Jonathan Turley: CNN’s Oliver Darcy a ‘Vocal Advocate of Censorship and Speech Controls’

CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy is a “vocal advocate of censorship and speech controls,” according to George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley, who wrote Monday that Darcy’s campaign to urge Twitter to label accounts as “disinformation” is part of a broader threat to free speech.

Turley wrote:

We previously discussed the unrelenting drumbeat of censorship on the Internet from Democratic leaders, including President-elect Joe Biden. Those calls are growing as anti-free speech advocates see an opportunity in the Biden Administration to crackdown [sic] on opposing views. One vocal advocate of censorship and speech controls has been CNN media analyst Oliver Darcy who just ratcheted up his call for de-platforming opposing views. Like many anti-free speech advocates, Darcy simply labels those with opposing views as spreading “disinformation” and demands that they be labeled or barred from social media. In a recent newsletter, Darcy calls for every tweet by Trump to be labeled as disinformation while asking “and why stop there?” Precisely. Once you cross the Rubicon of speech regulation, there is little reason or inclination to stop.  Just look at Europe.

Darcy wrote:

Nearly every tweet from the president at this point is labeled for misinfo. Which had me thinking. Why doesn’t Twitter just take the step of labeling his entire account as a known source of election disinfo? And why stop there? Why not label accounts that repeatedly spread claims the platform has to fact-check?

There was a time from the very touchstone of American journalism was the rejection of such calls for censorship, including at CNN.

Turley added: “What is chilling about Darcy’s writings is that they reflect the view of many now in Congress and in the Democratic Party. Indeed, they reflect many in the Biden campaign.”

Darcy formerly worked for conservative Glenn Beck before joining CNN to cover “the intersection of media, politics, and technology.”

In 2018, Darcy played a central role in the de-platforming of InfoWars and Alex Jones. He has suggested since 2019 that Twitter should do likewise to President Donald Trump.

Earlier this year, Darcy objected to Mollie Hemingway from The Federalist appearing on Fox News to discuss Obamagate — the story that then-President Barack Obama was aware of efforts to target incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and to undermine the transition to Donald Trump’s administration.

How can @BretBaier be hosting a supposed "straight-news" show while allowing @MZHemingway to appear on the program and push this "OBAMAGATE" stuff unchallenged with no opposing point of view?

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 12, 2020

CNN has denied that it attempts to de-platform people, defending its practice of asking social media companies why they have not yet de-platformed controversial figures as a simple journalistic exercise.

Read Turley’s full article here.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.