Brian Stelter of CNN’s Reliable Sources joined New Day on Monday morning to discuss Breitbart News as part of a panel in which all four guests agreed with each other: Breitbart is baaaaad.
“At its worst,” claimed New Day‘s Alisyn Camerota, “it is fact-challenged.” Co-host Chris Cuomo clucked: “They make up narratives to take people down in the media who are working narratives they don’t like.” Camerota replied: “I don’t mind an enterprising story. I mind when it’s erroneous.”
Breitbart News: “Anti-media.” “Fact-challenged.” And increasingly popular. Here’s our discussion from @CNN‘s @NewDay https://t.co/JjcgOZv76M
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 18, 2016
Her proof: an article from 2014, in which Breitbart News mis-identified Attorney General Loretta Lynch. In the two years since, CNN could not find a better example to prove that Breitbart is “fact-challenged” and “make[s] up narratives.”
But it’s not hard to catch CNN doing just that — within the last 72 hours. On Wednesday, for example, Cuomo said, “Breitbart has writers who call CNN Hitler” — a false charge playing into a left-wing narrative and eagerly echoed by Media Matters hacks.
https://twitter.com/NolteNC/status/765936319499497472
Two days before, CNN was caught cutting out the full quote of Sherelle Smith — the sister of Sylville Smith, the allegedly armed black man shot and killed by Milwaukee police — to make it look as if she were calling for peace and non-violence.
In fact, the full quote (“Take that sh*t to the suburbs! Burn that sh*t down! We need our sh*t!” etc.) revealed that Ms. Smith was calling for more violence — as Black Lives Matter activists have often done since calling for riots in Ferguson, Missouri.
(Update: Not to mention an example from last week, when CNN reported that the Secret Service had spoken with the Trump campaign, fueling a false narrative about a supposed threat to Hillary Clinton — only to see that story refuted hours later.)
There are many similar examples from CNN, such as when it talked over speeches by victims of illegal alien crimes, or falsely accused George Zimmerman of using a racial slur in a 911 call about Trayvon Martin.
Late in the discussion, Cuomo admitted that Breitbart News does come up with “real” stories, like the Anthony Weiner scandal.
But the fact that CNN aired a panel with four people who agree with each other — a recipe for poor ratings — reveals CNN’s fact-challenged, narrative game.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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