‘Just Really Annoying!’ CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan Slams Liberals Who Complain About ‘Platforming’ Trump Fans

Senior CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan and Elle Reeve agreed that liberals who complain about “platforming” people like Trump fans who believe misinformation are “really annoying.”

O’Sullivan specializes in reporting on the fringes of the conservative and pro-Trump movement, and is launching the three-episode Persuadable podcast as part of The Account from CNN program.

Reeve — who covers a similar beat and deals with a lot of unhinged supporters — interviewed O’Sullivan to promote the new podcast this week.

When O’Sullivan observed that the “platforming” complaint is “really annoying,” Reeve told him “I’m right there with you, dude!”:

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: The thing I get a lot of question that always normally comes from the left online is “Why are you humanizing this person? Why are you Humanizing this human being?”

ELLE REEVE: Mm-hmm, I know. Y’know, one of the QAnon anonymous guys made a very good point, like, “Oh, wow, it’s quite politically inconvenient that your opponent is a human being.”

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: I find it so… Just… Really… Annoying!

ELLE REEVE: I’m right there with you, dude! It’s like, it’s infuriating.

Because one, it is wrong, obviously, top-laying level. We’re all human beings. Dehumanization is bad. But two, it doesn’t work. You lost. Look at the world. Yes. Ignore it, and it goes away. Idea has completely failed. The no-platforming concept has completely failed. It is totally bankrupt.

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: Well, one to your point, the platforming arguments just bogus because all this stuff is happening anyway.

ELLE REEVE: How has reporting on misinformation changed you?

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: How’s it changed me?

ELLE REEVE: Yeah, are you different than who you used to be? Uh.

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: How’s it changed you?

ELLE REEVE: Ah, not fair. You have to answer it first this time.

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: I don’t, well, I’ll put it this way. I’ve always been most interested in misinformation from a phenomena point of view. How it spreads, why people believe it, how people are making money off it. That’s how I’ve approached it, right? And that’s why I’ve wanted to talk to people. I think so many of my colleagues in this space, misinformation reporters, want to be. Real reporters. They want it. But they want to they want to correct the they want to correct the record.

ELLE REEVE: Oh, I see.

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: Right? Like they it upsets them. It makes them angry that people believe stuff that is false. And so so they will try to do the job of a regular reporter, which is do the facts.

I found that to do my job effectively, if I want to have a constructive conversation–.

Most of my interviewees, I just have to accept that they don’t believe the 2020 election was fair. I have to accept that sometimes they think the COVID vaccine is actually a microchip going in under your skin to track us.

And if I get hung up on that, like if I say, “Well, no, you’re wrong, and here’s why, and I’m gonna convince you now, I’m going to change your mind?”.

And then I’m not- That’s the end of the conversation.

Watch above via The Account from CNN.