Still The Most Busted Name In Fake News
CNN Tries To Smear New Media—And Fails
When CNN dedicates five prime-time minutes to mocking new media, that’s not reporting—that’s gatekeeping.
Donnie shows his disdain for new media when he asks White House Correspondent and co-host of Bannon’s War Room, if she’s a real journalist.
Donnie O’ Sullivan: Do you consider yourself a journalist?
Natalie Winters: Yes.
Donnie O’ Sullivan: Tell me...
Natalie Winters: Seems like you took a little pause to process that.
Exactly what did he think she was going to say? Was he expecting her to say “no, we’re just playing around, we’re not really serious”?
Given the inanities we have seen from “real journalists”, like Josh Boak of the Associated Press asking Karoline Leavitt if she’s ever paid a tariff, what does Donnie consider to be “real journalism”?
Donnie’s segment is worth a bit of deconstruction, as it showcases the subtle and not-so-subtle techniques corporate media uses to delegitimize those who do not follow corporate media’s sanctioned narratives.
Dripping With Condescension
From start to finish, Donie O’Sullivan’s piece drips with condescension. You can watch it for yourself (the piece is only five minutes long).
The full transcript is attached here as well (auto-generated courtesy of Substack).
Donnie does not waste any time before conveying his disdain, referring to his interview subjects as “so-called new media” almost immediately:
These are White House correspondents like you've never seen before. They're part of the Trump administration's push to bring so-called new media into the White House.
That Cara Castronuavo is a correspondent with Mike Lindell’s outlet Lindell TV was a source of particular derision:
Karoline Leavitt: We have an individual in our new media seat today. Cara Castranuova is White House correspondent for Lindell TV.
Mike Lindell: Go to mypillow.com.
Donnie O’ Sullivan: Yes, that Lindell.
Outlets such as War Room and Lindell TV are not traditional corporate media mainstays. However, CNN does not have a monopoly on the term “journalist”, nor are there licenses and credentials that only corporate media can dispense that people may call themselves journalists.
People who report the news are journalists by definition. No one gets to decide who is and is not a journalist—not Donnie O’ Sullivan, not CNN, not anyone.
Natalie Winters is a journalist. Cara Castronuova is a journalist. Brian Glenn is a journalist (Brian Glenn’s resume includes two decades in corporate media).
For that matter, I am a journalist—I am what would technically be known as a “data journalist”.
I will put the quality of my work here on All Facts Matter against anything put out by corporate media. I stand by the accuracy of my research and the quality of my sources. Unlike CNN, I have never had to retract a story because I made a pig’s breakfast of the facts.
Am I a journalist? Yes. I am also part of the “so-called new media”—and, yes, the reader should infer more than a little bias on my part in favor of my fellow new media journalists.
The New Media Journalists Are Honest
What Donnie O’ Sullivan dare not admit is that the new media journalists he so cavalierly dismisses display one quality he does not: honesty.
Brian Glenn, Chief White House Correspondent for Real America’s Voice, does not even pretend to conceal that he is “pro-Trump”.
I mean, there's no doubt about it. I'm pro-Trump. The questions I ask, in my opinion, are going to help highlight the good things that he's doing for America.
Natalie Winters, who shocked Donnie by telling him that, yes, she is a real journalist, was equally blunt:
We're all biased, right? We just wear our bias, which I think is a pejorative term to begin with, on our sleeves.
These admissions about bias are important, because time and again Donnie wanted to know if the new media journalists would rise above their biases and hold President Trump accountable.
Donnie O’ Sullivan: If Trump messes up, will you guys call it out?
Natalie Winters: Yeah, and we have. I think time and time again, particularly on the vertical and issue of immigration, we are not for stapling green cards to diplomas.
Of course, neither CNN nor any other corporate media outlet (save for Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy), was particularly known for calling out President Biden, nor calling out the White House in general even when reports finally began surfacing detailing the many questions Democrats had long been asking privately about Biden’s advancing dementia. That lack of journalistic curiosity was especially galling to Peter Doocy:
We have another story that’s near and dear to my heart. It has to do with the White House press briefing room. Yesterday there were zero questions about this huge Wall Street Journal story that cites 50 people familiar with, apparently, the biggest cover-up in Washington since Watergate. The story, it was 18 pages long when I printed it, but the gist is that there were staff, unelected White House staff, who knew during the last campaign and transition that President Biden might be diminished, and they actively worked to hide that information from the American public. And we don’t know what it necessarily means for his decision making, but this is a huge story, and somehow there was no curiosity and our colleague, Jacqui Heinrich, was in the room. She was not called on. I have a source familiar that this was on her list.
CNN never held Joe Biden accountable, yet Donnie O’ Sullivan is worried about new media correspondents holding Donald Trump accountable?
Irony abounds at CNN. Honest and integrity plainly do not.
CNN Thinks There Can Be Only One Perspective
Equally apparent from Donnie’s framing is the belief at CNN that theirs is the only perspective. Donnie gave that away with his panning of how Natalie Winters covered the White House announcement of the “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Donnie O’ Sullivan: We met the new media correspondence on the day Trump announced tariffs that could upend the world economic order. As other news outlets reported on the tanking stock market, on Bannon TV, they celebrated.
Natalie Winters: This is the first day where a sitting president put America's working class first. And it's a glorious day to be standing here at the White House and to be able to say that and bring that to you.
To Donnie and the “journalists” at CNN, turmoil on Wall Street is an apocalyptic event, and President Trump’s tariffs are sure to bring economic ruin. One generally does not use phrases like “upend the world economic order” unless one views that to be a bad thing.
Bear in mind that the history of tariffs and their impact on the US economy is far more complex and nuanced than Donnie’s casual hyperbole suggests, and no one truly knows how the Liberation Day tariffs will play out on the global stage.
Even Wall Street does not fully believe the tariffs will trigger an economic apocalypse.
Given where Steve Bannon and Natalie Winters stand, politically, is it really so remarkable that they view the Liberation Day tariffs as an example of President Trump “putting America First”?
That Natalie Winters did take an optimistic tone regarding the tariffs would not even be noteworthy were it not both that CNN presumes theirs is the only valid perspective and that CNN is shocked anyone would dare broadcast a perspective other than theirs.
CNN Can Tolerate No “Cheerleading” For President Trump
For Donnie O’ Sullivan, being a Trump supporter makes one’s journalistic integrity immediately suspect.
Donnie O’ Sullivan: But while not all new media here are MAGA media, a lot of them are more cheerleading President Trump than challenging him.
You are a Trump fan, right?
Cara Castronuova: Yes, I'm definitely a supporter of President Trump.
Donnie forgets that corporate media could be quite shameless in its lionizing of Joe Biden, such as when columnist and Morning Joe regular Mike Barnacle went over the top in praising Joe Biden’s political acumen:
Right now, he is carrying two twin towers of tyranny. One in Donald Trump here domestically, the other Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, who is perhaps the biggest obstacle to a two-state solution that exists today. So the president has that on his plate. He’s got a meeting tomorrow with President Xi [Jinping], Premier Xi in San Francisco. He’s got that on his plate. But he has every hour of every day something that comes across his desk. None of us can comprehend the weight of the presidency every hour of every day. And as he would tell you if you were here today, it’s amazing how every country in the world looks to the United States for help, for solutions, for just almost anything you can think of every single day. You read every newspaper in the country, read every newspaper in the country about President Biden, Within the first two paragraphs, they’ll point out he’s in his eighties. No kidding. He knows how old he is. You couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. Someone 45 years of age couldn’t do what he does every day. But he does it.
Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough also fêted Biden on that same show:
I understand people don’t want to tell the truth on other news channels because it may hurt their ratings if they actually tell the truth about President Biden there. I’m just telling you on foreign policy, talk to the foreign leaders. They will tell you Biden understands in many cases what’s going on in their region better than they understand.
Donnie looks down on journalists who praise Donald Trump, while remaining silent about journalists who praised Joe Biden.
Nor should we overlook the media gaslighting that occurred regarding former Vice-President Kamala Harris track record, particularly over her tenure as “border czar” for the (Biden-)Harris Administration.
To cover for her shortfalls, the news media is now desperately seeking to rewrite history.
One glaring example is from Axios. In 2021, the outlet reported that “Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis.” Another story used the phrase “border czar.”
Fast-forward to this week, and Axios is acting shocked that anyone would refer to Harris in this way, claiming that she was given only a “slice” of the crisis to combat. To make matters worse, Axios added an editor’s note to the recent article, stating: “This article has been updated and clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that incorrectly labeled Harris a ‘border czar’ in 2021.’ ”
CNN’s correspondents were not among those who called out either Kamala Harris’ or the media’s hypocrisy in this media-wide effort to erase her abysmal performance regarding the US southern border.
I take pride that All Facts Matter was among those who called out the hypocrisy.
Corporate media wants you to forget what corporate media told you back in 2021: that President Joe Biden effectively made Vice President Kamala Harris one of his border czars in every way that mattered.
Donnie wants journalists calling Donald Trump out on his mistakes, while remaining silent about journalists who tried to erase Joe Biden’s mistakes.
Undermining Reputations Cut By Cut
On their own, each of these slights against new media correspondents is fairly small, and even minor. With the exception of Donnie’s question to Natalie Winters about actually being a journalist, very little of the segment is a direct insult to new media or an attack on new media.
Yet these slights do not exist on their own. They exist in a segment where this slights were intentionally woven together. This wasn’t accidental—there was malice, and there was forethought.
This piece is a deliberate effort to diminish “new media journalists” by implication. This piece intentionally seeks to undermine the reputations of Natalie Winters, Brian Glenn, and Cara Castronuova through a sequence of cutting remarks and framings that are rich in hostile subtexts and nuances suggesting lack of credibility.
This is the art of the propagandist. By avoiding direct confrontational language, and by sidestepping direct criticism of the subjects, Donnie O’ Sullivan attempts to subtly suggest to the viewer a bevy of reasons to distrust not just Natalie Winters, but all new media.
By sowing distrust in new media journalism, Donnie is seeking to build trust in corporate media journalism. That is evident by his reading of a quote by the head of the White House Correspondents Association at the very end of the segment.
Yet the reality of all media, new and old, alternative and corporate, is that none of it should be trusted implicitly. Natalie Winters should not be trusted. Donnie O’ Sullivan clearly should not be trusted. Cara Castronuova should not be trusted. Brian Glenn should not be trusted.
I should not be trusted.
No media source has a lock on truth, and no journalist will ever be perfect when it comes to getting the facts of any story. I take pride in my work as a data journalist, but I understand quite well that I am not a perfect data journalist. I can, I have, and I will make mistakes.
Similarly, Natalie Winters can, has, and will make mistakes. Cara Castranuova can, has, and will make mistakes. Brian Glenn can, has, and will make mistakes. Donnie O’ Sullivan can, has, and will make mistakes.
By being honest about their personal biases, Natalie Winters and the new media journalists invite their audiences to challenge their reporting, and to question it. Donnie O’ Sullivan’s hit piece is rife with the implication that corporate media should not be challenged.
Donnie does not want you questioning him. All three of his interview subjects showed no discomfort at being questioned.
All journalism should be questioned. All journalists should be questioned. The journalist who should be questioned most intently is the one who shows that he does not want to be questioned.
I’ll leave it to the readers to decide which journalist that is.
I think that this backfired for CNN -- because what it did -- was make the "alternative news" reporters (they're obviously trying to discredit) -- look more relatable.
This is always the problem for the left. They go into a situation with the idea that most people think like they do -- but they don't. And so, they try to humiliate people, and instead they prop them up -- because when people see them -- they see normal people!
Everything with the left is nudging, not logic, but nudging and manipulation. Trying to convince, or guilt, people into an alternate reality.
Credentialism, as displayed at the end of the video -- is also dying.
Professionals are not "professional" -- when they lie constantly. Sorry, we're done with "professionals" and "experts." Harvard had a completely illegitimate president -- that plagiarized, this is documented.
I'm sick of it, and slowly but surely everyone else is becoming sick of it.
“By sowing distrust in new media journalism, Donnie is seeking to build trust in corporate media journalism.” What a fool - does he think people can’t see through obvious weasel moves?
I haven’t seen a CNN broadcast in at least twenty-five years. Even before corporate media became obviously biased in favor of the Left, they became pointless as their newscasts became fluffier. Watching the “News” became a waste of time.
When I was a kid, everybody sat down to seriously pay attention to the nightly newscasts. If you let your attention stray, you’d miss important bits of information. Then, gradually, the News became fluffier “infotainment”, to the point that there was maybe seven minutes of worthwhile information in a half-hour broadcast. Consequently, they lost the viewers. People can get information more efficiently today in dozens of ways, and, with new media, in many better ways.
Peter, you have consistently earned your readers’ attention and respect by adhering to the facts, evidence, and data. I adore you for it. You work long hours to bring us factual, reliable, and level-headed information and analysis. Your analysis is truly top-notch, by a large number of criteria - better than anyone else I read. I have encouraged you to apply your talents in ways that would bring you more money - say, as a data analyst on Wall Street - but I get it, you want to be your own man, accountable only to the Truth. Of course, this makes me admire you even more. You are a priceless gem of a man, Peter! I hope can persevere in being You.