Newsmax Deceptively Edits CNN Analyst’s Comments to Claim He Sided with Conservatives When He Actually Did the Opposite

Viewers who caught Tuesday’s edition of Frontline on Newsmax were likely shocked to find CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen endorsing laws passed in Florida and Texas designed to inhibit social media platforms’ ability to moderate content. However, there was more to the story.

Conservatives have long argued social media companies are biased against them and that platforms’ efforts to curb the spread of disinformation disproportionately affect the right. The aforementioned laws allow users to sue social media companies over censorship. However, legal scholars have noted that Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act allows sites wide berth to make decisions about content moderation.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Florida and Texas laws on Monday, around the time Eisen joined CNN International’s Connect the World where he weighed in on the case.

To hear Newsmax host Carl Higbie tell it, Eisen is firmly on the side of Florida and Texas:

HIGBIE: Well, even CNN is realizing that the magnitude of these cases, listen to this.

[BEGIN CNN CLIP]

EISEN: Social media companies can’t discriminate against conservatives. And no matter how crazy a conservative message may be, it’s simply not allowed to discriminate against them or anyone… But is there a middle ground where they have to give an equal platform? That’s what these cases are about?

[END CNN CLIP]

HIGBIE: …That’s kind of my point here, is that, like look, this is a liberal legal analyst on CNN saying that they can’t do that.

But here’s the broader context of Eisen’s remarks, which clearly shows that rather than siding with Florida and Texas – Eisen was rehashing their lawyers’ argument, which he actually called “an extreme view of the law”:

EISEN: This case that has made it now to argument at the Supreme Court is about two statutes – one passed in the state of Texas, and one law in the state of Florida that essentially say social media companies can’t discriminate against conservatives, and no matter how crazy your conservative message may be, it’s simply not allowed to discriminate against them or anyone.

That is an extreme view of the law that the social media companies have no power to decide if something is a terroristic threat, if there is an insane health advice – inject bleach to fight Covid. So, it can’t be the case that these social media companies have no ability to make these choices in what they do and do not put up.

But those are the questions maybe the Supreme Court will find in the extreme cases, the social media companies can act. But is there a middle ground where they have to give an equal platform? That’s what these cases are about.

Watch above via Newsmax and CNN International.