2017 was a scandal ridden year for much of the mainstream media with "fake news" news stories tanking the stock market, retractions, apologies and deletions, but no network was embroiled in controversy as much as CNN.
From threatening to reveal personal information of a random internet user for creating a meme because they didn't approve of his online "behavior," which resulted in the viral trending hashtag of #CNNBlackmail, leading to the "great meme war of 2017," to multiple completely false articles that had to be retracted, changed, corrected, causing the forced resignation of three high profile employees, 2017 was brutal for CNN.
It looks like 2018 is going to be worse for the network.
So far this year CNN has gone dumpster diving in Russia in a pathetically desperate attempt to justify their obsession with the "Russian collusion" narrative they have spent a year pushing, and despite finding nothing in the literal garbage they were digging through, they actually put the segment on the air as shown in the screen shot above.
CNN was roundly criticized by members of the left and right after ambushing an older female Trump supporter, confronting her on her lawn, revealing her identity, address and phone number, which caused her to be harassed online and off, in order to attack her for daring to share a promotion for a Trump event that supposedly was instigated by Russian trolls. They did this on the same day it was revealed that CNN itself had promoted an anti-Trump event that was also allegedly instigated by Russia trolls.
Then the network traveled to Thailand to interview an alleged prostitute who calls herself a "sex coach," because she claimed she had "evidence" of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, saying in exchange for her story she wanted asylum in the United States.
The level of "journalism" by the CNN, has sunk to the level of the Jerry Springer show and their ratings have tanked because of the last year of scandals, lies, and pushing onto viewers what CNN thinks they should focus on rather than what interests everyday Americans.
Things have gotten so bad for CNN that Chris Cillizza, CNN's editor-at-large was taken to task on March 6, 2018, publicly via Twitter by former CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien, over a piece he wrote and published on CNN titled "Donald Trump is producing the greatest reality show ever," which he promoted on Twitter. O'Brien's response was brutal, stating "This terrible analysis by @CillizzaCNN is in part why people hate the media." (Archive.is link to CNN article here)
Cillizza first thanked her for reading, then she offered some friendly advice saying "You're welcome. You have a big platform, be thoughtful about the stories you tell and how you tell them."
Not able to leave well enough alone, Cillizza then decided to ask her if she bothered to read the piece or was she just going by the headline, she said she read it, then he said he didn't understand her criticism...... then she explained and her explanation was far more brutal than her initial assertion as she told him exactly why the articles was so "terrible."
"It's not accurate. It's not funny. It's not clever. It's not analysis. It's facile. It shows an actual lack of understanding of reality tv (can't believe I'm typing that). It's mediocre. It's a time when viewers need to understand what's going on at the highest levels of govt," she informed him.
Cillizza said, “Genuinely sorry you feel that way. But appreciate your candor.”
Others joined in by telling Cillizza exactly what they thought as well, documented by Twitchy.
CNN GOES ON THE WARPATH
CNN has declared war on Independent News, publicly going after Infowars YouTube advertisers, contacting them and then proudly boasting in an article that after contacting the advertisers, many of them suspended their ads on videos on the Alex Jones Channel which hosts Infowars video segments. CNN states in their article "Many of the brands — including Nike, Moen, Expedia, Acer, ClassPass, Honey, Alibaba and OneFamily — have suspended ads on InfoWars’ channels after being contacted by CNN for comment. The companies, with the exception of Alibaba, which declined to comment, said they had been unaware their ads were running on The Alex Jones Channel."
In the video below, Paul Joseph Watson does an outstanding job highlighting CNN's "conspiracy theories," as they attack others, while detailing how CNN is actively trying to get Independent Media shut down and censored, attempting to act like the biggest bullies on the block. The entire video is a must-see as he hits on the points we have made throughout this article and offers up some other examples.
While CNN's latest attempt to get Infowars shut down and censored is as blatant as it gets, it follows the pattern we have been documenting since President Trump's election when Americans turned to Independent Media to see the news the MSM wouldn't report, and despite 91 percent negative coverage for the GOP nominee by the mainstream media, Donald Trump was elected president.
The mainstream media lost its influence and the attacks began immediately with Washington Post promoting a shadowy group (it later tried to distance itself from) claiming that over 200 Independent Websites were pushing "Russian propaganda," with other MSM sites attempting to conflate Independent sites with outright hoax and satire sites.
Big tech began censoring conservatives, with Twitter shadow-banning and "teaching" their algorithms to flag anyone talking about God, Guns and America First as Russian bots. The latest outright and blatant attempt to censor Independent Media has been the mass YouTube purge, conservative commentators have had their entire channels wiped out, one of which was Mike Adam's Health Ranger Channel. Alext Jones video channel was targeted, receiving strike after strike in an attempt to get his entire channel terminated. Other channels with significant followers were purged, one by one. Those attacks by Google's YouTube are ongoing.
Google, which owns YouTube manipulates their search results to down rank Independent Media in favor of their the MSM and liberal media that conforms to Google's own ideology. The proof of that was detailed using statistical data back in September 2017, in an article titled "Google’s search bias against conservative news sites has been quantified," which provides graphics and details which lead to the conclusion "On average, the conservative domains have almost two times lower PGSTN than the left/liberal ones: conservative 15.5% (standard deviation 5.1%) vs. left/liberal 27.4% (standard deviation 4.9%). Hypothesis of Google Search left/liberal bias is confirmed with a confidence of 95%."
The numbers don't lie and since September when WUWT published the data proving Google's bias, the war against Independent Media has intensified.
BOTTOM LINE
CNN's tanking ratings are the perfect example of why big tech, social media giants and the MSM have openly declared war on Independent Media. They lost control of the narrative during the 2016 presidential election cycle, they could not exert their influence over the masses as Independent Media collectively pushed back, actively forced them to address issues they preferred not to address, and highlighted issues they preferred to downplay.
Look at the owners, founders, and main representatives of each of the areas, media, social media and big tech, and who they were supporting during the 2016 presidential election and you will note in each case, they supported Hillary Clinton for President.
It is not a coincidence that now, each and every one of them are now trying to silence the collective voices of Independent Media.
They were all blindsided in November 2016 by Trump being elected. They believed if they told Americans enough times to vote for Clinton and to not vote for Trump, that they would listen. They were also blindsided at how Independent Media bypassed them, directly reached voters with the news the MSM wouldn't tell them, and now they are desperately trying to wrest back control of the masses by destroying anyone that won't conform to their narrative, their agenda and their ideology.
I don't think they understand.... that ship has already sailed.
Gab has seen a massive increase since the TwitterLockout of conservatives. Facebook traffic and usage is down. Multiple other sites are now providing video platforms, or soon will be, uncensored to protect free speech. Ad services have been created specifically for Independent Media, such as Commodity Ad Network, who not only launched their ad network, but planned phases include a video platform and social media platform, and they have announced they will be creating a search engine "focused on alt-media content."
NOTE TO READERS - If we make it through March when we start seeing the revenue generated by the new ad network, we may just have a chance to turn big techs' bias back against them and come through this stronger, louder and more powerful, together. February 2018 has been the most brutal month yet due to the censorship we have been battling against this past year, so any extra readers may be able to spare for donations is greatly appreciated.
