It’s funny.
The far left and its establishment media shills are pretty darn quick to cry about “missing context” anytime a viral video or clip begins to paint their ideology in negative light.
CNN, in particular, is pretty quick to weaponize “missing context” to best serve its needs.
So imagine the humiliation this network must’ve felt — hypothetically, of course, given that CNN has no scruples — when it was caught red-handed in a “missing context” fiasco of its own.
To set the stage, CNN was taking a play right out of the leftist manifesto when it began using the horrific shooting that left four dead at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, to push its leftist agenda.
The agenda in this case involved torpedoing the firmly entrenched No. 2 GOP presidential hopeful, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, over the Jacksonville shooting.
Take a look at this clip that’s been making the rounds, showing a breaking CNN panel, hosted by Jim Acosta on Saturday, about the Jacksonville shooting:
“I’ve been texting with DeSantis’ press secretary. I asked specifically if he plans to deviate away from his campaigning for president of the United States to go and fly to Jacksonville… and he said we will let you know” pic.twitter.com/HuWvjrFAwZ
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 26, 2023
“So I’ve been texting with [DeSantis’] press secretary, Jeremy Redfern,” CNN correspondent Isabel Rosales began. “I asked him specifically if the governor plans to deviate away from his campaigning for president of the United States to go to fly to Jacksonville in order to address this emergency situation in person.
“And he said, quote, ‘We will let you know.'”
It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to see what CNN was getting at here: the megalomaniac Republican governor of Florida can’t even be bothered to abandon his vain presidential pursuit to tend to the locals who elected him to public office.
The “We will let you know” quote was just the cold and calculating kicker to this shameless anti-DeSantis hatchet job.
There’s just one problem with what Rosales was peddling… it was missing context.
The aforementioned press secretary Redfern took to X to post his rebuttal to Rosales:
And by “specifically” she meant to say “that’s not what I asked at all.”
Seeing as @RosalesReport decided to lie about the context of our conversation, I’m going to do something that I wouldn’t normally do and put our conversation on the internet.
Here is our brief exchange: https://t.co/TyN6r7gSRH pic.twitter.com/A8aUkgJfDR
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) August 27, 2023
“And by ‘specifically,’ she meant to say ‘that’s not what I asked at all,'” Redfern posted. “Seeing as @RosalesReport decided to lie about the context of our conversation, I’m going to do something I wouldn’t normally do and put our conversation on the internet.”
The screen shot attached to that X post showed a text message exchange, purportedly between Redfern and Rosales.
“Here’s a video you are good to share with your team,” Redfern said in the text.
“Thank you!!” Rosales responded. “Jeremy is Gov. DeSantis considering flying to [Jacksonville] due to this shooting?”
“Will let you know,” Redfern posted, before Rosales thanked him and seemed to end the exchange.
Now, Rosales clearly didn’t fabricate this exchange, but did leave out a rather important detail while speaking on CNN.
Notably, there is a marked difference between “specifically if the governor plans to deviate away from his campaigning for president of the United States” and “is Gov. DeSantis considering flying to Jax.”
The former, purported question is in specific regards to suspending campaigning to return to his home state. The latter, actualized question is in regards to only about DeSantis visiting Jacksonville.
Those are two similar, but ultimately very different, versions of the same question.
And that either matters or it doesn’t.
If CNN wants to employ these aggressively deceptive tactics, have at it. Again, Rosales didn’t lie, per se.
But don’t start complaining when the other side begins doing the exact same thing.
You can’t have it both ways.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
