Eric Boehlert: CNN's valentine to a Trump insurrectionist

[babylonsister]

CNN’s valentine to a Trump insurrectionist
January 6 whitewash
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


Five months after they smashed windows, hung nooses, brawled with cops, and desecrated the U.S. Capitol, CNN decided to portray a killed Trump insurrectionist from January 6 in a positive light. Leaning into interviews with the family of Ashli Babbitt, CNN did its best to present a pleasing picture of the mob member who was shot and killed by U.S. Capitol police as she and a lawbreaking Trump gang tried to force themselves into the Speaker’s Lobby as all hell broke loose that dreadful day.

It was a bewildering and misguided profile that whitewashed a deadly serious topic —radicals who wanted to invalidate an American election and use overwhelming physical force to make it happen. The lawless, violent mob rampaged inside the Capitol for hours, knocking officers unconscious and destroying offices of Democratic members.

CNN framed the report as a Both Sides one: Supporters see Babbitt as a patriot, while liberals see her as a terrorist. CNN then proceeded to completely ignore the liberal perspective for the entire Babbitt report. Readers were repeatedly told what a kind and conscientious person she was. But they were never given the other side of that Both Sides equation.

The CNN misfire was a classic example of what happens when journalists land sought-after interviews, in this case with members of Babbitt’s family, and then spin the story in their favor. They tell the tale just as the interview subjects would want it to be told.

snip//

In terms of CNN’s Babbitt profile, there’s nothing wrong with providing context and detail about her life, particularly since she seems to be a textbook example of someone whose life, even before January 6, was swallowed whole by the cultist, far-right movement to worship Trump like an idol. Since her death, friends have expressed shock at the fanatical and anger-filled turn her politics took, as well as the rabid and often incoherent screeds she began posting online. (“They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours.”) If Babbitt wasn’t a full-on QAnon devotee at the time of her death, she was awfully close.

But that’s not the type of context CNN provided. Instead, the network worked overtime to play down Babbitt’s actions on January 6, as well as the actions of thousands of insurrectionists who did their best to overthrow democracy by pummeling police officers for hours on end. Not once in the 2,000-word piece did CNN mention the raging violence that Trump’s mob unleashed, as members of the Capitol police force battled in hand-to-hand combat with the remorseless, bloodthirsty gang.

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/cnns-valentine-to-a-trump-insurrectionist

[niyad]

1. That is one example of why I rarely watch cnn.

[PatSeg]

5. I don't watch CNN

They try too hard to compete with Fox News on one hand and MSNBC on the other. This story is an example of their lack of journalistic integrity.

[LenaBaby61]

6. "I don't watch CNN."

I haven't watched it since the days of the Late Bobbie Batista and Bernard Shaw, which was roughly around 2000.

[PatSeg]

19. After 9/11

I switched between the different cable news channels, as there was so much going on so quickly. For awhile, it was primarily CNN, but they started to get rid of their legitimate anchors and some of their programs began to look like the flashy set of a game show. Instead of legitimate news and commentary, they were offering holograms and big snazzy, high-tech boards that often didn't work. I guess with people like John King and Wolf Blitzer, you need to jazz things up to keep viewers from falling asleep.

When they got rid of Judy Woodruff and Aaron Brown, while airing shows with people like Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace, you could see the direction they were going. It was easy to settle into MSNBC. Though far from perfect, at least I could get some real news and less glitz and theatrical banners.

[bottomofthehill]

2. Agreed, she was coming to DC for the Storm

The execution of Democratic Members of government based on a crackpot theory of Q.

She came with the intent to harm. Is it tragic she was killed, yes, but she was not an bystander in this, she was leading people who intended to do harm, real harm.

[mopinko]

4. it wasnt an accident she was the first one through the window.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Nor was it an accident that she was the only through and only part way at that.

Not an accident that no rampaging mob got through into that section of the building.

Not an accident that the mob got blocked there.

[LenaBaby61]

10. "It wasn't an accident she was the first one through the window."

No it wasn't. She wanted to be there to raise hell, attack the US Capitol and overturn the 2020 General election results where NOW President Joe Biden beat her messiah tRump like a drum.


She was a terrorist, just like all of the other home-grown terrorists/secessionists there that day who attacked our Capitol. They were told to do it by their racist, election-stealing, putin-loving, US hating, grifting, mob boss & cult-leader Donald J. tRump told them to. It was her own fault that she was shot in the neck and died from her wounds, because she was breaching the US Capitol and told to stop.

She is NO martyr. She was a terrorist who attacked the US Capitol, and paid with her life for doing that.

End of story.

[bottomofthehill]

20. It was not an accident

There were a couple of cowards who boosted her through the window. They should be charged in her death.

[spanone]

3. K&R

[jaxexpat]

7. It's more probable to me that CNN had a more proletarian motive for their slant.

It seems to me they wanted to convey how a person such as she could be someone of our acquaintance. That the radical and violently stupid "conservative" movement is made up of people who look just like those you'd see at the grocers or your insurance agent.

And, should that be the case, its a message worth considering. It's possible that if enough citizens become aware of and alarmed by the polarity in our nation there may emerge a sense of urgency to defuse the situation.

One can hope that, right?

I believe that the vast majority of Americans do not hold strongly felt political beliefs. There's an untapped well of sanity out there even if it is a bit intellectually lazy.

[Maru Kitteh]

15. You are correct. There's often way too much reflexive, knee-jerk reaction

whenever such an emotional topic is involved. Thanks for posting your thoughtful insight. I believe the point of that part of the report was indeed to show that many of these people were once functional, seemingly normal-ish persons. Many of us know people who disappeared across that Rubicon, and know that it could happen to almost anyone in our families.

[Old Okie]

8. MSM

We can never forget that MSM is mega-corporation media and is scripted, no matter how much we like some of the talking heads. Even MSNBC has Joe who has started squealing about deficits and high cost of infrastructure bill. CNN insists on both side stuff, dragging out Chris Christie to replace Santorum. I am sure Barr will some day start appearing as another talking head.

[LenaBaby61]

12. THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

I put nothing past any of these so-called networks who cover news.

ALL are in it for ratings gold, a few of them said that while they were not for tRump winning the US Presidency back in 2016, they sure loved the ratings he'd bring them, and that's what most if not ALL of them want: Ratings gold which equals ad dollars which-CA$H for them. Thank goodness that it 'appears' that tRump's no longer the "ratings gold" that he was, and is beginning to be seen more and more as a mentally unstable, putin-loving, extremist/racist, un-American, Covid-19 murdering, grifting con-man that he's always been.

[KS Toronado]

11. I watched the entire 2 hour special and differ with the pressrun article

CNN called it "Assault on Democracy, The Roots of tRump's Insurrection", they didn't call it a typical tourist tour,
CNN hung it around reQublicans & Qrump's neck right in the title..."tRump's Insurrection". More MSM needs to
start calling it tRump's Insurrection. I felt it painted reQublicans in a bad light. Watch it here.......

FYI....it's 1&1/2 hours

[kimbutgar]

14. I saw that documentary also last night and the Jan 6th terrorists were portrayed as terrorists.

I guess the print part of cnn is different than the people who do these detailed documentaries.

[KS Toronado]

16. In case you missed it

Above article was Eric Boehlert's 2 cents on the CNN program.

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. Insurrection or treason may not raise the horrifying images as truly grisly murder.

But it can arguably be the worst crime a person can commit. When that woman became a traitor andor terrorist, THAT was what she was. In those moments, nothing else matters.

[11 Bravo]

17. Fuck her. She bought the ticket and she took the ride.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

18. According to CNN, January 6 was all about patriots vs. liberals, not insurrectionist vs. democracy.

Breaking into the Capitol and injuring and killing Capitol police officers was about freedom of speech, and not overthrowing the results of a fair and legal election. T***** and his minions had nothing to do with inciting her and hundreds of her fellow insurrections to commit a terrorist action -- the first on the Capitol since it was burned to the ground by the British in 1812.

No, the attack was about "getting to the libs," to keep them from stealing the election, as their Leader had told them. Their cause was just, so whatever they did was excusable, even laudable.

Fuck CNN.

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