We’ve already noted how the Media Research Center is running to the defense of conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and his Infowars operation, ludicrously insisting that it’s no different than CNN while hiding details about the extreme, offensive content Infowars traffics in. The news that several social media networks have removed Infowars content has sent the MRC into defense mode for Jones once again.
MRC chief Brent Bozell issued a statement that claims in part: “I don’t support Alex Jones and what InfoWars produces. He’s not a conservative. However, banning him and his outlet is wrong. It’s not just a slippery slope, it’s a dangerous cliff that these social media companies are jumping off to satisfy CNN and other liberal outlets.” Bozell doesn’t mention the kind of content that got Infowars kicked off those social networks, like insisting that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.
The item containing Bozell’s statement tries to link the removal of Infowars content to the MRC’s longstanding assertions that social networks are conducting “censorship” of conservative content — claims that are dubious at best. But if Jones is not a “conservative,” as Bozell claims, why is it so worried about his content being removed?
Bozell went on to complain: “Conservatives are increasingly concerned that InfoWars is not the end point for those who want to ban speech. It’s just the beginning. We are rapidly approaching a point where censorship of opposing voices is the norm. That’s dangerous.” But the MRC’s own “news” division, CNSNews.com, censors content all the time — it has no liberal columnists, and it refuses to tell its readers when President Trump and his White House officials are making false or misleading statements.
An Aug. 7 MRC post by Corinne Weaver was slightly more honest than her boss about the content that got Infowars removed from those social media sites — she admits that “Jones has said many offensive and bizarre things not in keeping with conservative beliefs” and admitted that Jones was “claiming that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax.” But she started her post by claiming that removing “extremist content” was part of a “war against freedom of speech.”
Interestingly, none of these MRC writers who have come to Infowars’ defense mentioned the fact that YouTube, Spotify, Facebook and other social networks are private businesses that have policies governing the use of their websites and that they are perfectly within their rights to remove whatever content they deem as a violation of those policies. You’d think that, as pro-business conservatives, the MRC would defend the social networks’ right to run their businesses as they see fit.