Soledad O’Brien Says at House Hearing News Networks Shouldn’t ‘Book Liars’
Former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien said during a congressional hearing Wednesday that networks should stop booking liars.
O’Brien testified during a House subcommittee hearing on disinformation and extremism, and after talking about a lack of diversity on the major Sunday shows, she brought up the level of distrust people have in the media.
“When news organizations make decisions based on ratings rather than responsible reporting, disinformation flourishes in dangerous ways,” O’Brien said.
She said Congress “cannot and should not regulate journalism in defiance of the First Amendment,” but added what networks should do: “Don’t book liars or advance lies.”
“Cover the fact that lies and propaganda are being disseminated, but do not book people to lie on your show, because it elevates them and presents a lie as another side. Stop posing every story as having two sides, some stories, in fact, have many many sides, and are more complicated. And also, lies don’t have a side,’ O’Brien said.
A few days ago, O’Brien made the same point in response to a Twitter thread calling out most of the big Sunday shows for interviews over the past few weeks with Republicans like Ron Johnson and Rand Paul who talked up the former president’s baseless election fraud claims:
Stop. Platforming. Liars. Name the names of those who do it. https://t.co/sx8z9JVTxO
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) February 22, 2021
You can watch above, via Newsmax.
