Topic: CNSNews.com
As part of their summer of right-wing narratives, CNSNews.com's summer interns also made sure to work in some hot-button culture war issues as well. Lucy Collins complained in an Aug. 1 article:
The newly published Star Wars novel geared toward middle and high school-aged children has passages suggesting that beloved character Obi-Wan Kenobi is bi-sexual.
"Padawan," published on August 26th, is written by Kiersten White and aims to tell the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi as a teenager training to be a Jedi. The young adult novel is recommended by Amazon for kids between the ages of 12 and 18.
Many on social media were alerted to a specific passage in the book that suggests that the young Jedi is bisexual, or attracted to both men and women.
Following a conversation with a fellow teen about romantic relationships, Kenobi is described as questioning his sexuality.
[...]
Previously in Star Wars iterations, Obi-Wan Kenobi had a female love interest named Satine Kryze of Mandalore. The Padawan author said that she did not include any love plots for Kenobi in the book because of that relationship.
Collins suggested only "social media" as the source of this purported controversy, but she cited no specific criticisms of the book -- after all, ages 12 to 18 is when young people start questioning their sexuality, and it would seem entirely appropriate that a young Obi-Wan, as a human being, might do so as well. Perhaps more importantly for fandom purposes, Collins doesn't identify where this situation falls outside Star Wars canon.
In an lengthy Aug. 3 article, Micky Wooten -- who is technically CNS' new "Investigative Journalism Fellow" but started at the same time as the summer interns and has been doing intern-level work -- cheered a British man who smeared LGBT people by sharing an image that fashioned the pride flag into a swastika:
After sharing a photo on social media of LGBT pride flags arranged in the shape of a swastika, three Hampshire police officers arrested British war veteran Darren Brady for causing “anxiety.”
On June 26, former-actor-turned-conservative activist Laurence Fox tweeted a photo of four rainbow Pride flags rearranged to make a swastika. Fox was temporarily suspended from Twitter over the Tweet.
London Assembly member Caroline Russell called on the metro police to investigate Fox for his tweet.
[...]
CNS News contacted the Hampshire Constabulary to ask if police officers are taught that words can equate acts of physical violence, as implied by the female officer’s comments. Additionally, CNS Newsasked for the number of years of experience for each of the three arresting officers.
Yes, CNS actually spent money for Wootten to place international phone calls to report this story. He went on to huff that "This latest viral incident comes amidst a trend in UK policing of logging so-called 'hate incidents' that are not technically crimes but involve instances of wrong-think."
