Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's war on TikTok -- and its desire to shut it down despite purporting to hate censorship -- continued by blaming it for something its users did. Nicholas Fondacaro huffed in a Nov. 16 post:
Disney-owned ABC put their profits ahead of America on Thursday after they refused to report that TikTok, the social media app controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was promoting the writings of terrorist Osama Bin Laden. They ignored the story in order to promote their new amusement park in China themed after the movie Frozen. And not only did they ignore TikTok promoting the man behind 9/11, they actually ran a segment touting the app as a good thing.
On Wednesday night, the TikTok algorithm started promoting videos telling viewers to go read Osama’s “Letter to America” and that the 9/11 terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans was somehow justified. It was an intentional move that had possibly radicalized many impressionable American young people (along with other useful idiots) and created a national security concern.
Given Fondcaro's penchant for spreading lies, it's no surprise that he offered no proof whatsoever that the TikTok algorithm allegedly promoting those videos was an "intentional move" -- indeed, his lies are the only thing that's demonstrably intentional here. He went to whine that ABC's"Good Morning America" highlighted a story in which TikTok played a positive role:
They were eager to praise the app because one user managed to find a kidney donor after posting videos about their struggle while waiting. “Back now with our Play of the Day. A lifesaving connection made on TikTok. Lara has the story,” washed-up NFL player Michael Strahan touted.
“It was this post that Katie Allen put up on TikTok that changed her life” added co-host Lara Spencer. “Katie finishes senior year and works as a reporter for the local radio station. She said she is so thankful to be alive, thanks to TikTok, everyone!”
One might have written off the segment as just a vapid human interest piece, but the fact that it paved the way for the network to be corporate whores for Disney’s new park in China arguably pointed to a need to downplay China’s poisonous influence as their dictator was touring America.
Apparently, Fondacaro would have been pleased to see this person die rather than benefiting from an app he irrationally hates for partisan purposes. Needless to say, he provided no evidence to back up his claim that ABC was following Chinese orders to promote this story.
Fondacaro followed up the next day by whining that a media outlet told both sides of the story -- specifically that TikTok pointed out how the bin Laden letter first started spreading on other platforms like, um, MRC favorite Elon Musk's Twitter/X:
After omitting the story on their morning and evening newscasts on Thursday, Friday was the day NBC’s Today finally decided that they should mention that the China-own social media platform TikTok had been promoting a letter written by late Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. But instead of piling on the criticism of the app used by the Chinese Communist Party to harm Americans, NBC senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson ran defense by parroting TikTok’s deflection to other platforms.
[...]
Stepping up to defend the Chi-Com app, Jackson added: “TikTok now stripping the hashtag #lettertoAmerica from its search function.”
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, TikTok tried to claim the trend didn’t originate on their platform and tried to shift blame to their competitors (bolding theirs): “The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate. This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.”
Fondacaro didn't dispute the accuracy of TikTok's defense -- he was just performatively outraged that TikTok was allowed to defend itself.
In antoher Nov. 17 post, Catherine Salgado hyped a right-wing congressman trying to exploit the story for his own partisan purposes:
As Communist Chinese government-tied TikTok spreads anti-Semitic hatred, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) emphasized the need to ban the popular app.
A fired-up Hawley joined Fox News's Hannity to blast TikTokers who launched a disturbing trend of promoting eliminated Al-Qaeda terrorist and 9/11 architect Osama Bin Laden’s anti-Semitic and anti-American “Letter to America” on the Communist Chinese government-tied platform. When host Sean Hannity asked Hawley why TikTok is even allowed in America at this point, the senator agreed, calling the social media platform an “espionage” and “propaganda” tool. “We ought to ban it,” Hawley declared.
Salgado was silent about the fact that Musk's Twiter/X is also a prolific spreader of anti-Semitism -- along with Musk himself -- but the likes of Hawley are not demanding that it be shut down.
The MRC also published a Nov. 19 column by Erick Erickson arguing that the bin Laden video controversy demonstrated that "TikTok really must be destroyed in its present form." Funny, we don't recall Foncacaro or Erickson demanding Twitter be destroyed because it's a fount of anti-Semitism.
