As the mainstream media struggles to find a new identity without President Trump to criticize at every turn, critics have noted that many liberal news organizations have tried to make QAnon conspiracy theory their last counterpoint in the post-Trump world.
“The media has aligned themselves with Democrats to share the point of discussion that Republicans are the party of QAnon,” NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News, noting that it is absurd to paint QAnon as the new guy from the Republican Party.
“QAnon people supported Trump, but equating that to Republicans in large print is a bit like saying that Democrats are communists because factions of the former U.S. Communist Party endorsed a strategy to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016,” added Graham.
“No one would ever ask Democrats to explicitly denounce the Communist Party’s endorsement because it is ridiculous to suppose that Democrats and Communists are the same thing.”
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But the mainstream media has spent significant time in the past few weeks linking QAnon to the GOP. Liberal CNN presenter Chris Cuomo was perhaps most notorious when he recently dubbed Republicans the official QAnon party, the conspiracy theory centered on the groundless belief that Trump was waging a covert campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and sex trafficking children’s ring run by satanic and cannibalistic pedophiles.
“I say the new party is the GOP-Q,” said Cuomo last week, continuing to mock the Republican Party, adding, “And it shows that they really embrace diversity because they just created the QAnon wing.”
CNN host Chris Cuomo recently called Republicans an official part of QAnon.
Cuomo’s colleague, CNN host Don Lemon, replied that he prefers the nickname “Q-Trumplican Party” when trying to disparage conservatives.
Grabien Media founder Tom Elliot monitors the media industry for a living and has noticed a trend since President Biden took office.
“With Trump gone, the media needs a new bogeyman, and the last two weeks of coverage show that they are switching from Trump to his stubborn base, whom they accuse of being plotting hillbillies,” Elliot told Fox News. , noting that Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has been “the obvious focal point” for liberal cable newscasters.
“Obviously, there are worrying conspiracy trends in modern America, but it is false and counterproductive to suggest that this is a phenomenon exclusive to the right,” said Elliot.
“What this represents is a much bigger problem than the QAnon and the Republican Party, as the media wrongly suggests. The real issue is the breach of trust between average Americans and institutions like the media itself.”
Elliot feels that confidence in the media has waned during Trump’s tenure at the White House and, as a result, Americans are more likely to believe bizarre and irrational theories.
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“When the alleged source of verified information becomes a front for obsessive conspiracy trafficking – as it did throughout the Trump Era through the fake Russiagate scandal – people, quite rationally, stop trusting the news, and when it happens, they’re more than willing to believe anything, “said Elliot.
“If the mainstream media wants to fix a problem like QAnon, it must first look at its own role in this mess.”
Conservative strategist Chris Barron told Fox News that QAnon is simply the “new catch-all for anyone who opposes dogmatic leftism” and liberal analysts like Cuomo and Lemon are happy to link that to the GOP.
“It is pure invention of a media desperate to continue its Trump disturbance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said Barron.
The hyperpartisan CNN broadcast specials dedicated to QAnon, sent reporter Donie O’Sullivan to a meeting of supporters in Arizona, summoned a former cult member to write an article comparing his experiences with those who believed in QAnon, and even invited a former QAnon supporter on the network to speak with Anderson Cooper.
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In a bizarre moment that probably touched CNN’s lords, former QAnon believer Jitarth Jadeja told Cooper that he once believed that CNN’s liberal presenter “drank the blood of children” and “ate babies” because he was chosen by Q. CNN used the interview to promote an hour-long special, “Inside the QAnon Conspiracy”, which aired last month.
CNN is not alone in its endless QAnon coverage, as much of the liberal media is passionate about the unbalanced theory. Recent New York Times opinion articles titled: “The QAnon illusion has not loosened its grip”, “QAnon believers are obsessed with Hillary Clinton” and “Three weeks
inside a Pro-Trump QAnon chat room “have hit Lady Gray since the day of the inauguration.
MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” even made reference Ben Collins, NBC News employee as a “reporter covering QAnon” for an on-screen graphic. Meanwhile, photos of the so-called QAnon Shaman – a man who was arrested in the Capitol rebellion wearing a Viking costume and face paint and is now imprisoned in Virginia – have become ubiquitous with the coverage.
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which normally coincides with far-left ideology and relentlessly mocked Trump for years, referenced QAnon on Saturday during a mock pizza commercial, indicating that the conspiracy theory is essentially a household name among progressive.
Washington Times columnist and political satirist Tim Young believes that the mainstream media obsession with QAnon has resulted in reporters and experts who are essentially experts in the conspiracy.
“Not only do I think the mainstream media is trying to make QAnão the face of the Republican party – I would be willing to bet that most members of the mainstream media know more about Q and its theories than most Republicans,” said Young News of the fox.
“They are obsessed with this because now that Trump has lost, they have had to move their victory beams to silence all Republicans.”
“They are obsessed with this because now that Trump has lost, they have had to change their goal posts to silence all Republicans, Young continued.” And what better way to do that than trying to make it look like every member of the GOP, not just an infinitesimally small group, believes in this absurdity. “
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The controversial newcomer Rep. Greene has received a lot of media attention in recent days. Last week, House Democrats took the unprecedented step of removing her from two committee assignments for defending QAnon violence and conspiracy theories on social media before she was elected to Congress in November. Greene has since tried to distance himself from the movement.
Republicans largely rejected Greene’s earlier comments, but ties to QAnon have made it a household name among cable news viewers. MSNBC’s Joy Reid recently spent half of her hour-long program discussing nothing but Greene.
Although Greene was condemned by many prominent members of the Republican Party, the party largely criticized the House vote to remove Greene from the committees because it did not want Democrats to interfere in Republican Party affairs and set a new precedent for penalizing members for statements. and posts they made before entering Congress.
CNN’s Cuomo acknowledged on Friday that he spends a lot of time covering a freshman member of Congress, but insisted that his story illustrates “everything that is wrong” with the Republican Party.
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“Now, many of you say, ‘Why pay so much attention to Mrs. QAnon?’ Because she is all that is wrong with them and our state of play. A QAnon kook and GOP-Q just fought for her to be a leader in their ranks. It is the most striking example of how toxic things have become, “said Cuomo on Friday.
Last month, CNN media analyst Brian Stelter said Greene would open doors for other Republicans “curious about QAn.”
“It is important to recognize that Congresswoman Greene is a minor piece of a larger movement, a larger phenomenon, other Republicans who are also curious about QA and are playing for a base that has a conspiratorial mind,” said Stelter.
The New York Times reported last week that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $ 500,000 on ads linking Republicans to QAnon, meaning that the media and Democrats are on the same page.
“Getting obsessed with a marginal element and trying to make it the Republican Party’s face is a well-developed Democratic and media strategy.”
However, Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson does not think the tactic is anything new.
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“Getting obsessed with a marginal element and trying to make it the Republican Party’s face is a well-developed media and Democratic strategy,” Jacobson told Fox News.
“We saw this during the Tea Party movement, where you could have a rally with thousands of people and hundreds of posters, but the media would focus on the small number of strange and occasional offensive posters, and put it across the coverage,” Jacobson continued. “So trying to make QAnon look like the Republican Party is in line with that strategy.”
Evie Fordham of Fox News contributed to this report