Devastating Video Exposes How CNN Covered FISA Abuse Hearings vs. Impeachment
There’s zero chance, based on the evidence we have at the moment, that Donald J. Trump will be removed from the office of the presidency during his Senate impeachment trial. I’m not even being hyperbolic there. You can literally put on your best Dean Wormer voice and state the Democrats’ chances: “Zero. Point. Zero.”
I know, there’s this belief among liberals that Republicans will have a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” moment and suddenly decide that Donald Trump was some sort of horrible criminal deserving of being kicked out of the White House. I, too, harbor my own “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” fantasy in which Democrats collectively realize a series of show trials that contain nothing more than innuendoes are profoundly harmful to the body politic, but I realize what it is — a fantasy.
Clearly, with the outcome already determined, we could at least focus on something else. I’m not necessarily talking at the exclusion of impeachment talk, mind you, but we could at least cover other goings-on in Washington, such as the hearings on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse uncovered in the recent inspector general’s report.
Instead, when the establishment media covered the IG report, it was presented as if it had done nothing but debunk conservative conspiracy theories — theories that, in some cases, didn’t even really exist. The actual problems uncovered with the FISA warrant that authorized surveillance on Trump campaign staffer Carter Page were mostly ignored, even though there were concurrent hearings on the matter going on in the Senate.
At least most of the cable networks covered Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s opening statement on the matter before the Senate Judiciary Committee. One of them didn’t. Guess which one it was?
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel posted a time lapse of the coverage to her Twitter account just in case you weren’t able to suss out which one it was. She also posted what that network did during the opening statement of the impeachment hearings:
Media bias is not only how something is covered – it’s what they don’t cover.
And this is what bias at @CNN looks like. pic.twitter.com/G85Yefrq6t
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) December 11, 2019
The entirety of Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee was covered, por supuesto. And, at least on Fox News and MSNBC, Graham’s opening statement was covered in its entirety.
CNN, however, skipped the South Carolina Republican’s statement in favor of a lot of impeachment coverage, because in case you hadn’t tuned in for the last few months, you’d be up to speed. Also, Etsy commercials!
According to the Washington Examiner, CNN also gave an update on the grounded Boeing 737 Max airplane, clearly a time-sensitive subject.
When the network did decide to cover Graham’s remarks, how it did that was illuminating. According to Fox News, CNN aired a clip where Graham talked about Russia meddling in American elections.
“Notable comment there, something the president has differed with,” CNN’s Jim Sciutto said.
The rest of the remarks — which weren’t so kind to the other side — went uncovered.
However, the non-coverage ended up getting plenty of coverage on Twitter:
Hey @CNN,
Any reason why you won’t air the hearing on the bombshell IG Report?
Does it not fit your narrative?#FakeNews
— Team Trump (@TeamTrump) December 11, 2019
That’s the official Trump campaign account. Another Trump-linked account noticed the incongruity, as well:
After airing days & days of Democrat impeachment hearings, FAKE NEWS @CNN and @MSNBC are REFUSING to air @LindseyGrahamSC‘s opening statement in the Inspector General’s report hearing.
They are COVERING UP the truth. They are nothing more than propaganda for the Democrats! pic.twitter.com/i7wyLNPVgl
— Trump War Room (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TrumpWarRoom) December 11, 2019
It wasn’t just the RNC or the Trump campaign, either:
CNN, after covering weeks of opening statements by Adam Schiff (D) and Jerry Nadler (D), doesn’t cover the opening statement of Lindsey Graham (R) at the Horowitz hearing. I can’t figure out what the difference is. Unless it has something to do with the item in parentheses.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) December 11, 2019
Fox News is running the IG hearing uninterrupted, MSNBC talked over Lindsey Graham’s opening statement but went quiet as soon as Dianne Feinstein started speaking, and CNN is running commercials after airing impeachment hearings non-stop for two months.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 11, 2019
They are too busy looking for me and my staff in VIENNA… @CNN needs to be reigned in by @ATT … Are there any adults left on the board of @ATT ? #goodnightVienna https://t.co/PXXvV6VEBp
— Devin Nunes (@DevinNunes) December 11, 2019
It’s impossible for CNN to claim they’re *not* a propaganda network after refusing to air the IG report when they aired every second of Nadler, Schiff, and Pelosi pushing for impeachment.
They don’t want their audience to be informed on what’s actually happening.
— Caleb Hull ??? (@CalebJHull) December 11, 2019
I’m not quite sure what message CNN planned to send here. By omitting the opening remarks, it didn’t do anything aside from draw attention to its own programming decisions. Trust me, I know CNN viewers. They weren’t going to be converted by one 45-minute block of testimony from Graham.
Maybe, in some perfect world, CNN partisans would search out Graham’s remarks and then pay closer attention to the full hearing on FISA abuse. Maybe they’d actually see that no, this wasn’t exactly an exoneration of Jim Comey’s FBI.
Or maybe I’ve just watched “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” too many times.
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