The Media Research Center is doing what was unthinkable not that long ago: defending Alex Jones’ conspiracy-laden Infowars operation by insisting that CNN is really no different.
In a July 13 post, Ashley Rae Goldenberg bizarrely takes offense that CNN reporter Oliver Darcy asked Facebook executives why Infowars still has a presence on Facebook despite its current campaign to purge fake news. Goldenberg concedes that Infowars is “known to many for peddling extreme conspiracy theories,” but she never details that those claims are beyond offering a link detailing some of them.
Goldenberg then laughably accuses CNN of being no different than Infowars:
CNN’s complaint to Facebook cited three separate types of charges against InfoWars. Those included: items that were “demonstrably false”; “conspiracy theories”; and stories that have “smeared” news subjects. Here’s how CNN has run afoul of similar criticisms[.]”
Regarding “demonstrably false” stories, Goldenberg cited only two: a story CNN later retracted and that “CNN perpetuated the false “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown.” For “conspiracy theoires,” Goldenberg cited idle speculation in the immediate aftermath of big stories as facts were coming in. Regarding “personal smears,” Goldenberg cited Reza Aslan’s “profane insult against President Trump” — even though that was made on Aslan’s personal Twitter account and not anywhere on CNN.
Goldenberg will never admit it — and nor will her editors, given that they were the same ones who let Tom Blumer’s links to white nationalist websites stand without challenge on the NewsBusters website — but these incidents are a fraction of what CNN does, whereas they are pretty much the entirety of Infowars’ offerings. There’s a huge difference what Goldenberg claims are CNN’s offenses and Infowars’ Alex Jones claiming that, for instance, the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.
But that’s not the end of the story. The MRC’s activism division, MRC Action, has decided to make this a cause celebre by taking Goldenberg’s already ridiculous analogy and ramping it up to ludicrous levels. A July 14 email to readers states (overheated bolding in original):
CNN must not have anything better to do. It’s trying to censor InfoWars.
In a recent article, CNN senior media editor Oliver Darcy revealed how he pushed Facebook to censor InfoWars, a controversial site which Darcy accused of spreading conspiracy theories and smearing news subjects. However, as NewsBusters points out, these are sins of which CNN itself is plenty guilty.
This news is outrageous — not simply because of CNN’s hypocrisy but also their pompous assertion that they have the right to suppress free speech just because they don’t agree with it. Their belief that the liberal media should be able to control what information and what opinions that public are allowed to receive. It is the height of leftist elitist arrogance.
Love them or hate them, in this situation, InfoWars could be any media outlet in America. The press has the right to speak freely in this country but CNN seems to only care about this little fact when it is in line with their agenda. They are testing how far they can go in suppressing outlets that they don’t like. Their next target could be any one of us. Anyone who doesn’t tow the liberal line.
We can’t let them get away with this.
Contact CNN this weekend and tell them what you think. Tell them that they do not get to decide what speech is acceptable in America.
The MRC doesn’t bother to tell its reader that Infowars is not “any media outlet in America” — it’s a nasty purveyor of false and conspiratorial information and it should not be treated the same as CNN or any other media outlet, even the MRC’s own highly biased “news” division CNSNews.com.
That the MRC thinks CNN is no different than Infowars shows how much it has given up on “media research” and cares only about being a pro-Trump, anti-media attack dog.