Topic: CNSNews.com
In a sequel of sorts to promoting right-wing attacks on Nancy Pelosi trying to pin blame on her for the (Trump-driven) Capitol riot, CNSNews.com felt the need to promote right-wing attacks on Pelosi over the commission investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
An anonymously written June 30 article on Pelosi's announcement she would form the commission was relatively benign, though it dishonestly added, "The House had previously passed legislation to create a special independent commission to investigate the events of Jan. 6, but the bill did not get through the Senate." In fact, the independent commission was blocked by Senate Republicans, forcing Pelosi to take this route.
The next day, Melanie Arter gave space for House minority leader Kevin McCarthy to complain that Pelosi named Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to the commission and to rant that Pelosi has "played politics with this." Arter didn't mention that Republicans played politics by blocking an indepdendent commission.
Also on July 1, Craig Bannister complained that Pelosi "blamed the attack on attitudes of white supremacy, anti-Semitism and islamophobia," which he tried to counter: "However, the comments from the FBI and DHS cited by both Pelosi and her legislation do not actually claim the January 6 attack on the Capitol was the result of these bigoted attitudes."
When Pelosi called out McCarthy's tactics, Bannister devoted a July 7 article to complaining about it:
Citing left-wing media reports attacking Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) condemned Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday, accusing Rep. McCarthy of being pro-extremist and conspiracy theory and anti-truth.
“In Kevin McCarthy’s House Republican Conference, defending the truth is the worst crime a Member can commit,” Pelosi says in a post titled “McCarthy’s GOP: Leaving No White Nationalist/Extremist Behind” on the House Speaker’s website.
Quoting stories from CNN, The New York Times and a local Arizona paper, Pelosi criticizes McCarthy for discouraging fellow Republicans from serving on Democrat Pelosi’s commission seeking to blame Republicans for the January 6 attack on the Capitol, allowing Republicans to visit the border with “a conservative YouTuber” who “has not been charged for unlawful entry at the US Capitol on January 6” and allowing fellow Republicans to associate with people deemed by left-wing media as far-right extremists:
Yes, Bannister really thinks that CNN and the New York Times are "left-wing" outfits. That highly skewed take is an indication of just how right-wing Bannister and CNS are.
Bannister returned on July 21 to cite a highly biased Rasmussen poll claiming that "More U.S. voters support the launch of a Congressional probe of the violent 2020 protests than support the Democrat-backed House committee created to investigate the January 6, 2021 invasion of the U.S. Capitol."
They next day, Bannister devoted an article to Republican Rep. Jim Jordan attacking the commission because Pelosi wouldn't let him be on it, but he didn't mention that Jordan has a history of spreading disinformation about the 2020 presidential election -- the kind that helped incite the Capitol riot. With that record, he doesn't appear that he would have been an honest broker on the comission.
On July 26, Bannister brought back McCarthy to whine about Pelosi rejecting his picks of two disruptive pro-Trump Republicans for the commission (including Jordan), which caused McCarthy to take his ball and go home and huff that the commission "will not conduct a credible investigation." Bannister made no mention, of course, of how Republicans have endeavored to make sure the investigation would not be "credible."
The same day, Susan Jones huffed that Pelosi "has named a second anti-Trump Republican" to the committee, Adam Kinzinger, but she devoted more space to a Republican congressman attacking the committee, then editorialized with Republican talking points in what is supposed to be a "news" article:
Speaker Pelosi’s rejection of the Republican nominees to serve on the committee and self-appointment of members who share her pre-conceived narrative will not yield a serious investigation.
The Speaker has structured this select committee to satisfy her political objectives. She had months to work with Republicans on a reasonable and fair approach to get answers on the events and security failures surrounding January 6.
Instead, she has played politics. Lost in much of the news coverage is the fact that the Senate has already conducted bipartisan investigations that should serve as a roadmap for the House.
Speaker Pelosi’s departure from this serious-minded approach has destroyed the select committee’s credibility. The U.S. Capitol and the men and women who protect it suffered a massive leadership failure. We must make sure that never happens again and that is what Republicans will be focused on.
Jones didn't mention that Republicans have a political objective to achieve by obstructing the committee and trying to delegitimize it -- a effort Jones and CNS are helping Republicans to carry out.
Another anonymously written article that day noted that Pelosi appointed Kinzinger,to the commission, but was apparently more bothered by the fact that Pelosi alao said that "insurrectionists attempted to overthrow the government" on Jan. 6.
Jones pushed Republican talking points again on July 27 in writing about how "a group of Republicans blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for excluding from her select committee two Republicans who would have asked questions she prefers to avoid." Again, she failed to mention that Republicans are playing politics in trying to delegitimize the committee.
No attempt was made to fact-check anything McCarthy or Jordan said the way they tried to fact-check Pelosi. And, of course, no CNS writer, anonynmous or otherwise, admitted their employer's mission of a multi-pronged war on Pelosi.
UPDATE: In a July 28 article, Jones touted how Jordan said he couldn't be bothered to see the entirety of testimony from Capitol Police officers who survived the riot -- he just saw "bits and pieces" of it, further demonstrating he woiuld have been an inattentive member of the committee -- then groused that "the Democrats want to keep talking about January 6, because what the heck else are they going to talk about?" Jones also wrote that "Jordan noted that President Trump on January 6 told his supporters to march to the Capitol 'peacefully and patriotically.'" But Trump also told his followers to "fight like hell" and used the word "fight" in some form 20 times during his speech, while Rudy Giuliani used his speech before the riot to call for "trial by combat."
