive in their home country and someone asks how their trip was, they can share more than photos. They can share a meal with all the flavors of Bali.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Ubud, Indonesia.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. This past Tuesday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio released a 328 page report on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. He claims the report offers a “mountain of circumstantial evidence that the pandemic came from a lab accident in Wuhan, China.”

WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas looks at the pressures that have made the topic so politically charged.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Before he became host of “The Tonight Show” on NBC, Johnny Carson hosted a show on ABC called “Who Do You Trust?” The grammatical error aside (WHOM do you trust would have been correct), it’s a question many are asking when it comes to their government, scientists and politicians. Perhaps an updated version might be whom CAN you trust?

With respect to the origin, prevention and treatment for the virus that causes COVID-19, the misinformation and disinformation are now being uncovered.

Senator Marco Rubio’s report this week will take a while to digest. But it comes on top of last winter’s admission by the Department of Energy. While labeling its conclusions “low confidence,” the federal agency revealed that early allegations that the virus originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China, might have credibility. FBI Director Christopher Wray agreed in February, saying the COVID pandemic was likely caused by the Chinese lab leak.

When that story was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan claimed there is no “consensus” in the intelligence or scientific communities about the origin of the virus. Since when did a lack of consensus keep them from reaching conclusions? When there has been consensus, it has often been wrong. American leaders failed to foresee the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Let’s not forget those 51 retired intelligence officers who agreed that the Hunter Biden laptop story was part of a “Russian disinformation” operation. Joining the pile-on was Hillary Clinton, who claimed then-Rep Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) was a Russian “asset.”

The list of COVID-related misinformation and lies is long. It includes recommendations on masks (good, not good), school closures (effective, ineffective), vaccines (prevent infection, then don’t, but wear masks anyway), and social distancing (effective, but then not so much).

The question of origins was especially politicized. Anyone who disagreed with “experts” like Dr. Anthony Fauci was a conspiracy theorist, a denier, wore a tin hat, and was stupid and racist.

The media often aided and abedded such “experts,” and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was a special target. Cotton held the view that the virus came from a Chinese lab, and a New York Times headline read “Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Coronavirus Origins.” The Washington Post ran a nearly identical headline: “Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus fringe theory that scientists have disputed.” Many other news outlets took a similar approach.

In June of 2021, the Post published this half-hearted statement without apology: “Earlier versions of this story and its headline inaccurately characterized comments by Sen. Tom Cotton… regarding the origins of the coronavirus.”

The Pew Research Center has studied the trust Americans place in government, and it states: “When the National Election Study began asking about trust in government in 1958, about three-quarters of Americans trusted the federal government to do the right thing almost always or most of the time. … Public trust reached a three-decade high shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but declined quickly thereafter. Since 2007, [those] saying they can trust the government always or most of the time has not surpassed 30 percent.”

Is it any wonder?

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: a new voice on Culture Friday—WORLD Opinions writer Samuel Sey on reparations. Plus, Collin Garbarino previews a new documentary on baseball legend Yogi Berra. Turns out “you can observe a lot by just watching.” And, our monthly Word Play with George Grant. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.” Psalm 119:66-68

Go now in grace and peace.

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