A Chicago college journalism student raised some eyebrows recently after confronting CNN’s Brian Stelter about the mainstream media’s role in distributing fake news.
Christopher Phillips, who attends the University of Chicago, participated in a conference called “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy.” Phillips addressed Stelter regarding several stories that CNN has been wrong about in a now-viral tweet.
“They push the Russian collusion hoax, they push the Jussie Smollett hoax, they smear Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh as a rapist, and they also smeared Nick Sandmann as a white supremacist,” Phillips told Stelter.
Stelter’s first reaction drew scattered laughs from the crowd, “It’s time for lunch.”
“All the mistakes of the mainstream media and CNN, in particular, seem to magically all go in one direction. Are we expected to believe that this is all just some sort of random coincidence, or is there something else behind it?” Phillips asked Stelter.
Phillips, who also writes for the Chicago Thinker, pointed out that CNN dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation – a story that the New York Times later confirmed as accurate.
“I think it’s important when talking about shared reality and democracy, all these networks, all these news outlets have to defend democracy. And when they screw up, admit it.” Stelter said.
Stelter denied that CNN was a propaganda arm of the Biden administration.
“And with regards to the regime, I think you mean President Biden? The last time I spoke with a Biden aide, we yelled at each other,” Stelter added.
