When CNN host Christiane Amanpour commented on her PBS interview show that President Trump’s “assault” on American values by petulantly refusing to admit he lost re-election and dragging the country through baseless and fruitless legal assaults on the election results to Kristallnacht, the Media Research Center saw an attempt to manufacture outrage and try to engage in some cancel culture. Tim Graham cranked up the outrage machine in a Nov. 13 post:
It’s bad enough that CNN International anchor Christiane Amanpour viciously tried on Thursday night to compare President Trump not conceding the election to Kristallnacht and the eventual Nazi genocide of the Jews. It’s worse that this mudslinging was replayed on taxpayer-funded PBS, where “viewers like us” — and some super-wealthy Jewish donors, including Bernard Schwartz, who was a massive Democrat donor in the 1990s — were announced as her sponsors.
[…]Now let’s poll the American people and ask them how many of them believe that asking for a recount and the Holocaust and comparable historical events.
Displaying his cancel-culture intent, Graham added a link to the PBS ombudsman and added, “PS: Mark Levin tweeted that Amanpour should be fired.”
It goes without saying that no apology Amanpour might offer would ever be enough for Graham and the MRC. Amanpour did offer an apology a few days later, and predictably, the MRC deemed it insufficient. Under a “DEFUND PBS” headline — one of the MRC’s other manufactured-outrage obsessions — Curtis Houck raged:
Four days after comparing President Trump refusing to concede the election to Hitler and the Holocaust, CNN International and PBS host Christiane Amanpour offered a mealy-mouthed non-apology on Monday’s show, telling viewers that she “shouldn’t have juxtaposed the two thoughts” and that she “regret[s] any pain that my statement may have caused.”
And that, dear American readers, is what your tax dollars are going to support. Talk about a lack of a return on investment.
[…]So much for decency, norms, and yes, #FactsFirst. Let this be a lesson to CNN staff that, no matter how vicious the rhetoric, you shouldn’t have to worry about facing punishment.
Houck further ranted that Amanpour’s show was a “liberal snoozefest” and that she offered a “faux mea culpa.” And as for not facing punishment for offenses, Houck needs to only look in the MRC headquarters at fellow researcher Nicholas Fondacaro, who we’ve caught spreading numerous lies yet still remains employed there. Try walking that talk once in a while, Curt (and Tim).