CNN has jumped on yet another "fake news" bandwagon as they attempt to convince their dwindling audience that Russian bots are behind the new #WalkAway movement, in order to "wound Dems in midterms."
Their hot mess of an article titled "Russian bots are using #WalkAway to try to wound Dems in midterms" (Archive is link here), begins with... what else, Russia, Russia, Russia, lamenting how "Russian officials worked to sabotage Hillary Clinton's campaign," (Yes, they still haven't gotten over losing control of the public and President Trump's election) before diving straight in to the conspiracy theory that the #WalkAway campaign is only popular on social media because Russian bots are pushing it.
There are two main issues I would like to address here.
First: CNN, and all the liberal media's obsession with Russia, has Americans completely tuning out the entire subject.
They scream Russia every single day and Americans are turning the channel because they sound like a broken record at this point. Evidence of this comes from Gallup, which polls on what problems concern Americans the most, and for June 2018, after two years of the liberal media, none more so than CNN, obsessing over everything Russian, so few Americans worried about the "situation with Russia" that it didn't even register one percent. There is simply an asterisk, indicating not enough people listed Russia as a problem to add up to one percent.
The thing is, CNN has been aware of the lack of public interest in Russia since at least January 2018, when CNN reporter Maeve Reston, bluntly stated "Remember, even in 2016 when we went out to these swing states and talked to voters, there was still this fear that things were suddenly going to turn down again. You don't feel that as much anymore. And I'm so interested to see how the Russia investigation affects things, because so far, out in these districts when you talk to people about Russia–and that's all we talk about at CNN basically–they say they don't care."
What this tells us is that the media wants Americans to be interested in Russia, the media has pushed everything from Russian "sex coaches (CNN), to digging through the trash in Russia (Yes, CNN again), in order to force Americans to be as obsessed with Russia as they are, and over the months Americans interest in Russia-related issues has decreased, almost as much as CNN's ratings.
CNN had a horrible week, managing just 669,000 primetime viewers and losing to the following networks: HGTV, USA, Food Network, TLC, Hallmark, and more. MSNBC fared much better in primetime, finishing third behind HGTV with 1.342 million viewers.
HGTV and Nickelodeon — home of Spongebob Squarepants — wiped the floor with CNN and MSNBC in total day viewership.
Second: CNN Fake News about the #WalkAway exodus.
Via CNN:
The most recent example of this strategy is the #WalkAway hashtag, which is presented as a grassroots effort by former Democrats who are critical of the party's alleged intimidation, confrontation and lack of civility and want people to walk away from the party.
Emphasis mine.
Alleged? Did the writer of that piece really say "alleged," when the intimidation, confrontation and lack of civility, has been documented and is indisputable? When a grown man rips a MAGA hat, and some hair, from a teenager trying to eat a meal, that is confrontation. When liberal celebrities like Peter Fonda, threaten President Trump's 11-year old son, that is "lack of civility," not to mention a crime. When Maxine "Mad Max" Waters encourages supporters to gather mobs to accost Trump administration officials, that is intimidation.
There is nothing alleged about any of those examples, or the 500+ documented examples of violence, intimidation and harassment, going back to 2015. The level of disconnect with reality on CNN's part is truly astounding.
Moving along to the actual fake news portion of CNN's piece.
However, #WalkAway has also now been connected to Kremlin-linked Russian bots, and it is now the seventh most popular Russia-influenced hashtag as of this writing, according to the website Hamilton 68, which tracks Russian influence on Twitter as part of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, an initiative of the nonpartisan German Marshall Fund. The purpose of this now-astroturf campaign is to manipulate public opinion by creating the illusion that this is a popular movement. In reality, #WalkAway has become pure propaganda, a psychological operation.
Again, emphasis mine.
First the Hamilton 68 site is not non-partisan and neither is the German Marshall Fund, because when you look at the advisory board they are made up of warmongering, NeverTrumpers that want war with Russia. The Hamilton 68 site claims to be monitoring "Russian linked" social media accounts, but has never revealed what accounts they are monitoring, nor provided any evidence at all that any of the accounts are in any way connected to Russia.
The media attempts to give them legitimacy by citing them as experts, then uses that media-manufactured legitimacy to publish fake news which cites the shadowy Hamilton 68 group. Talk about a circle-jerk!
Mr. Straka has a message for CNN as well regarding their assertion, as he responds to their article on Twitter stating "The Grand Poobah of #FakeNews, @CNN, whose deceit was instrumental in red-pilling me, decides 2break the silence &finally address #WalkAway Campaign. If anyone at CNN would care 2speak 2the campaign’s founder instead of recycling yawn-worthy Russian bot excuses I’m here 4you."
Straka continues shredding CNN by stating "It’s only fitting that @CNN, whose blatantly dishonest and attacking reporting led to the beginning of me being red-pilled, would then use the same dishonest tactics 2attack my efforts to show the world the truth. Thank you, @CNN for showing yourself &helping #WalkAway grow."
The creator of the #WalkAway movement also posted a statement, shown below, where he makes it clear that these liberal media outlets attempting to discredit his hard work on growing the campaign, haven't even bothered to call him for a statement.
At this point it is pretty clear that Straka isn't a Russian bot, and no one, not one media outlet claiming that Russian bots are fueling the movement have provided any type of evidence, other than quoting the shadowy Hamilton 68 website.
Mr. Straka aside, another point CNN fails to cover is the sheer amount of people that have taken to YouTube and other platforms to provide video accounts of why they walked away from the Democratic party. These are people not just heard in audio, but who are showing their faces very visibly, and they are NOT Russian, nor are they bots.
The girl below, ex-drug addict, LGBT activist and far left progressive, is part of the #WalkAway movement, and she isn't a Russian or a bot.
This young gay man, explains how he woke up to the brainwashing of the left, and he is now part of the #WalkAway movement, and again, he is not Russian or a bot.
The young woman below, decided to #WalkAway during the 2016 election cycle and she cites how she noted how "malicious the left was being." She is not a Russian, nor a bot.
The man below was totally against Donald Trump as a candidate until he noted the fake news coverage and lies he was being told, and now, not only is he part of the powerful #WalkAway movement, but he is telling his story wearing a MAGA hat. He is also not a Russian or a bot.
If you go to any of these videos on YouTube, the right hand sidebar, related videos show dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds more that are on the site. Those numbers rise exponentially when you look at those publishing their accounts on Facebook, or on Twitter using other video formats.
The commonality of these powerful and moving messages is how many clearly place much of the blame on the liberal media coverage of Donald Trump, as well as the behavior of today's liberal faction of the Democratic party.
The liberal media is panicking over how large this movement has become, where more and more every day are declaring they are part of the #WalkAway movement, some recounting how they walked away from the Democratic party years ago and why, others have only recently walked away.
CNN's claim that "#WalkAway has become pure propaganda, a psychological operation" is perhaps the biggest Fake News story they have ever told, and after the documented fake news stories over the last two years, that is saying a lot.
Listen to the heartfelt stories above. These people are not Russians or bots, they are Americans that have been "red-pilled," who have woken up, looked around and found that they have been lied to, by the same media that is now lying to them again.
Mr. Straka may have created the movement, starting with his initial six-minute video, but it is the actions of liberals and the lies of the liberal media, that has caused this movement to grow to the point where the media, Democrats and liberals all across the nation are now panicking because "their" base, has decided that no one owns them and they are free to make their own decisions as to who to support.
The media's daily mass hysteria and their obsession with all things Russia, despite knowing that most Americans don't care, has pushed young liberals right out of the Democratic party, and has detroyed their own credibility, as they care nothing for the truth. Their only goal now is to stop the #WalkAway exodus, by any means necessary.
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