Pundits brutally mock CNN for announcing news team 'dedicated to covering misinformation': 'CNN to create a team dedicated to covering CNN'



Pundits brutally mocked CNN over the cable network's announcement that it's creating a news team "dedicated to covering misinformation."

What are the details?

Alex Koppelman, managing editor of CNN Business, tweeted Tuesday that he's "hiring 3 people for a new CNN team dedicated to covering misinformation.”

What do we mean by covering misinformation? Really it's about covering reality: The uses, abuses, and distortions of it, the people twisting it, and the effect that has on all of us. We already do a lot of important work on this; we want to do more.
— Alex Koppelman (@Alex Koppelman) 1642539496

“What do we mean by covering misinformation?” he tweeted next. “Really it’s about covering reality: The uses, abuses, and distortions of it, the people twisting it, and the effect that has on all of us. We already do a lot of important work on this; we want to do more.”

Koppelman also described the ideal reporters for the new team: “Do you feel like you have to jump down every rabbit hole you see? Do you get mad when you see liars taking advantage of people? Do you spend more time on the internet than anyone really should? This might be the job for you!"

How did folks react?

Ever since former President Donald Trump blasted CNN as "fake news" at a press conference just prior to his inauguration, the network in numerous instances has seemed to live up to that dubious billing.

So pundits wasted no time mocking CNN for its intention to create a news team "covering misinformation."

BlazeTV host Steve Deace and podcast host Daniel Horowitz poked some fun at the announcement, with Deace writing, "Wow, impressed that CNN is investing real resources into internal accountability.” Horowitz noted that the network "will need at least one staffer per reporter they have to properly shadow.”

And Candace Owens of the Daily Wire quipped: “CNN to create a team dedicated to covering CNN.”

Other reactions were most definitely in that vein:

  • “Beyond parody." — Buck Sexton
  • “The call is coming from INSIDE the house!” — Monica Crowley
  • "This is like the police investigating themselves, finding themselves innocent, then pinning the charge on someone else." — Libertarian Party of New Hampshire
  • “The propaganda is going into overdrive now. Just when we thought 2022 couldn’t get any worse…” — Adel Meyer, political commentator
  • “Pretty sure the entire network is already devoted to misinformation.” — Sean Davis of the Federalist
  • "May I suggest they begin with the Charlottesville #FinePeopleHoax, a damnable calumny that CNN has propagated for years 5 years now? My repudiation of their role in spreading that myth led, in fact, to my departure from broadcasting for CNN." — Steve Cortes, political commentator
  • "Translation: CNN is looking to hire three people whose job it will be to attack non-liberals who get online traction with truths which contradict/question/embarrass the accepted liberal narrative…" — John Ziegler, Mediate senior columnist
  • “This is rather surprising. You don’t normally hear of left-wing networks hiring staff to call out its fellow anchors, reporters and analysts for spreading nonsense. Kudos to CNN for finally looking in a mirror to call out their misinformation and disingenuous takes.” — Jason Rantz, conservative commentator and radio host

(H/T: The Daily Wire)

Joe Biden invokes 'very fine people' hoax from Charlottesville riots in debate with President Trump



You knew he was going there — and sure enough, he did.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden — with most of mainstream media squarely behind him — during Tuesday's debate with President Donald Trump invoked the tired, long-ago debunked hoax that Trump referred to neo-Nazis and white nationalists at the 2017 riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, as "very fine people."

What was said?

"Close your eyes, remember what those people looked like coming out of the fields, carrying torches, their veins bulging ... just spewing anti-Semitic bile and accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan — a young woman got killed — and they asked the president what he thought, he said there were very fine people on both sides," Biden remarked. "No president has said anything like that."

Trump appeared to urge Biden to "finish the statement, finish the statement" — presumably in reference to his complete remarks to the media when he specifically condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists — but moderator Chris Wallace, who was demonstrably contentious with Trump all night, moved things along and didn't correct Biden.

But we will. Again.

Here's the in-context exchange between Trump and the media after Charlottesville as reported by Politifact (emphasis added):

Trump: "Excuse me, excuse me. They didn't put themselves — and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name."

Reporter: "George Washington and Robert E. Lee are not the same."

Trump: "George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down — excuse me, are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?"

Reporter: "I do love Thomas Jefferson."

Trump: "Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue? So you know what, it's fine. You're changing history. You're changing culture. And you had people — and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally — but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets, and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group."

Here's the clip from the debate and some reactions to it:

Tonight, “Moderator” Chris Wallace allowed Joe Biden to repeat the Charlottesville “Very Fine People” Lie unchallen… https://t.co/FgxToEdvkG
— Benny (@Benny)1601439392.0
An abject lie from Joe Biden, spreading the #FinePeopleHoax.Pres Trump never praised bigots. In fact, he explicit… https://t.co/9Gx1PD5ODz
— Steve Cortes (@Steve Cortes)1601431076.0
Ok, I don’t generally nitpick moderators, but Chris Wallace asking Joe Biden about the “very fine people” thing wit… https://t.co/uDKvHaKFCD
— Jesse Kelly (@Jesse Kelly)1601430941.0