Topic: CNSNews.com
After following its Media Research Center parent in flip-flopping on the evilness of Elon Musk after his decision to try and buy Twitter, CNSNews.com has moved on to following in the MRC's foosteps by treating seemingly every public utterance he makes as a "news" story. Managing editor Michael W. Chapman cheered Musk's endorsement of right-wing talking points on the Biden administration's planned Disinformation Governance Board in an April 29 post:
In response to comment that the Department of Homeland Security is now operating a "Ministry of Truth," like in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 billionaire businessman Elon Musk tweeted, "This is messed up."
On Wednesday, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, testified before Congress and revealed that his department is now operating a "Disinformation Governance Board." Its alleged purpose is to monitor speech and look for “mis- and disinformation” to protect "election security" and "homeland security.”
[...]
Mayorkas' revelation was roundly denounced by many Republican lawmakers, civil libertarians, and legal experts.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a non-profit government watchdog, tweeted, "'Ministry of Truth'" is trending [on Twitter] because Biden admin appointed a radical leftist to run a censorship board in the Department of Homeland Security a few days after @ElonMusk purchase of @Twitter announced."
Chapman did not note whether Fitton offered any evidence to back up his suggestion that the creation of the board is directly linked to Musk's attempts to purchase Twitter. Then again, Chapman is a slavish stenographer for Judicial Watch.
CNS then started piling up the Musk-fluffing articles, many of which also echoed right-wing narratives:
- Elon Musk Responds to Putin Ally’s Warning: ‘If I Die Under Mysterious Circumstances...’
- Elon Musk: Twitter Banning Trump Was 'Morally Wrong and Flat Up Stupid'
- Elon Musk: ‘Stop the War on Straws!’
- Elon Musk: 'Reason for Inflation' is Gov't 'Printed a Zillion Amount of More Money Than It Had, Obviously'
- Elon Musk: ‘The Real President Is Whoever Controls the Teleprompter’
- Elon Musk: 'I Agree With the Principles Jesus Advocated ... There's Some Great Wisdom in the Teachings of Jesus'
- Elon Musk: Democrats Are 'The Party of Division & Hate,' I 'Will Vote Republican'
- Elon Musk Dares AOC to Run His Poll About Billionaires on Her Twitter Page
- Elon Musk: 'The Right to Bear Arms is an Important Safeguard Against Potential Tyranny of Government'
CNS also published more pro-Musk commentaries. A May 9 commentary by Ron Paul declared that "Any doubt that many progressives have abandoned their commitment to free speech was erased by the hysterical reaction to Elon Musk’s effort to purchase Twitter and return the company to its roots as a free speech zone." And a May 27 commentary by Michael Rechtenwald absolved Musk of any previoius sins because he claims to support "free speech" by buying Twitter because he now has conservatively correct enemies:
Many criticisms have been leveled against Elon Musk — that he’s part of the elite, that Tesla has been the beneficiary of government handouts and exemptions, that his transhumanist Neuralink is a brain-data-mining operation. Yet his planned purchase of Twitter, his supposed free-speech absolutism, and his subsequent renunciation of the Democratic Party as “the party of division & hate” have put Musk squarely in the crosshairs of the woke cartel.
[...]
’m not suggesting that Musk is a free-market hero or a lowercase libertarian, but there is little doubt that he’s become corporate enemy number one for the state-backed woke cartel. The battle shaping up between Musk and the regime will prove to be an important one, if only because it pits the power of the latter against a high-visibility manufacturer and the reputed “richest man in the world.” What we will learn is how powerful the woke cartel is and just how far it will go to infringe on property rights and eradicate any remaining legitimate (consumer-based) market criteria — no matter how much its moves reek of hypocrisy or how obvious its vendetta.
There was no mention in any of these articles about Musk's coziness to China or his lack of commitment to free speech in real life.
