Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Wednesday's New Day show, CNN brought on race-obsessed New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones to react to reports of Republicans pushing to remove controversial books from school libraries in Texas.
Prodded by fill-in host Erica Hill, Hannah-Jones ridiculously complained that the media have not been biased enough against Republicans.
Referring to a pre-recorded piece by CNN reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro, Hill began by fretting that "accurate history" was being targeted by Republicans: "As you look at where we are right now, what do we stand to lose as a country by going down this road of banning books, by ignoring accurate history, and by vilifying people who are simply trying to make reading and history and accuracy available?"
It is ironic that the CNN host would bring up concerns about historical accuracy with Hannah-Jones since her infamous 1619 Project received substantial criticism over its inaccuracy. And, more recently, she was even caught wrongly claiming that Japan had been on the verge of surrendering before the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hannah-Jones repeated some of her assertions from a recent interview with AP as she gave her response, fretting that "we are in very dangerous times." She soon added:
...our democracy is on the brink right now. I don't know that our institutions are going to hold with the assaults that we are seeing on voting rights, on the attempts to ban books, on these memory laws -- which they're calling anti-critical race laws, but they're really anti-history laws. These are all means of stoking division and resentment, and I don't think we quite know where we're going to go at this moment.
As Hill followed up, she asked her liberal guest to critique the journalistic profession coverage of recent political stories: "You also noted in that interview that we need to really ask ourselves as journalists, story teller, narrators, 'Are we ringing the alarm bell in the right way?' So are we?"
In spite of CNN and MSNBC both tilting substantially to the left, and spending their time delivering almost nonstop attacks on conservatives and promotion of liberal causes, Hannah-Jones complained that the media have tried to be too even-handed:
I think that there are certainly political journalists and others who are trying to, but I think there are far too many in our profession who are really normalizing what's happening right now in an attempt to be -- or appear objective. Now, in an attempt to say, "Well, we're going to treat both political parties equally" when we clearly have, in this moment, one political party that is passing anti-democratic policies, that is upholding people with authoritarianism ideas.
We just saw how Kyle Rittenhouse got a standing ovation, and he's a young man who killed two people. So I think that we, as a profession, have to step up. We are the firewall for this democracy, and I do not believe that that firewall is holding right now.
In the setup piece, McMorris-Santoro highlighted liberal teachers in Texas who were defending the inclusion of books on questionable topics popular with the left -- some of which have been the subject of concern by conservatives for decades. Selections included the pro-abortion Cider House Rules and the anti-Christian The Handmaid's Tale.
This self-unaware example of left-wing journalism was sponsored in part by Lincoln. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN's New Day
December 22, 2021
7:47 a.m. Eastern
ERICA HILL: As you look at where we are right now, what do we stand to lose as a country by going down this road of banning books, by ignoring accurate history, and by vilifying people who are simply trying to make reading and history and accuracy available?
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: Thank you so much for having me on. That was a deeply disturbing piece and very important. I'm grateful that you all ran it because we are in very dangerous times. When you have librarians -- librarians are one of our greatest public goods. These are spaces, you know, I wouldn't be where I am today without my public library, which allowed me as a child to go in and read about all of these different people and all these different places, and gain a different understanding of the world and my place in it.
And to think that that is now a dangerous profession, it really is demonstrative of the warning that I and others are trying to call out right now, which is our democracy is on the brink right now. I don't know that our institutions are going to hold with the assaults that we are seeing on voting rights, on the attempts to ban books, on these memory laws -- which they're calling anti-critical race laws, but they're really anti-history laws. These are all means of stoking division and resentment, and I don't think we quite know where we're going to go at this moment.
HILL: And, sadly, they seem to be working in certain communities, right, as we're seeing it. You also noted in that interview that we need to really ask ourselves as journalists, story teller, narrators, "Are we ringing the alarm bell in the right way?" So are we?
HANNAH-JONES: I think that there are certainly political journalists and others who are trying to, but I think there are far too many in our profession who are really normalizing what's happening right now in an attempt to be -- or appear objective. Now, in an attempt to say, "Well, we're going to treat both political parties equally when we clearly have, in this moment, one political party that is passing anti-democratic policies, that is upholding people with authoritarianism ideas.
We just saw how Kyle Rittenhouse got a standing ovation, and he's a young man who killed two people. So I think that we, as a profession, have to step up. We are the firewall for this democracy, and I do not believe that that firewall is holding right now.
. Craig Millward
