“If you want to find out who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticise” – Voltaire
The media narrative about the 45th President has been rife with deliberate misinformation. Russian conspiracies aside, the most implausible one is the myth that the man somehow enjoys a dictatorial privilege that places him above critique and ridicule. It’s a silly false equivalency that suggests that because he justifiably defends himself when the media attack his family, or when entertainers gleefully assassinate him in a play or decapitate him in a photo shoot, that he’s throwing reporters and entertainers in gulags.
A tweet in anger against people who ordinarily do enjoy an oppressive position of power over politicians who are expected to just take everything on the chin in the interest of appearing Presidential, yet neutered, is somehow deemed equivalent to a dictator in a third world s**thole disposing of critics with the spectacular overkill of a howitzer.
The comparison doesn’t wash in any way, shape, or form. Even Trump’s ‘bullying’ has only been directed at politicians, and media professionals who, as we just unpacked, enjoy an enviable oppressive advantage over any elected official. A reporter can delve into Sarah Hyphen Young’s dodgy workplace expenses. Sarah Hyphen Young doesn’t have the platform, or the free pass to investigate whether a few boozy nights on a trip to cover the U.S. Open claimed as expenses were kosher.
Politicians in Western Civilisation don’t control or suppress the media, regardless of how they try to spin a President favouring one media organisation over another like Trump has with CNN activists, and like Obama did with the Murdoch press. The media have carte Blanche when it comes to personal attacks, spreading disinformation, and hampering or protecting sitting Presidents.
They’ll never admit it, except to hidden Project Veritas cameras, but CNN and other outlets are the real untouchable powerbrokers in Washington. So no, despite his loose cannon nature, 45 isn’t the one we need to worry about when it comes to targeting and destroying ordinary individuals who satirise or criticise them. CNN is.
CNN just tracked down the anonymous prankster who made the ‘CNN Smackdown’ video.
This isn’t a journalist satirising from a position of oppressive power, or even a public figure. This is a powerless ordinary citizen. A s**tposter who may well be 16 and living in his Mother’s basement.
Note that CNN has elicited a long winded apology, and intriguingly an assurance that he won’t do it again lest they destroy him. Even though the destruction will be in the form of a Justine Sacco style public shaming, the implication is clear, and the MO is much the same as suppressing satire under threat of being thrown in a Gulag or being summarily executed. It can even be argued that in the scheme of things, a year of hard labour would be less damaging than merciless and deliberate public shaming by a media outlet over a 24 hour news cycle.
Also note that the video isn’t necessarily even a slight on CNN. It’s in the eye of the beholder. If they weren’t so thin-skinned, so arrogant, they could have easily and effectively spun it as an indightment against Trump’s attitude to the media. It would have actually undone much of the damage caused by recent scandals, hitting a reset button of sorts. It was the sort of weaponised satire that any intelligent outlet under siege would have turned around to great effect.
I actually groaned when I saw the Trump tweet, assuming that even the dumbest CNN intern would realise this. Unbelievably they didn’t. They were handed the ball, and could have made their adversary appear foolish by being self-deprecating. Instead they kicked an own goal by playing the victim and threatening to dox some cheeky kid on Reddit. Are you serious CNN? Really?
These people are tyrants, but they are clueless tyrants. In a response to Project Veritas footage in which he is heard describing Russian Conspiracies as a ‘Nothing Burger’, Van Jones tried to weasel out by explaining that he meant that he was lamenting the fact that average Americans are more worried about making ends meet than Russian spies. You heard that right. The CNN personality with a net worth of over a million dollars was frustrated that CNN viewers are more obsessed with how they’re going to keep a roof over their head than the talking points of the progressive elite. He doesn’t frame it as CNN being out of touch, or show interest in changing their priorities when it comes to reporting, but that these stupid viewers aren’t down with the big issues. The brass on the guy.
In a sense, this story published by CNN of all people (their brazen lack of self awareness is staggering) is even more of a revelation than Project Veritas’ American Pravda expose. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this organisation is not a noble investigative outlet, but an influential dictatorial entity in its own right. With this threat to an ordinary Reddit user, it appears that CNN isn’t just American Pravda. It’s an American Stasi as well.
It’s your XYZ.