CNN’s Brian Stelter quickly found himself refuted after quoting a blatantly anti-free speech assertion.
In a recent X post, Stelter, chief media analyst at CNN, quoted Mike Rothschild, a self-identified “conspiracy theorist journalist” who whined to WIRED that, “[t]here are no guardrails on X anymore, and it's become overrun by disinformation accounts and grifters.” But Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon quickly responded to note that the censorship “guardrails,” not free speech, were the problem.
Dillon posted on X, “As someone who values freedom, I'd say the problem was the guardrails. Before Elon bought Twitter, disinformation like ‘trans women are women’ couldn't be refuted — or even joked about — without penalties. The truth is discovered through debate, not censorship.”
The Babylon Bee CEO brought up the example of claiming an individual can alter his biological sex because the WIRED article Stelter shared dealt with “Robin” (Robert) Westman, a biological man who identified as a woman. Last week Westman killed two children and injured more than a dozen others at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
Prior to the mass shooting, Westman had shared online video content expressing hatred for Christians, Jews and Donald Trump. This content, along with an official FBI statement, sparked accusations characterizing the shooting as likely anti-Catholic terrorism, but WIRED tried to frame these accusations as unfair bias and disinformation.
The outlet also referred to Westman as “she.” Ignoring all the statements from Westman and authorities investigating the matter, WIRED claimed “there simply appears to have been no overarching ideology motivating the shooter,” and argued that X had wrongly allowed arguments to the contrary to be boosted on the platform.
Then, the outlet quoted multiple anti-free speech individuals in its piece, including the former head of the defunct Biden Disinformation Governance Board and self-styled “Mary Poppins of disinformation” Nina Jankowicz. The outlet also quoted Rothschild whining about X’s removal of former censorship policies, as he alleged, “There are certain narratives about mass shootings that will instantly find homes on X, and nothing holds them back from spreading.” But, as Dillon stated, the solution to so-called bad speech is more free speech, not less.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
