On Thursday night, leftist cable news network CNN is set to hold a virtual town hall on the coronavirus featuring experts on the pandemic. Among those experts are a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and a high-school dropout.
CNN’s Coronavirus: Facts and Fears, which will be hosted by Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta, will feature former acting CDC director Richard Besser, former HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
That’s right, “the most trusted name in news” is featuring Greta Thunberg on its expert panel on COVID-19. Thunberg’s main expertise on the subject consists of the possibility that she and her father might have suffered from the virus in March.
Former acting CDC director Richard Besser, former HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius and activist Greta Thunberg join @AndersonCooper & @DrSanjayGupta for a live #CNNTownHall. Coronavirus – Facts and Fears, Thursday at 8 p.m. ET pic.twitter.com/I4FrXgwaL6
— CNN (@CNN) May 13, 2020
The move set fire to social media, with Thunberg trending number one on Twitter for several hours after the announcement. Donald Trump, Jr. echoed many of the commenters, writing: “Greta Thunberg having a remarkable career already in that as teenager she’s now a world renowned infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist AND a leading scientific voice when it comes to global climate policy. Just wow so impressive.”
To be clear, this is not a Greta Thunberg issue; it’s a CNN issue. CNN set her up and allowed her to become the subject of so much ridicule. It’s not Greta’s fault that CNN is including her on its panel. In fact, Greta seems to have more sense than the network. “Tonight I’ll be interviewed on CNN to talk about the new campaign supporting UNICEF during COVID-19 and about being an activist in a world altered by the coronavirus,” Thunberg tweeted Thursday morning. “It seems some people thought I was going to be on an expert panel, which of course has never been the case.”
But Thunberg hasn’t been quiet on coronavirus. Like many in the climate-hysteria movement, she has been ready and willing to link the two issues in any way she can. In late April, UNICEF reported that Thunberg had launched a children-first campaign — which was funded by Danish NGO Human Act — to allegedly protect children against COVID-19.
“Like the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is a child-right’s crisis,” Thunberg said. “It will affect children now and in the long term, but vulnerable groups will be impacted the most. I’m asking everyone to step up and join me in support of UNICEF’s vital work to save children’s lives, to protect health and continue education.”
To say Thunberg “launched” the initiative is a stretch. More correctly, Human Act used young Greta as a face with which to garner attention to its campaign.
And similarly, CNN promoted the teenager as one of its coronavirus panel’s “experts.” The ratings-challenged network is obviously using Thunberg, who has an extremely passionate following among climate alarmists, as a ploy to bring in those viewers.
Thunberg is not even an expert in the area that she is known for, namely climate change. Using her inexplicable celebrity in this way is an incredibly cynical move designed only to gain viewers who otherwise would not be interested enough to tune in to this event. Like the entire climate-hysteric movement, CNN is using Thunberg. And it’s shameful.
But it’s not surprising. It’s just more evidence of the network’s complete lack of any journalistic integrity.
Image: screenshot from Twitter post
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached a [email protected]
