Randall Weddle, then a candidate for London mayor, listens as Gov. Andy Beshear helps celebrate the opening of WB Transport's new warehouse in April 2022. (Screenshot with permission of WYMT)

The Society of Professional Journalists has recognized Tom Loftus with a Green Eyeshade Award for his investigative reporting in the Kentucky Lantern.

The Green Eyeshades, begun in 1950 and the oldest regional journalism competition, recognize outstanding work by journalists in 11 southeastern states in print, television, radio and digital.

Loftus was awarded second place in Investigative Reporting/Online for the entry “Following the political money,” which included Loftus’ revelation that hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign were linked to London Mayor Randall Weddle. Two months after Loftus broke the story, Beshear’s campaign refunded $202,000 that had been placed on Weddle’s credit card. The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance opened a civil investigation after last year’s election into the donations.

Loftus also reported about large corporate donations to the Republican Party of Kentucky Building Fund, including $1 million from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The Kentucky legislature in 2017 allowed political parties to establish building funds that can accept unlimited contributions, including from corporations.

Loftus has been a freelance reporter and writer for the Kentucky Lantern since its launch on Nov. 30, 2022. His long career in Kentucky journalism includes four years as Frankfort bureau chief for The Kentucky Post and 32 years as Frankfort bureau chief for The Courier Journal.?

The nonprofit Lantern is part of the nationwide States Newsroom network, supported by donations from foundations and individuals.

A line of waiting vehicles is seen while a Bluewater Diagnostic Laboratories technician administers a COVID-19 test at Churchill Downs on January 10, 2022 in Louisville. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

From spring break parties to Mardi Gras, many people remember the last major “normal” thing they did before the novel coronavirus pandemic dawned, forcing governments worldwide to issue stay-at-home advisories and shutdowns.

Kentucky Senate votes to bar employers, schools from requiring COVID-19 vaccine

Even before the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S., fears and uncertainties helped spur misinformation’s rapid spread. In March 2020, schools closed, employers sent staff to work from home, and grocery stores called for physical distancing to keep people safe. But little halted the flow of misleading claims that sent fact-checkers and public health officials into overdrive.

Some people falsely?asserted covid’s symptoms were associated with 5G wireless technology. Faux cures and?untested treatments?populated social media and political discourse. Amid uncertainty about the virus’s origins, some people proclaimed?covid didn’t exist at all. PolitiFact named “downplay and denial” about the virus its?2020 “Lie of the Year.”

Four years later, people’s lives are largely free of the extreme public health measures that restricted them early in the pandemic. But covid misinformation persists, although it’s now centered mostly on vaccines and vaccine-related conspiracy theories.

PolitiFact has published?more than 2,000 fact checks?related to covid vaccines alone.

“From a misinformation researcher perspective, [there has been] shifting levels of trust,” said Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Early on in the pandemic, there was a lot of: ‘This isn’t real,’ fake cures, and then later on, we see more vaccine-focused mis- and disinformation and a more partisan type of disinformation and misinformation.”

Here are some of the most persistent covid misinformation narratives we see today:

A loss of trust in the vaccines

Covid vaccines were quickly developed, with U.S. patients receiving the first shots in December 2020, 11 months after the first domestic case was detected.

Experts credit the speedy development with helping to?save millions of lives?and preventing hospitalizations. Researchers at the University of Southern California and Brown University calculated that?vaccines saved 2.4 million lives?in 141 countries starting from the vaccines’ rollout through August 2021 alone. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows there were 1,164 U.S. deaths provisionally?attributed to covid?the week of March 2, down from nearly 26,000 at the pandemic’s height in January 2021, as vaccines were just rolling out.

But on social media and in some public officials’ remarks, misinformation about covid vaccine efficacy and safety is common.?U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has built his 2024 campaign on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories about the vaccines. PolitiFact made that its 2023 “Lie of the Year.”

PolitiFact has seen claims that spike proteins from vaccines are?replacing sperm?in vaccinated males. (That’s?false.) We’ve researched the assertion that vaccines can change your DNA. (That’s?misleading and ignores evidence). Social media posts poked fun at Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce for encouraging people to get vaccinated, asserting that the vaccine actually shuts off recipients’ hearts. (No, it doesn’t.)?And some people pointed to an American Red Cross blood donation questionnaire as evidence that shots are unsafe.?(PolitiFact rated that False.)

Experts say this misinformation has real-world effects.

A September 2023 survey by?KFF found that 57% of Americans?“say they are very or somewhat confident” in covid vaccines. And those who distrust them are more likely to identify as politically conservative: Thirty-six percent of Republicans compared with 84% of Democrats say they are very or somewhat confident in the vaccine.

Immunization rates for routine vaccines for other conditions have also taken a hit. Measles had been eradicated for more than 20 years in the U.S. but there have been recent outbreaks in?states including Florida,?Maryland, and Ohio. Florida’s surgeon general has expressed?skepticism?about vaccines and?rejected?guidance?from the CDC about how to contain potentially deadly disease spread.

The vaccination rate among kindergartners has declined from 95% in the 2019-20 school year to 93% in 2022-23, according to the?CDC. Public health officials have set a 95% vaccination rate target to prevent and reduce the risk of disease outbreaks. The CDC also found?exemptions had risen to 3%, the highest rate ever recorded?in the U.S.

Unsubstantiated claims that vaccines cause deaths or other illness

PolitiFact has seen repeated and unsubstantiated?claims that covid vaccines have caused mass numbers of deaths.

A recent widely shared post claimed?17 million people had died?because of the vaccine, despite contrary evidence from multiple studies and institutions such as the World Health Organization and CDC that the vaccines are safe and help to prevent severe illness and death.

‘Flying blind:’ A Kentucky COVID-19 pandemic retrospective?

Another online post claimed the booster vaccine had?eight strains of HIV?and would kill 23% of the population. Vaccine manufacturers publish the?ingredient lists; they do not include HIV. People living with HIV were among the people?given priority access?during early vaccine rollout to protect them from severe illness.

Covid vaccines also have been blamed for?causing Alzheimer’s?and?cancer. Experts have found no evidence the vaccines cause either conditions.

“??You had this remarkable scientific or medical accomplishment contrasted with this remarkable rejection of that technology by a significant portion of the American public,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

More than three years after vaccines became available, about 70% of Americans have completed a primary series of covid vaccination,?according to CDC figures. About 17% have gotten the most recent?bivalent booster.

False claims?often pull?from and misuse data?from the?Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The database, run by the CDC and the FDA, allows anybody to report reactions after any vaccine. The reports themselves are unverified, but the database is designed to help researchers find patterns for further investigation.

An?October 2023 survey published in November by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found 63% of Americans think “it is safer to get the COVID-19 vaccine than the COVID-19 disease” — that was down from 75% in April 2021.

Celebrity deaths falsely attributed to vaccines

Betty White, Bob Saget,?Matthew Perry, and?DMX?are just a few of the many celebrities whose deaths were falsely linked to the vaccine. The anti-vaccine film?“Died Suddenly” tried to give credence to false claims that the vaccine causes people to die shortly after receiving it.

Céline Gounder, editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News and an infectious disease specialist, said these claims proliferate because of two things:?cognitive bias and more insidious motivated reasoning.

“It’s like saying ‘I had an ice cream cone and then I died the next day; the ice cream must have killed me,” she said. And those with preexisting beliefs about the vaccine seek to attach sudden deaths to the vaccine.

Gounder experienced this?personally when her husband, the celebrated sports journalist Grant Wahl, died while covering the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Wahl died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm but anti-vaccine accounts falsely linked his death to a covid vaccine, forcing Gounder to?publicly?set the record straight.

“It is very clear that this is about harming other people,” said Gounder, who was a?guest?at United Facts of America in 2023. “And in this case, trying to harm me and my family at a point where we were grieving my husband’s loss. What was important in that moment was to really stand up for my husband, his legacy, and to do what I know he would have wanted me to do, which is to speak the truth and to do so very publicly.”

Out-of-control claims about government control

False claims that the?pandemic was planned?by government leaders and those in power abound.

At any given moment, Microsoft Corp. co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab, or Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are blamed for orchestrating pandemic-related threats.In November, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., falsely claimed Fauci “brought” the virus to his state a?year before the pandemic.?There is?no evidence?of that. Gates, according to the narratives, is using dangerous vaccines to push a depopulation agenda. That’s?false. And Schwab has not said he has an “agenda” to establish a totalitarian global regime using the coronavirus to depopulate the Earth and reorganize society. That’s part of a?conspiracy theory?that’s come to be called?“The Great Reset”?that has been?debunked?many?times.

The United Nations’ World Health Organization is frequently painted as a global force for evil, too, with detractors saying it is using vaccination to control or harm people. But the WHO has not declared that?a new pandemic?is happening, as some have claimed. Its current pandemic preparedness treaty is in no way positioned to remove human rights protections or restrict freedoms, as?one post said. And the organization has not announced plans to deploy troops to corral people and?forcibly vaccinate them. The WHO is, however, working on a new treaty to help countries improve coordination in response to future pandemics.

This story is republished from KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Reporter Sarah Ladd thanked her sources for helping her and others by sharing their mental health experiences.

The Kentucky Psychological Association has recognized Lantern reporter Sarah Ladd with its 2023 Mental Health in Media Award.?

At a Friday awards ceremony in Lexington, the organization’s president Patti Weiter singled out the Lantern’s “Breaking the Stigma” series as an “impressive work of public service journalism.”?

Ladd created the series in 2022 with the goal of helping to destigmatize conversations about mental health. Topics featured in the ongoing series have included borderline personality disorder (BPD), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).?

Each story features someone who lives with the condition as well as insight from therapists who treat it.

Ladd thanked her series’ sources in her acceptance speech. “I couldn’t report on mental health if people didn’t tell me what it’s like to live with PTSD, what it’s like to live with borderline personality disorder,” Ladd said. “They’re … changing the world, and I’m just honored to be a part of their stories and getting their stories out in the world.”?

The closure of four weekly newspapers last year left Northern Kentucky without a paper of record for legal notices. An online outlet could step into that role under a proposal awaiting a House vote. In 1947, Dick Pearce sold newspapers on the corner of Douglas and Broadway in Wichita, Kansas. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — Without a daily or weekly printed newspaper of record in Northern Kentucky, local leaders are seeking a way to get public notices out to readers digitally.?

The House Local Government Committee on March 3 gave its favor to House Bill 534, which would create qualifications for a digital news publication to be considered a paper of record. If passed, it paves the way for an online news outlet with a print publication to publish public notices daily on its website.?

State law requires local governments and? agencies to advertise notices of public meetings, calls for proposals on upcoming projects and other government business in a local newspaper. These “legal ads” are a source of revenue for the publications. The bill would create criteria for counties with more than 80,000 residents to have notices published online if a digital publication meets the law’s requirements.

Lacy Starling, the president of for-profit online news outlet LINK nky, said the bill would allow the outlet to publish public notices on its website, as it also maintains a weekly print publication, the LINK Reader, both of which focus on reporting in Northern Kentucky.?

Gannett closed weekly newspapers last year in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.?Starling said that left the area with no paper of record.?

In meetings with local government officials as well as some non-governmental organizations that must post public notices, Starling said it became clear that waiting for LINK’s weekly print edition imposed an inconvenient delay on some. She said it was important to preserve a way for print publications to still publish legal notices while creating guidelines for online outlets.?

“For us, it was really important from the press’ perspective. We want to maintain transparency.”

The bill would allow local governments to publish a legal advertisement with an online publication if the notice can be viewed in full on the website.?

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, said the bill stems from the lack of a paper of record within Northern Kentucky for some time. She believes it will pass the House.?

“I think it’s an important first step and it means a lot to northern Kentucky,” Dietz said.??

When presenting the bill, the representative was joined by Starling, Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore and Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Brent Cooper.?

David Thompson, the executive director of the Kentucky Press Association, said most of the KPA board is supportive of the committee substitute version of the bill. With the population limit, the bill will likely only affect Northern Kentucky counties, but 10 counties in the state have more than 80,000 residents.?

KPA has opposed allowing government agencies to satisfy legal requirements by posting public notices online via their own sites or third-party websites since 2005 “because they pretty much control what is published, where it’s published and how it is published,” Thompson said.?

“We have argued all along there’s got to be an independent third party associated with this. And newspapers, for more than a hundred years, have been that independent third party.”

Provisions in the bill could make it easier for online publications to begin, Starling said. Starting a new print publication can be costly. Dietz too said the bill opens the way for future online publications.?

“I think that in communities where their print publication has disappeared, this provides an opportunity for the community to have a paper of record,” Starling said.

Thompson said that the committee substitute version of the bill could support the start of new print publications in some counties.?

The bill has been given two readings on the House floor and could get a vote Tuesday.?

The bill’s proposed qualifications for a digital newspaper to be considered a paper of record include:?

• An “active news gathering office in the publication area.”
• Actively publishing for at least a year and be updated at least weekly.
• On its landing page, have visible links or headings to direct users to public notices.
• Can be easily found through internet search engines or other search means.
• Primarily reports on matters of importance to the public with regular reporting on local and community issues.
• Is connected to another entity that distributes newspapers or is capable of circulating printed newspapers in its region.

Correction: This story was updated on Tuesday to correct that LINK nky is a for-profit company and not a nonprofit organization.?

Damon Thayer (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Republicans in the Kentucky Senate, in passing a bill Wednesday to reorganize the board for Kentucky’s public television broadcaster, also used the opportunity to tee up criticism against the state’s Democratic governor.?

Senate Bill 104, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, would disband the current board for Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and require future gubernatorial appointments to the nine-person board be confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.?

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer said he believed the KET board was already “politicized,” echoing concerns made by Meredith when the bill passed out of a Senate committee about Beshear’s past appointments to the board.

“Reporting at KET needs to remain fair and impartial with no threat of interference from members of the administration,” Thayer said. “It’s time to blow up that board and start over.”

Thayer pointed to how Beshear appointed his own communications director, Crystal Staley, to the board last summer as evidence of political influence on KET. Thayer also said the wife of Rocky Adkins, a senior advisor to Beshear and former House minority floor leader, sat on the board.?

Democrats in the legislature questioned the need for such legislation, with Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, saying both Republicans and Democrats have served on the KET board in recent years.?

“The truth of the matter is that there’s nothing polarizing about what KET has done now,” Thomas said. “It’s not broke. It doesn’t need fixing.”

The bill would require the partisan makeup of the board to reflect the voter registration of the state; Republicans currently have a slight plurality in registered voters. As of now, the members of the KET board do not have to declare their political party.?

The legislation would also implement demographic requirements for the board, including that the board reflect the minority makeup of the state’s population and for there to be an equal representation of the “two sexes.”?

The bill passed 30-6 along party lines.

A spokesperson for Beshear’s office previously called the bill an effort “aimed at controlling KET.”

Sen. Stephen Meredith (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT — Called an effort to “protect” the integrity of Kentucky’s public television broadcaster, a bill passed unanimously out of a Senate committee Wednesday that would disband the current board for Kentucky Educational Television and require future appointments by the governor to the board be confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Bill sponsor Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, speaking in front of the Senate State & Local Government Committee, said Senate Bill 104 came about amid “polarization of almost every segment of our society” including media coverage, referencing the “extremes of CNN and Fox News.”?

“We’re experiencing politicization and weaponization of various governmental institutions, which we’ve never seen before,” Meredith said. “What we’re attempting to do is to protect the image, integrity and mission of KET.”?

Currently, the?nine-person board for the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, the governing body of KET, consists of five appointments by Kentucky’s governor, as of now Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. These appointments do not currently require confirmation by the state Senate.

The other members of the board include a representative from the University of Kentucky, a member representing the state’s universities elected by the Council on Postsecondary Education, a staff member from the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky commissioner of education.?

Meredith’s bill, which was changed Wednesday through a committee substitute, would disband the current KET board and require future gubernatorial appointments to the board be confirmed by the state Senate.?

Board members who would lose their seats as a result of the legislation could be considered for reappointment, under the bill.

It would remove the member representing the University of Kentucky and the member representing state universities; it would add to the board the president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and a staff member of the council.?

The bill would also require geographical representation of the board by not allowing more than two members to represent the same state Supreme Court district, would require “equal representation” of the “two sexes,” would require the board to reflect the minority makeup of the state and require the partisan makeup of the board to reflect the voter registration of the state, in which Republicans have a slight plurality.?

In an interview after the bill cleared the committee, Meredith said his bill would prevent the politicization of KET through measures dictating partisan makeup and a measure that would prevent a board member from joining who has worked in the state’s executive branch less than a year rom an appointment.?

“If we really were (wanting to) control KET, we wouldn’t have made sure it had to be nonpartisan composition — it’s going to be 50-50, Republican and Democrat,” Meredith said. “Even more importantly, it really gives a chance to diversify that board and be more reflective of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and I’m very excited about it.”?

When asked what spurred the legislation, Meredith said he was “quite concerned” about Beshear appointing to the board the governor’s communications director, Crystal Staley, last summer. He also said he considered the current KET board to be “leaning very partisan.”?

“I don’t know that she has intent on influencing the content of KET, but the appearance of that is not good. It looks like the potential is there to be influence,” Meredith said.?

Scottie Ellis, a spokesperson for Beshear’s office, said in a statement the bill was “aimed at controlling KET” and that “the only people playing politics are certain members of the General Assembly.”?

“These members are more focused on petty attacks on the governor than they are on raising teacher pay, providing universal pre-K or otherwise helping the people of Kentucky,” Ellis said.

Staley did not respond to a question asking her response to Meredith’s comments.?

Meredith said he received feedback on the bill from KET and tried to “respect” the public broadcaster’s input. KET spokesperson Todd Piccirilli in a statement said KET thinks “the legislation sounds reasonable.”?

“Once we learned about the legislation following its posting, we suggested that the (Council on Postsecondary Education) appointments be consistent with the (Kentucky Department of Education) appointments,” Piccirilli said.?“This would appear to provide criteria similar to other boards in the state.”

Sen. Denise Harper Angel, D-Louisville, voted “yes” on the bill, telling the Lantern the state Senate having input on gubernatorial appointees wasn’t a bad idea, but she believed the legislation was part of a larger effort by the Republican-dominated legislature to take power away from the Democratic governor.?

While she supported the bill, she also cautioned that it “could change” as it moves through the legislature.?

“We need to be spending our time doing other things,” Harper Angel said.

Along the Ohio River in Moneta Sleet's hometown of Owensboro, K.O. Lewis's portrait of the photographer is displayed. As background, Lewis painted images from Sleet's photojournalism; the woman on the right was marching in the rain from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. (Photo by Drew Hardesty, Wonder Boy Media)

Moneta Sleet Jr.’s eye led him from his hometown of Owensboro around the world.

As a photojournalist for Ebony magazine, Sleet captured on film some of the 20th century’s most iconic moments; his work earned a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, the first awarded a Black American.

This week, the Ohio River town where nine-year-old Sleet first picked up a camera will celebrate his life and legacy with a festival called?“Through Sleet’s Eyes.”?

Each event will be held free of charge at the RiverPark Center.

Born in 1926, Sleet is best known for his coverage of the Civil Rights Movement. He photographed the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, all while subject to racism and discrimination himself.

Sleet’s most recognized work, a photo of Coretta Scott King and her daughter, Bernice, grieving at the funeral of their husband and father, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., earned the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1969.

A graduate of the-then Kentucky State College in Frankfort, Sleet built an extensive portfolio?during his 41-year career at Ebony. He recorded the joys, pains, dreams and artistry of Africa and Black America.

Sleet, who was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 1989, died in 1996.

“Moneta Sleet’s story is American history, and it’s American history that starts in Owensboro,” said Emmy Woosley, the festival chair and an MBA student at Vanderbilt University.?

Woosley initially pitched a public art piece for Sleet in 2021 to her Leadership Owensboro class. What began as a plan for a bronze sculpture in his honor quickly evolved into a community effort, Woosley said.?

The festival was born shortly after a portrait of Sleet, created by local artist and educator K.O. Lewis, was unveiled and circulated in Daviess County.

Friday, Feb. 24

“Through Sleet’s Eyes Festival” will open to the public at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24, beginning with a gallery of Sweet’s photographs entitled “A Witness to History.” The exhibit invites viewers to “witness the miracle of Moneta” by exploring images that curator Bob Morris calls “some of the most important of the 20th century.” A jazz performance by the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra will supplement the program.

At 6:30 p.m., Ozier Muhammad, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and friend of Sleet, will give a firsthand account of Sleet’s career and personal life.?

Muhammad “was just so excited to come and be part of this event because I think he truly recognizes how great Sleet’s legacy is not just on photojournalism, but on American history,” Woosley said.

Saturday, Feb. 25

On Saturday, the festival will start at 3 p.m. with a guided experience of the photo exhibit, followed by community conversations with the festival’s creators and a musical performance by the Owensboro Men’s Mass Community Choir at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.

The festival’s main programming begins at 7 p.m. with a screening of the documentary “A Fine Remembrance” and a performance of a one-man-play called “The Power of the Lens.”

“A Fine Remembrance,” produced by Woosley and Drew Hardesty of Wonder Boy Media, explores Sleet’s impact through a series of interviews with people who were his colleagues and also a visit to his alma mater Kentucky State University.

Woosley and Hardesty started by visiting Sleet’s son, Greg, a retired U.S. district judge in Delaware, and traveled across the country, interviewing those who keep his legacy alive.

“When we talk to his colleagues, they just light up talking about Sleet, his stories and how much he pushed them to be better,” Woosley said. It’s that energy, she hopes, that will empower Owensboro’s youth to realize their potential.

“The Power of the Lens,” written and performed by Jeremy Gillett, is a three-movement play that takes a contemporary look at Sleet’s life. It follows Walter, a teacher at an art camp, through a story that explains the overlap between Black history and Sleet’s photography.

Gillett, an actor, writer and teacher with an expansive portfolio in theater and television, said he was drawn to Sleet’s story for its prominence in the Black community and its message to youth who may struggle with identity.

“His work was like a silent film. Each picture had a point, each picture had stood for something; there was a mission, a purpose,” Gillett said. “I want to bring visibility to the long lineage of paradigm-shifting inventions and creations that have come out of the Black community.”?

For more information on the “Through Sleet’s Eyes Festival” and to see more of his photographs, visit tsefest.org.

BBC News wrote about Sleet and published many of his photographs on the 50th anniversary of his Pulitzer Prize in “Moneta Sleet: The great black photographer you’ve never heard of.”