Occasionally, life serves a rare opportunity to right a wrong, to bring people together, to heal and mend. This is not one of them, but it sure is funny. In the aftermath of CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta having his press credentials removed for inappropriate behavior, only to have his access restored by a judge, someone came up with a brilliant idea: a petition to give Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars, White House press credentials and a permanent seat next to Acosta.
In case you have managed to miss it somehow, Alex Jones is a journalist who peddles in conspiracy theories and has made a brand out of theatrical grandstanding and clownish behavior. Sound familiar?
The primary difference between Jones and Acosta, however, is that in between his incoherent rants, Jones often reports the truth. While CNN and a united mainstream media – including Fox News – stood together in solidarity for Acosta, wailing that it was an attack on the First Amendment to remove his White House press credentials, the same corrupt media remained silent when Infowars was banned on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter in short order.
Easy Targets
Infowars was an easy target because many people would agree that the channel was stirring fear and anger, and spreading fake news. However, there is no question that a group of tech giants together with mainstream media corporations met and agreed to have Infowars deplatformed and silenced. And while Alex Jones is rabid, he is also popular. The entire fauna of alternative media and technology threatens the legacy media, and establishment voices would like to nip that threat in the bud.
Shortly after the attack on the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Twitter’s competitor Gab was thoroughly deplatformed. They lost their internet connection and payment system because the Pittsburgh shooter used a Gab account. Imagine if the killer had been a Walmart customer and the electricity had been cut nationwide to all Walmart stores. To attempt to silence an entire platform like Gab because of one crazy user is truly an attack on free speech. What did mainstream media have to say about it? They smeared Gab.
That’s why permanently seating Alex Jones next to Jim Acosta would be a constant reminder of the indecency, hypocrisy, bias, and dishonesty of the legacy media. Acosta should never leave his post at the White House. Conservatives and libertarians could not wish for a better ambassador for liberty than him. With Jones as a chronic thorn in his side, the parody would be complete.
As of writing, a little over 33,000 signatures to the petition out of 100,000 needed. If you are a U.S. citizen and you wish to contribute to shining a permanent spotlight on the hypocrisy of the legacy media and increase the popcorn factor of White House press conferences by 200%, consider signing.
