Pot, meet kettle: CNN complains that Fox News gets to host debate despite peddling CONSPIRACY THEORIES

CNN, which critics have dubbed Conspiracy News Network for its conduct during Donald Trump’s presidency, is whining that rival Fox News was chosen to host the first 2020 presidential debate despite pushing “conspiracy theories.”

Fox has peddled “disinfo, conspiracy theories and outright lies in support of the president,” CNN reporter Oliver Darcy said Thursday on Twitter. “And by giving Fox the first debate, the Commission on Presidential Debates is rewarding one of the most destructive forces in American politics.”

Darcy made much the same arguments in an interview with CNN host Brianna Keller, who blasted the decision to let Fox host the Sept. 29 debate between Trump and Democrat nominee Joe Biden despite “propaganda, dishonesty and the fact that some Fox hosts advise President Trump.”

However true some of those points may have been, Keller and Darcy appear to be lacking in self-awareness. CNN has been roundly criticized for its persistent reporting of conspiracy theories, from the Trump-Russia collusion hoax to false stories on Trump officials being connected to a Russian investment fund and Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. being given early access to WikiLeaks documents in 2016.

The network has been quick to pounce on stories of hate crimes that were later found to be hoaxes or mistaken allegations, such as actor Jussie Smollett’s false report of being attacked by Trump supporters in Chicago and a noose supposedly being hung in the garage of black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace

The network also got itself in hot water for false reporting on a group of Kentucky high school students who were accosted by demonstrators in Washington, leading to a settlement with teenager Nicholas Sandmann. CNN also has made itself a meme with reporting bias, such as posting a caption referring to “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” as a reporter talks on scene at a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with a burning building over his shoulder.

More specific to the question of holding debates is CNN’s checkered past in its own handling of such events. The network’s hosting of a Democrat primary debate in January was so biased against Senator Bernie Sanders that Rolling Stone magazine called its performance “villainous and shameful.” In 2016, CNN contributor Donna Brazile leaked debate and town hall questions in advance to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Ironically, Brazile joined Fox last year.

Darcy’s complaints about Fox were met with mockery by other Twitter users, including one who pointed out that the CNN reporter called Fox host Chris Wallace “hands down best debate moderator this cycle” in 2016. “He should have done them all,” Darcy said at the time. He praised Wallace again Thursday. Suggesting that Wallace is too pro-Trump might be a reach, as Trump has blasted Fox in general and Wallace specifically for their coverage of him.

Like other Twitter netizens, Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney pointed the finger back at CNN: “How do you distinguish between ‘disinfo’ and the factual errors and misleading stuff CNN runs regularly without correction.”

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