A few days ago, the Atlantic magazine organized
their 'Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy' conference at
the University of Chicago.
Despite the name, the purpose of the conference was to talk
about countering disinformation and preventing the erosion of democracy.
The speakers and panelists were exclusively
Democrats such as Barack Obama, Amy Klobuchar, and David
Axelrod. The forum also featured Democrat cheerleaders in the media such
as Brian Stelter and Anne Applebaum from the
Atlantic.
It is important to understand that when liberals use words
such as bias, partisanship, disinformation, distortions, and spin they are
exclusively directed at right-leaning media
Prominent members of conservative media such as Sean Hannity
or Tucker Carlson or the late Rush Limbaugh have adjectives such as
'Right Wing' or 'Far-Right' or 'Alt-Right' or 'Putin Apologist' prefixed to
their names. They are even called propagandists. However the likes of Rachel
Maddow and Anderson Cooper are called journalists, no adjectives are
applied.
Fox News will be called a right-wing news network while MSNBC
or CNN are merely called a news outlet.
For anybody who wishes to study liberal echo chambers, the
Disinformation Conference is the ideal forum. There was not even a pretense to
conceal biases. This was a forum of the Democrats, by the Democrats, and
for the Democrats.
The diversity is restricted to skin color, sexual orientation,
nationality, and religion. The most important principle of diversity i.e.
diversity of ideas is not welcomed. The views expressed are not similar but
identical.
Their sanctimoniousness has caused such levels of delusions
that they think of themselves as the sole custodians of facts, truths, and
taste.
Inevitably, a few contrarians manage to infiltrate the echo
chambers and challenge the groupthink.
There were two such instances at the Disinformation
Conference.
The First:
This occurred during the Q&A segment of
a session with Anne Applebaum and David Axelrod.
https://twitter.com/ThinkerChicago/status/1511839490356228098
A student Daniel Schmidt, who is also the editor of
the school’s student newspaper, reminded Applebaum that she dismissed the
scandal related to Hunter Biden’s laptop in her October 2020 piece for
the Atlantic, claiming that “those who live outside the Fox News bubble
and intend to remain there do not, of course, need to learn any of this
stuff,”
Schmidt asked Applebaum if she and the media had erred in
dismissing the scandal as Russian disinformation considering the New York Times
verified its existence. Schmidt also cited a poll that
16% of Biden voters would vote differently had they known of Hunter’s
laptop.
Applebaum was unremorseful and dismissive, claiming that the
story about the laptop containing proof of illegal activities by the
president’s son wasn’t “interesting” to her.
She also rejected the premise that Hunter’s laptop
influenced the outcome of the 2020 election, stating it was “totally
irrelevant”.
This was a shocking admission by Applebaum, merely dismissing
inconvenient facts as irrelevant or claiming to be not interested.
Applebaum should stop calling herself a journalist because a journalist has a function to follow the facts irrespective of biases or interests.
Now for the Second instance of discord.
This occurred during the Q&A
segment of the session where CNN’s Brian Stelter was a panelist.
It was first-year college student Christopher Phillips's
turn to challenge mainstream media bias.
Philips enlisted various instances where CNN carried fake
news, such as the Russia-Collusion hoax, the Jussie Smollett hoax, the
smearing of Nick Sandman as a White Supremacist, the smearing of Justice
Kavanaugh as a rapist, and the dismissal of Hunter's laptop story as Russian
disinformation.
Philips also called out mainstream corporate journalists for
being apologists for the (Biden) regime. He wondered why all errors committed
by CNN only swung in one direction, i.e. benefiting Democrats. He
wondered if this was merely a coincidence or was there something more.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Brian Stelter gets utterly humiliated in a video that will be watched by several times more people than his “show.”<br><br> <a href="https://t.co/WUZi5OzMZE">pic.twitter.com/WUZi5OzMZE</a></p>— Cernovich (@Cernovich) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1512139935448387589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
https://twitter.com/BrentHBaker/status/1512126300403683336
Stelter began his response by rejecting the premise of
the questions:
"There's a clock that says 30 seconds, but I think my
honest answer to you, and I will come over and talk in more detail after this.
I think you describing a different channel than the one that I watch”
Next, he discredited the questioner:
"I understand that that is a popular right-wing narrative
about CNN"
Then he resorted to generalities:
“I think it's important when talking about shared reality and
democracy, all these networks all these news outlets have to defend democracy.
And when they screw up, admit it."
Finally, Stelter pivoted to CNN assisting Fox News in Ukraine
following the deadly attack on the Fox News team last month, to claim that news
outlets "work together".
Stelter went back to fabricating, attempting to suggest that
CNN is an equal opportunity offender
"And with regards to the regime, I think you mean
President Biden? The last time I spoke with a Biden aide, we yelled at each
other. So that's the reality of the news business, that people don't see, that
people don't hear,"
Stelter did accept some blame, not for his lies, smears, and
propaganda but for not adequately being able to show their war and educate the
people about their profession. The blame implicitly once again was placed on
the audience.
Hence, both Applebaum and Stelter dodged the core of their
respective questions by just dismissing the premise.
Now imagine instead of students who usually aren’t allowed to
cross-question panelists someone such as Bill O’Reilly or Hannity or Tucker
Carlson was asking the questions. They wouldn’t have allowed Applebaum and
Stelter to dodge and fabricate.
But the goal of this forum was never to learn any lessons or
initiate remedial measures. The goal is to merely have their biases confirmed
by attacking or blaming conservatives.
Both student questioners will most probably face backlash for
their remarks. They may be branded as right-wingers (as Stelter did) and white
supremacists.
The organizers will probably apologize to Stelter and
Applebaum in the green room after their respective sessions, promising them to
be more careful while vetting questioners.
The forum and the utterances from Stelter and Applebaum prove
what conservatives have known for a long i.e. the mainstream media is the
propaganda wing within the Democrat party.
There are adept wordsmiths and disinformation strategists
within the Democrat leadership who provides the media with buzzwords and talking
points for the day which they meticulously follow. This explains why they have
identical views and use identical words such as 'insurrection' or 'collusion'
for any given occurrence.
The Disinformation Conference demonstrates that there never
will be any course correction simply because the propagandists do not think
they have erred in any way.
This truly is an erosion of Democracy.
This also appears on American Thinker
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