IIf there is one thing this pandemic has made painfully and abundantly clear, it is that many people do not trust the media.– until the media tells them exactly what they already want to believe.

Obviously it was a thing long before COVID-19[female[feminine– because people of all demographics and ideologies are susceptible to confirmation bias – but the pandemic, especially since the vaccine rolled out, has provided countless perfect examples of this.

And sometimes the feeding of a predominantly irrational fear comes through images that are not so perfect.

Newsweek published an article on Wednesday about parents’ reluctance and categorical refusal to have their children vaccinated against COVID-19 because the Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve vaccinations for children as young as five years old. Now, to be fair, the article was fairly neutral and unbiased. It’s not an anti-vaxxer opinion piece or anything like that; it’s just an article detailing the reactions of parents, which range from the intellectual anti-conspiracy nonsense we’ve all seen in our various newsfeeds, to reasonably worried parents who struggle to keep up with the constant new developments in the medical professionals tale about the vaccine and just wait and see how things turn out before letting their children get the vaccine.

Sadly, the publication chose to promote this politically and ideologically benign article with an alarmist photo that is certain to have anti-vaxx persuasion readers clutching their pearls and refusing to read anything beyond the title.

“Would you give this kid a chance?” Asks the caption next to a photo of a white child looking scared and hugging her teddy bear like she’s about to receive a COVID injection administered from the fingertips of Freddie Krueger.

I mean, come on, Newsweek-What are you doing?

Whoever decided this cover photo was a good idea had to be seconds away from the image of a syringe with a skull symbol before deciding, “No, that’s a bit too much. Let’s go with the “scared white girl hiding in the closet by the bogeyman” look instead.

Obviously, the fine folks on Twitter had a day in the field rightfully dragging the photo to hell and back.

Some people have pointed out that not only is the photo irresponsible, but the question it is captioned with is loaded and silly.

Don’t get me wrong, as someone who works in media, I understand that it’s common to run around with photos and headlines that will attract traffic, but there is a line between being smart to attract readers and being smart about getting readers. irresponsible click propaganda.

This photo is basically playing hopscotch back and forth on this line.

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