In a stark example of just how detached from reality folks in the liberal media can be, CNN media beat reporter Brian Stelter actually tried to place America among a list of the world’s worst press jailers for 2021. The list included the likes of China and Belarus and was presented on his Reliable Sources Sunday show by Committee to Protect Journalism executive director, Joel Simon.
Before lumping in America with countries without press freedoms, Stelter had Simon go through who was at the top of the list. “Well, China is the number one jailer of journalists. And China perennially tops this list,” he said.
The top five were bookended with Belarus. “Belarus where the -- where the ongoing crackdown on independent media and civil society as Lukashenko clings to power in that country. Journalists are being caught up,” Simon recalled.
Simon was also concerned about how the list had expanded as more countries cracked down on the media. “Myanmar, a place where we saw some progress. Of course, it's become now one of the most repressive -- one -- among the world's leading jailers of journalists,” he said. “There are sweeping crackdowns in Ethiopia.”
It was a couple of minutes later when he was switching the topic, that Stelter decided to smear America as being their equal:
Well, even in the U.S. Look at the number of reporters that are arrested each year, you know, intolerable numbers of reporters who get swept up during protests and other events and end up behind bars, even in the United States.
Stelter knows what he’s saying. He was intentionally conflating arrests between all these countries to be the same.
Journalists arrested in China and Belarus are political prisoners and are subjected to brutal treatment in captivity. In the general instances Stelter mentioned, they’re released relatively quickly, usually with no charges, and aren’t specifically targeted.
For evidence of that just look at what Simon said about the reasoning behind the arrests of journalists in those other countries:
Well, the bad news is unavoidable. I think that governments realized they were in an existential battle over who controls information, who controls the narrative. And they are waging a frontal assault against independent journalism around the world.
So, we're seeing that in record numbers of journalists imprisoned around the world and set records year after year, Brian. Every year, we see a new record.
Even in the Trump years, we didn’t even see an organized effort from the federal government to jail journalists. It’s an alternate reality Stelter, CNN, and the rest of liberal media like to pretend exists in the U.S. so they can feel endangered.
Brian Stelter’s smearing of America was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Hello Fresh and Subway. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Reliable Sources
December 26, 2021
11:29:05 a.m. Eastern(…)
BRIAN STELTER: Hate to start with bad news but you all say this a very perilous time. What’s been changing in recent years? Why is the landscape getting darker?
JOEL SIMON (Exec. Dir. Committee to Protect Journalists): Well, the bad news is unavoidable. I think that governments realized they were in an existential battle over who controls information, who controls the narrative. And they are waging a frontal assault against independent journalism around the world.
So, we're seeing that in record numbers of journalists imprisoned around the world and set records year after year, Brian. Every year, we see a new record.
STELTER: Hmm.
SIMON: And we're seeing violence perpetrated against journalists with impunity. So, the landscape in which journalists operate around the world has never been more perilous, more dangerous. We're at a crossroads.
STELTER: So, on the subject of journalists behind bars, let's look at five of the worst jailers of journalists. What's the number one country on top of that bad list?
SIMON: Well, China is the number one jailer of journalists. And China perennially tops this list. But what's alarming, Brian is that crackdowns all over the world, so many -- new countries are on this. Myanmar, a place where we saw some progress. Of course, it's become now one of the most repressive -- one -- among the world's leading jailers of journalists.
STELTER: Because of the military coup this year.
SIMON: Because of the military coup.
STELTER: But also, Belarus is on the list.
SIMON: Belarus where the -- where the ongoing crackdown on independent media and civil society as Lukashenko clings to power in that country. Journalists are being caught up.
There are sweeping crackdowns in Ethiopia. So many countries around the world are cracking down on press freedom. Governments are deploying the full power of the state against independent journalism. And that's why we're seeing these record numbers year after year.
STELTER: And on the topic of violence, I mentioned Mexico City earlier. Mexico, we are continuing to see awful numbers of journalists killed in Mexico.
SIMON: Yes. Mexico has the highest death toll of any country in the hemisphere. It's another country which year after year, the forces of violence, it's drug traffickers, largely in collusion and protected by a government that are -- that are responsible for this violence.
And this is true around the world, Brian corruption. You know that is the most dangerous story. And not just the corrupt individuals, but the networks of government that protect organized crime and corruption in so many countries around the world. That's become an incredibly important and an incredibly dangerous story to cover.
(…)
11:32:37 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: STELTER: Well, even in the U.S. Look at the number of reporters that are arrested each year, you know, intolerable numbers of reporters who get swept up during protests and other events and end up behind bars, even in the United States.
(…)
