Anybody who watched CNN’s town-hall meeting on gun control could easily tell the entire affair was designed to push a certain agenda. The crowd was stacked and the viewpoint was singular in nature – ban all the guns!
The questions may have also been stacked.
Colton Haab, a member of the Junior ROTC credited with shielding students during the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, accused CNN of scripting questions for students.
Haab even went so far as to name the producer who told him to “stick to the script.”
“Originally, I had thought that it was going to be more of my own question and my own say. And then it turned out to be more of just a script,” he said. “And [the producer] had actually said that over the phone, that I needed to stick to the script.”
Colton Haab, the heroic ROTC student who protected students during the Florida shooting, has named CNN producer Carrie Stevenson as the person who censored him during the CNN town hall.
Stevenson is the Executive Producer for Jake Tapper’s State of the Union television program. pic.twitter.com/HEj4sAL7WI
— Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) February 23, 2018
CNN denies the allegation, but a track record of doing the very same thing in other town halls and news coverage may come back to haunt them.
Here’s a brief rundown of other times CNN has been accused of staging something:
- In 2007, CNN hosted a Democrat Party debate in Las Vegas, featuring six “ordinary people, undecided voters,” asking questions. All six were either Democrat operatives or staffers, or advocates for far-left causes.
- Also in 2007, CNN co-hosted a Republican debate with YouTube in which allegedly “undecided voters” included Hillary Clinton associates, Dick Durbin staffers, John Edwards supporters, and Obama fans.
- In 1992, CNN allowed Clinton crony, George Stephanopolous to phone into a town hall meeting with President George H. W. Bush. Stephanopolous magically called a nationwide hotline and went straight to the front of the line to grill Bush about the Iran Contra scandal.
- In 2017, CNN was accused of staging a pro-Muslim protest in London following a terrorist attack by bringing in a crowd of Muslims, complete with anti-terorrism signs and flowers handed out by producers. CNN denied the claims, saying the protesters were already in the area and producers simply moved them for a better shot. Footage surfaced a week after their denials which raised more questions.
- At “citizen town hall” events during the Obamacare debate in 2009, multiple plants in the crowd included DNC operatives, lobbyists for government-run health care, and a donor to Massachusetts Women for Obama.
Here is footage from the fake pro-Muslim protest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTdqZnu6Gao
It’s a long and storied tradition to plant Democrats and stage events at CNN. The anti-gun town hall meeting with high school students seems no different.
Do you think CNN scripted questions for the town hall? Share your thoughts below!
