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Made a Laughing Stock of Your Network? There’s an Award For That
When I first saw the news that CNN won an award for its townhall post-Parkland, I assumed it had to be a joke.
CNN's Parkland Town Hall has been honored with a @CronkiteAward. Congrats to @jaketapper and team who helped "advance the national conversation on gun control and violence." @LearCenter https://t.co/fAnFnJEnnn
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) March 19, 2019
I can’t think of a single moment that so destroyed so many reputations more than that townhall. It wasn’t even activism masked as journalism, it was straight up activism, as evidenced by its name, as Allah Pundit from HotAir pointed out:
The title of this event, by the way, was “Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action.” It wasn’t even prevented as journalism. It was advocacy. https://t.co/Zyu28h3ASu
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) March 19, 2019
Even more evidence of the lack of journalism at the event is the number of lies, which went completely unopposed at the time, by Sheriff Israel about the responsibility his department bears for what happened on that Valentine’s Day. The only person practicing any actual journalism that day wasn’t even a journalist, but the NRA’s Spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who was brought not for a conversation, but instead as a figurative, and almost literal, punching bag. That is the “journalism” that CNN was rewarded for, collecting a mob to yell at a woman who had nothing to do with the shooting while letting a man who actually bore some of the responsibility to skate by completely.
Here is some footage where people were yelling to burn me at CNN’s award-winning townhall where they “advanced the conversation on gun control.” pic.twitter.com/EYWWj8KcxN
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 19, 2019
Despite being verbally and almost physically attacked, Loesch asked some tough questions of Sheriff Israel, and it turned out that she was completely justified in doing so. Townhall evaluated Loesch’s claims that it was Israel and his department, more than any other entity outside the shooter himself, who should be facing a mob in the wake of a report about who knew what about the shooter and when.
Remember this discussion that took place during the CNN Townhall? Loesch reminded Israel that law enforcement officials were called 39 times on Nikolas Cruz. And guess what? Absolutely nothing was done.
“They [Parkland students] were threatened with death. They were threatened that they were going to bleed. They were threatened that they were going to be killed,” Loesch told Israel. “And [Nikolas Cruz] had already taken bullets and knives to school. He’d already assaulted people. He assaulted his parent. His assaulted other students. 39 visits and this was known to the intelligence and law enforcement community. Look, I’m not saying you can be everywhere at once, but this is what I’m talking about. We have to follow up on these red flags. Doesn’t that meet the standard?”
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission dug deeper into what occurred on that tragic February day. And guess what they discovered? That the Broward County Sheriff’s Office failed to protect students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School…and that was a direct result of Sheriff Scott Israel’s leadership.
After CNN was given an award for its coverage, Loesch wrote an eye-opening Twitter thread about just how shameful the spectacle was from her own perspective:
When the producers cued me to walk into the arena it was to the Black Eyed Peas’ song “Let’s Get It Started.” I am completely serious. I was shocked and confused — while I knew I was taking questions, we were only told that day that I would actually be on stage.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 19, 2019
I showed up in good faith for genuine conversation knowing that at best, it would be a tough event. The lengths @CNNPR went to inflame emotions & exploit pain to *put on a show* is inexcusable, shameful, & it’s grotesque they’re celebrating getting an “award” for their conduct.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 19, 2019
The CNN townhall was, as one friend termed it, nothing but a “Grief Porn Thunderdome.” It wasn’t designed to advance a conversation or prevent future tragedies. It exploited the death of children and turned their murders into a bludgeon with which to vilify American gun owners, who number in the tens of millions. It was one of the lowest moments in the network’s history. And it tells you a lot that their fellow journalists thought it was a moment worth awarding, and that the network itself is patting itself on the back for the show.
Published in Journalism
The Cronkite Award?
Yeah. A fitting tribute indeed.
Complete lack of self-awareness, probably from living in a bubble with no ideological diversity.
“Norman Lear Center”
Journalists like to give each other awards. I’m trying to think of a CoC-compliant term for that behavior.
The award was for pushing a left-wing viewpoint. In case anyone didn’t already realize it, that’s what “advance the national conversation” means. I won’t call it a dog-whistle, as only liars use that term.
Another term that’s gained a lot of traction is “gaslighting.” The Media Left know how bad that “town hall” looked, so they celebrate it, to make you look silly, if you objected to it. “Lamp-shading” is another term that might be used.
East Coast Self-Congratulation Society’s Annual Mutual Masturbation Gala?
At least Gov. De Santis has removed Israel. I understand he’s fighting it; good luck with that, Mr. Israel. {sarc off]
That name does severely diminish the credibility of the award. And that the Center gave its award for the CNN show diminishes the credibility of the Center (assuming there’s room for that).
Bunch of shameless partisan hacks who want to take away our God-given right to self-defense. What are “common sense gun laws” meant to do other than disarm the law-abiding??
Who won the Walter Duranty Accuracy award?
What is it about journalists named “Walter?”
I could better understand the award had it been granted to CNN by the Edward Lear Center.
Yeah, par for the course I think. Here’s a list of Peabody Awards to dubious people. The one I remember the most is the 2005 award to Dan Rather after his fraudulent Bush Texas National Air Guard story.
The Walter Cronkite Award should be renamed “The Lying Closet Liberal Award”. This is the one guy who turned the nation against the war in Viet Nam when he lied about the Tet Offensive being a US failure.
If anything, there should be a Walter Duranty Award for the liberal journalist who can’t believe his lying eyes.
And they still haven’t revoked Duranty’s Pulizter . . .
It was a Pulitzer for fiction. They just forgot to mention it.