The Media Research Center has tried to delegitimize the impeachment hearings by portraying them as boring and poorly rated (as if excitement and good ratings was a measure of justice), so it was inevitable that the MRC’s “news” division, CNSNews.com, would push that same narrative. And that’s exactly what Susan Jones does in a Nov. 19 CNS article:
Four witnesses will testify in the House intelligence committee’s impeachment inquiry today, beginning with Alexander Vindman (member of the National Security Council since 2018) and Jennifer Williams (Vice President Pence’s advisor) at 9 a.m.; and Kurt Volker (special envoy to Ukraine) and Tim Morrison (National Security Council official) at 2:30 p.m.
But who will be watching?
It’s “boring television,” Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham Monday night.
Jones did not allow anyone to rebut Biggs’ claims or to point out the obvious fact that TV ratings are not a measure of justice. Instead she repeats an attack on impeachment inquiry witness Alex Vindman by claiming that his former supervisor at the National Security Council “had raised concerns about Alex’s judgment.” That attack, of course, comes directly from the Trump White House.
But Jones never told her readers that Vindman rebutted this claim by reading from a performance evaluation of him by Hill that called him “a top 1% military officer and the best Army officer I have worked with in my 15 years of government service.” Or that Hill herself later testified that she never had any issues with Vindman’s judgment but, rather, was concerned about how a military man like him would handle the increasingly political direction the Ukraine issue was turning.
Remember: At CNS, reporting the facts doesn’t matter — adhering to the narrative does.