Source:  Nworeport

CNN political commentator Mary Katherine Ham has spoken out against her employer and defended podcast presenter Joe Rogan who earlier this week accused the network of ‘lying’ about his use of ivermectin when he had coronavirus.

In a viral clip from Wednesday’s The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan grilled CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the broadcaster’s coverage of his use of the drug following his Covid-19 diagnosis, which he claims he recovered from in only five days.

After a tense back-and-forth, Gupta eventually agreed that the anti-parasite drug, which was prescribed to Rogan by a doctor, should never have been characterized by CNN as a horse dewormer.

The argument appeared to swell on Friday when Ham tweeted in support of Rogan’s accusation, branding the

reporting ‘horses***’ – although she did not call out the network by name.

‘Rogan is right that it’s dishonest to say he took a horse dewormer when he did not,’ tweeted Ham.

‘It was irresistible to dunk on him for a lot of people, so they went with that instead of sticking to ‘hey, this anti-parasitic isn’t recommended for COVID treatment,’ which would’ve been credible.’

Ham went on to respond to a follow up tweet by Federalist political editor John Daniel Davidson, who wrote: ‘Well, it WAS recommended by Rogan’s doctor, so that also wouldn’t be credible. And it’s not like Rogan’s doc is the only one in the country recommending Ivermectin off-label. The MOST they could have said, credibly, is that the CDC doesn’t recommend it.’

Ham replied: ‘Agreed, I’m not looking to explain the entire Ivermectin fight in one tweet. That was shorthand for a pronunciation

that would have been more suitable than ‘he’s taking horse dewormer,’ which is just straight, well, horses—.’

“I’m happy for folks to take it safely & half expect there may end up being better data later on.,’ Ham continued.

Gupta has since faced further backlash since Rogan’s podcast whilst speaking to his colleague Don Lemon, who repeated the ‘horse dewormer’ narrative and denied the network ‘lied’.

‘[Rogan] did say something about ivermectin that I think wasn’t actually correct about CNN and lying,’ Lemon began in reference to the podcast.

‘Ivermectin is a drug that is commonly used as a horse dewormer. So it is not a lie to say that the drug is used as a horse dewormer. I think that’s important- and it’s not approved for COVID, correct?’

‘That’s right,’ Gupta replied. ‘It is not approved for COVID and you’re right, even the FDA put out a statement saying basically reminding people- it’s a strange sort of message FDA, but said ‘You’re not a horse, you’re not a cow, stop taking this stuff’ is essentially what they said referring to ivermectin. Now, I think Joe’s point is that-

Lemon interjected: ‘That it’s been approved for humans but not necessarily for COVID, right?’

‘That’s correct,’ Gupta continued. ‘It’s been used for a parasitic disease… but, you know, just because it works for one thing doesn’t mean it works for something else.’