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Bill Palmer, the founder of the political blog, the Palmer Report, has been accused of being a hyperpartisan liberal Democrat who makes unsubstantiated claims and publishes conspiracy theories, such as the one that Donald Trump’s 2016 election was rigged.
Columbia Journalism Review and the German Marshall Fund have listed the Palmer Report site among biased or false content producers. Palmer’s background includes working as an elementary school teacher who later founded a series of online publications which initially discussed music and technology but evolved into politics. His site, Daily News Bin, was described by Snopes editor Brooke Binkowski as “a pro-Hillary Clinton ‘news site’ designed to ‘counter misinformation'” in an interview with The Atlantic. The Palmer Report was founded in 2016.
On the “about” page of the Palmer Report, Palmer says his content is at times ahead of its time. “At times, we’ve been so early with our analysis that we’ve been questioned for it, only to be fully vindicated weeks or months later as the mainstream media has finally caught up to the story.”
Len Edgerly, then-host of the weekly Kindle Chronicles podcast, wrote in a 2017 Medium post that the Palmer Report was “enlightening and often ahead of the news cycle.” But “I wince at the conspiratorial tone,” wrote Edgerly, who admitted to being obsessed with Trump news.
In a July 19 tweet, Palmer made a suggestion for controlling the pandemic that got hundreds of replies from among his 398,300 followers. He tweeted, “Place unvaccinated people under house arrest until the pandemic is over. It they don’t like it, they can get vaccinated. Problem solved.”
While some Twitter respondents thought that was an absolutely crazy idea, most were willing to at least discuss it.
Michael Williams @mwill68321 suggested resorting to “Home quarantines like they did last year in Italy. Only, in Italy those quarantines were strictly enforced. Here in the US enforcement would be spotty if at all.”
The Moguldom Nation founder Jamarlin Martin imagined how such a policy might be enforced: “How the American authorities could come at you: You better take this hazardous & rushed vaccine if you want to come outside. Where is your mark of the beast, I mean vaccine card?”
“If people are afraid to get covid they should self isolate until pandemic is over,” BlameItOnTheRain tweeted
@MiliVanili2020. “I’m vaccinated but your take is stupid. You’re infringing on persons right to dictate their health. That’s the most personal of choices.”
“This is a novel thought,” no cookie opt out @christinehuggns tweeted. “Conversely, there are people who can’t get vaccinated or are immunocompromised so have spent pretty much a whole year indoors. Also, vaccination doesn’t prevent transmission. Good luck to you with your dogmatic world view.”
“They used to have sanitariums for tuberculosis, so why not open them for the coronavirus?” Majadi Rodney Perry tweeted @AfrikanLion3.
“Sorry, Bill, but that is not only a ludicrous statement; but implausible. Blanket statements such as yours never work,”
@KernerRlynn tweeted.
“Your desire to control other peoples medical decisions is appalling,” Love
@ltsfullofstars tweeted.
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Photo: Patrickmorrisseyphoto / iStock
