When the Press Becomes Narc: CNN Outing UCLA Counter-Protestors

In the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot, a call from federal law enforcement went out far and wide: help us identify who was there.

If you were a neighbor or a friend or an acquaintance of someone you knew was in Washington, DC on that day – the day that keeps on giving to the Democrats – you were asked by the FBI and such to let them know.

It didn’t matter if they had entered the building or not, whether or not they had been confrontational or destructive or not – just the fact they were in DC and a supporter of Donald Trump was enough, the public was told, to pick up the phone and turn them in with the crime to be determined later.

The media amplified this message, saying that all good and true Americans must do their part to quash any remnants of support for Trump – helping foil the insurrection and lending a hand to make sure anyone even remotely suspect receive – at the very least – a not very friendly from law enforcement to let them know they think wrong.

But what does it mean for our society when the media – CNN in this specific case – goes even further and itself starts reviewing tapes of events, investigating online, searching for record like phone numbers and home addresses, and scrutinizing social media to publicly identify potential “suspects” on their own?

Nothing good.

About a week ago, CNN published its “investigation” of the counter-protest skirmish on April 30.  People got hurt, the confusion over the presence, or lack thereof , of the police played a role in escalating the situation, and even the “all cops are bastards” pro-Hamas encampers who had taken over a large chunk of the campus complained that the police did not protect them.  

So CNN decided it would try to hunt down the pro-Israel protestors themselves, putting 13 people on a story headlined:  Unmasking counterprotesters who attacked UCLA’s pro-Palestine encampment 

A few days earlier, UCLA itself had announced that it was going to work with local law enforcement and Los Angeles County District Attorney to try to identify and track down the counter-protestors.  

Of course, there was no mention  by UCLA (or by CNN in its story) of trying to identify and punish the protestors themselves; as with the “mostly peaceful” riots of the summer of 2020, the protestors got a pass because their protests were, according to progressive ideology, appropriate and necessary and righteous.

But the idea of fairness and telling the whole story never seems to have occurred to CNN’s baker’s dozen of sleuths.  Here’s how the story begins:

A young man in a white plastic mask beats a pro-Palestinian protester. Another in a maroon hoodie strikes a protester with a pole. A local instigator pushes down barricades.  

Law enforcement stood by for hours as counter protesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA on April 30, which erupted into the worst violence stemming from the ongoing college protests around the country over Israel’s war in Gaza. 

The piece goes on to describe clothing, names names, and even the hunt through the social media feed of relatives of the purported counter-protestors.

The deceit and the conceit of the article is astonishing.  Of course, in the past, various new outlets would run mug shots and give out tip line numbers in the wake of a serious crime, but actively taking part in a politically charged investigation of their own volition? No, that did not happen.

CNN has set itself up as detective, prosecutor, judge, and jury for each of the people named in the article, an egregious violation of what little left passes for journalistic integrity.

Beyond identifying so-called perpetrators, CNN does not even pretend to consider that maybe just maybe the counter-protestors may have had a legitimate grievance over people celebrating the despicable October 7 sneak attack – an attack that involved murder, rape, hostage taking, and child torture and mutilation – on Israel.

From the piece:

The violence directed at the protesters and his access to medical treatment reminded him of why they had set up the encampment in the first place, trying to raise awareness about the mass deaths and destruction from Israel’s war in Gaza, and calling for the university to divest from any financial ties with Israel. 

“I had the privilege of going to a hospital,” he (a pro-Palestinian protestor) said. “In Gaza, there are zero fully functioning hospitals.”

And CNN did not do all of the work itself, referencing the assistance of “online researchers,” some of whom went so far as to nickname potential suspects:

They became prime targets for online researchers who told CNN they had created internal nicknames such as #UCLARedBandana, #UCLANeffHat and #UCLAMaroonHoodie as they attempted to identify them.

The article also specifically names and/or describes a few people who are known Trump supporters or just people who go to right-wing rallies in general.

Repeated attempts to reach CNN for comment were unsuccessful – that being said, the Globe asked the following in an email:

-You reference “online researchers.”  Who exactly are they and/or for whom do they work?

-The story specifically does not identify protestors – why is that?

-With whom have/will you share the information you have gathered – the school, law enforcement, etc.?

It is almost incomprehensible that a media outlet would decide to essentially do the government’s job for it and, along the way, identify people who have yet to be even named as suspects by law enforcement.

But CNN is not a media outlet – it is merely a collaborationist tool of the extant regime, an active participant in the propagandizing of the nation.  Like the totalitarian pigs and the economically grasping humans at the end of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” it has become impossible to tell them apart.

Oh, just in case you’re interested, here’s where you can email CNN with your own suspicions, no matter what they or who they involve.  Think about the revenge you can take, the sense of power you will feel when you rat out your neighbor, but just make sure you accuse them of the right thing, like voting for Trump, or CNN won’t care:

Do you have information to share about the attack at UCLA? Email us at watchdog@cnn.com.