CNN has opened a new front in its efforts to blacklist its competitors. After former Facebook exec Alex Stamos told Brian Stelter that YouTube and other platforms have to “turn down the capability” of Conservatives to reach “huge audiences,” CNN’s Oliver Darcy took it one step further, calling on cable companies to stop delivering the right-leaning channels One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax to paying customers.
CNN continues to give a platform to people calling for tech companies to escalate their censorship of conservatives, even after the tech platforms purged President Donald Trump, the most visible symbol of opposition to the ruling regime.
The network recently featured Alex Stamos, a former Facebook executive, who suggested that tech platforms should intervene to protect corporate news networks from independent competitors.
“We have to turn down the capability of these Conservative influencers to reach these huge audiences…” said Stamos. “There are people on YouTube for example that have a larger audience than daytime CNN.”
Former Facebook insider Alex Stamos tells @brianstelter: "We have to turn down the capability of these Conservative influencers to reach these huge audiences… There are people on YouTube for example that have a larger audience than daytime CNN." pic.twitter.com/gP0XtnjhCQ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 17, 2021
Journalist Glenn Greenwald compared the campaign against conservative media to attempts to eliminate Islamic extremism from the internet.
“Here’s a former Facebook executive on CNN *explicitly urging that the same tactics that were used in cooperation with the US security state to remove ISIS from the internet now be used against “conservative influencers,” to deprogram everyone to believe the CNN/liberal consensus,” said Greenwald.
But CNN does not seem content with just Silicon Valley censoring conservatives. Oliver Darcy, a CNN reporter who previously helped pressure Twitter to ban President Trump, revealed that he is asking cable companies to justify carrying the two conservative networks, which have surged in popularity since the election.
“Just a reminder that neither [Verizon], [ATT], nor [comcast] have answered any questions about why they beam channels like OAN & Newsmax into millions of homes,” said Darcy on Twitter. “Do they have any second thoughts about distributing these channels given their election denialism content? They won’t say.”
Just a reminder that neither @Verizon, @ATT, nor @comcast have answered any questions about why they beam channels like OAN & Newsmax into millions of homes. Do they have any second thoughts about distributing these channels given their election denialism content? They won't say.
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 17, 2021
Darcy did not acknowledge his question to the cable companies, which have never in recent memory been asked to justify carrying news channels, as unusual.
Nor did he acknowledge that CNN is in direct competition with Newsmax and OANN, and would be strengthened if the latter two networks were removed from cable.
The attempt to pressure cable providers into blacklisting CNN’s competitors is a sign that the far-left news network is looking beyond Big Tech censorship as a means of suppressing the competition and protecting the corporate media’s agenda-setting power from heterodox points of view.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. His new book, #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election, which contains exclusive interviews with sources inside Google, Facebook, and other tech companies, is currently available for purchase.
