Sunday, 17 November 2024

43-Year-Old Columnist Who Criticized NFL Star Aaron Rodgers For Questioning Safety Of COVID-19 Shots Passes Away Unexpectedly

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Matt Driscoll, a columnist and opinion editor for The News Tribune (TNT), passed away unexpectedly.

He was 43.

The outlet said Driscoll died at his Tacoma home.

“We’ve lost a friend and beloved colleague, but Tacoma and Pierce County have lost someone who never stopped caring,” said TNT writer and editor Sean Robinson.

“Tacoma still has the Rainiers and the Narrows Bridge, but our City of Destiny has a hole in our hearts at the loss of Matt Driscoll. What a big heart and an insightful pen he gave us. I miss him already,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said.

From The News Tribune:

Driscoll suffered an apparent medical emergency and could not be revived. An official cause of death has yet to be determined.

Matthew Sean Driscoll was born Oct. 19, 1980, in Denver, Colorado, to Judie Kidd and Frank Driscoll. They moved to Bellevue, Washington, when Driscoll was 7. The family, with younger sister Kelly, eventually moved to Edgewood.

After graduating from Puyallup High School, Driscoll studied at Bates Technical College in an audio sound technology program in 2002. Along with his sister, he went on to The Evergreen State College, where he graduated in 2007.

In his X profile, Driscoll described himself as “the Johnny Appleseed of White Guilt” and/or “the Perez Hilton of Pierce County.”

“An unabashed liberal, Driscoll was often a lightning rod for readers who disagreed with his takes on politics and social issues,” The News Tribune wrote.

Per My Northwest:

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs wrote on X: “On Sunday, Washington lost a vital force for South Sound journalism, a tireless explorer of his region’s stories who was also a devoted and energetic father.”

Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards said she was deeply saddened by Matt Driscoll’s death, calling him a journalist dedicated to Tacoma.

“His insightful reporting and passionate storytelling not only informed us but also brought us closer as a community,” she said in a statement to The News Tribune. “Matt was more than just a reporter; he was a friend to many and a true advocate for the people of Tacoma.”

“Waited a LONG time for this. @RainiersLand #vaccinated,” Driscoll wrote in May 2021.

“Parents had to show a vaccine card. The Rainiers had rapid-testing for the kids. Took about 15 minutes,” Driscoll responded to an X user who asked if he had to show a vaccine card for the venue.

Driscoll was extremely critical of NFL star Aaron Rodgers for questioning the safety of the experimental COVID-19 shots.

“Rogers ‘repeated popular conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines, cited a number of discredited sources and claimed he was being ‘cancelled’ and ‘censored’ for ‘doing his own research.’ I swear to god: It’s like performance art at this point,” Driscoll wrote in January 2024.

“Driscoll also cheered the work of pro-vaxx troll Craig Egan in 2017, while he harassed and bullied the Vaxxed movie tour, which compellingly presented the story of parents whose children developed autism after receiving routine shots after birth,” X account ‘Died Suddenly’ noted.

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Driscoll wrote for The News Tribune in 2017:

What you make of Egan’s message — and its delivery — is up to you, of course. Great change rarely comes from a Facebook comment thread, and discourse is not often improved in the process of trying.

Still, in Egan’s chosen battle, he deserves credit for relentlessly speaking truth to nonsense.

Online, his approach is textbook trolling, which is defined by the Urban Dictionary as posting a “deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.”

That’s exactly what he does, needling staunch, conspiratorial anti-vaccine types to an uncomfortable point of hilarity or harassment, depending on your point of view.

He has a certain skill set, and he’s not shy about using it, employing take-down-style arguments based in science and medicine in a bizarre digital realm that largely seeks to discredit both.

Online, his many foes know him well. He’s routinely referred to as a bully, or worse.

Egan targets those who believe immunizations are responsible for a host of medical conditions, ailments and disabilities, and that there’s a widespread cover-up orchestrated by the government and large pharmaceutical companies to keep the truth hidden.

Specifically, Egan specializes in making online life miserable for the handful of doctors and authors who deal in this junk science.

He prods them. He harangues them. He operates a Facebook page titled “Embarrassed Cousins of Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children” that has nearly 5,000 followers. (The name itself is a swipe at the original Facebook group, “Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children.”)


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