I’m not a CNN hater. It’s a good place as any to get the news. But certainly, there is right wing crap that gets in there. I have no problem with hearing the view of the view intelligent conservatives that are out there. But when right wing crap is wrapped up to look respectable and we are not told the source…
The CNN website posted this as Opinion: Biden Is making more foreign policy messes then he’s fixing. Author is a Christopher McCallion. At the top of the aritcle, there is this caption:
Editor’s Note: Christopher McCallion is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a foreign policy think tank based in Washington, DC. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.
Never heard of the writer. From the headline, I immediately thought tankie. I expected a tankie from the left, warning us about western imperialism, zionist colonialism, and the like. But the article sounded fairly moderate, with no histrionics. The overall feel was not so much of an attack on Biden as it was the whole concept of the US being a major part of the liberal world order. Article wasn’t leftish, so I thought Ron Paul type isolationism. Tone wasn’t nearly as shrill as Ron Paul, much more polite and no conspiracy talk, but basically saying the whole Paul thing to hell with the world.
This line stood out sounding so Ron Paulish, and also echoed a theme from Trump’s NATO bashing:
Low defense spending on the part of capable states like Japan and Germany indicates America’s allies remain all too confident they can continue passing the buck to Uncle Sam. Were the US to do less for their defense.
And this gem:
...be less prone to provoke distant rivals and be more aligned with America’s domestic resources and needs.
Of course, Russia was provoked by us being pro Ukraine. And Hamas was provoked in a way where they just had to rape and behead people, like any freedom fighter would do. And if Taiwan only stops provoking China by saying they don’t want to be ruled by China, China might decide to leave them alone.
I wanted to know more about this organization. Naturally, I went to the organizations website. Some of the articles were perfectly mainstream. But most had a backbeat of promoting an isolationist foreign policy. I looked at the about us, and saw a large number of their staff, none of who I had heard of, so I was still in the dark of just who these people are. So, I google “defense priorities” left right to see what came up. I found this on Politico from a 2016 article. Organization has been around for a while, but I’d never heard of them. Sure enough, It’s got Koch family and Ron Paul finger prints all over it.
If CNN is going to post an opinion from something fringe like this, it’s not enough to simply post the name of the organization, if few of us have heard of the organization. They need to be intellectually honest enough to say that the organization is associated with supporting an isolationist foreign policy, and say something about who is putting up the money to keep them in business.