CNN gave a casual defense of weaponized government agencies after they mangled a story Monday on a new House Judiciary report that contained damning allegations about the FBI.
A new report accuses the FBI of working with Ukrainian officials to censor American social media accounts that were allegedly spreading Russian disinformation. The report says the FBI sent information received by its Ukrainian counterparts to social media companies without vetting the information themselves first, leading to “authentic accounts of Americans” being taken down.
The report also points out that this cooperation between Ukraine and the FBI took place before Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy purged suspected Russian infiltrators in the Security Service of Ukraine, who could have possibly encouraged the FBI to take down genuine American accounts on behalf of the Kremlin.
CNN was given the report first by Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan despite the outlet’s previous reporting downplaying efforts Jordan has spearheaded to bring weaponized government agencies to heel.
“The report, drafted in tandem with the House subcommittee on the alleged weaponization of the federal government…” CNN wrote, arguing that concerns about how the federal government has targeted parents at school board meetings or anti-abortion activists are actually just some wild allegations.
This report came out after a judge revoked the Biden administration’s censorship privileges, prompting CNN to rush to the defense of the administration’s censorship efforts rather than focusing on the victims of this abuse.
“It’s the latest in a series of Republican efforts to attack the Biden administration’s work with social media platforms, which ramped up over intervention on stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop,” the outlet wrote, downplaying the government’s censorship as nothing more than “work with social media platforms” and Republican efforts to protect first amendment rights as an “attack” on big brother.
But how was Jordan to know CNN would mangle the information in the report?
CNN’s previous coverage downplayed the federal government’s censorship efforts. In a February report on the first hearing from the House Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, CNN simply described the administration’s work to censor social media platforms as “a popular narrative.”
“The GOP-led House committee on the alleged ‘weaponization’ of the federal government kicked off its first public hearing Thursday with a witness list that suggests Republicans on the panel will push a popular narrative among conservatives that has been disputed by federal officials,” the outlet wrote. “They discussed allegations of how the government has been weaponized against Republicans, as well as the general belief among some conservatives that federal officials and mainstream media have been working to silence the right.”
The article went to go on to criticize Republicans Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson for having “previously attacked the Justice Department for how it has handled its investigation into Hunter Biden and its approach to addressing threats against school administrators…Grassley, Johnson and [Tulsi] Gabbard each claimed that the FBI and other facets of the federal government have been colluding with mainstream media about keeping certain facts and stories hidden from the public, while promoting others – and that such alleged coordination has been biased against conservatives.”
Another article included a section entitled “unproven whistleblower allegations” regarding a witness accused by Republicans of having been part of a group of FBI employees “who abused their law enforcement powers to boost Democrats and demonize Republicans.” The network published another piece arguing the committee hearings would allow Republicans and witnesses to “push a partisan, right-wing viewpoint on the alleged weaponization of the federal government.”
These CNN reports came before Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued an injunction ruling the Biden administration and other federal agencies suppressed free speech in an “Orwellian” manner during the pandemic. Doughty ruled members of the Biden administration, including officials with the FBI and Department of Health and Human Services could not communicate with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” The administration later appealed the decision.
Here’s how CNN covered this major news:
“Legal experts say that the order is overly broad and scholars on online misinformation warned that it could have a chilling effect on the government’s efforts to curtail lies about public health emergencies and elections.”
Just in case Jordan’s team wasn’t clear: what was “chilling” to CNN – the outlet they inconceivably trusted with the scoop – was that the government would have their censorship privileges revoked and not the fact that there are first amendment violations on the table.
The article further ran cover for the Biden administration, arguing that they simply were undertaking “efforts to combat online misinformation.”
When the Biden administration appealed the ruling, CNN headlined their piece “Justice Department appeals order blocking Biden officials from communication with social media companies” and waited until the third paragraph to even mention that this ruling pertains to free speech and first amendment violations.