Beyond Parody: CNN Taps Greta Thunberg for Expert Coronavirus Panel

The brave, hard-hitting journalists over at CNN are hosting a town hall Thursday evening called Coronavirus: Facts and Fears. Our First Amendment warriors are only bringing viewers the best of experts, such as former CDC Director Richard Besser, former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and … teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.

You literally cannot make this stuff up. This would be a masterful parody. It could have been one of the Babylon Bee’s finest works. Yet no, this is actually the reality of CNN in 2020.

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

There are almost no words for how ridiculous this is. Anchor Chris Cuomo has touted CNN as the “facts first” network. Reliable Sources (ironic) host Brian Stelter regularly tut-tuts Fox News (sometimes justifiably) for having unqualified guests speaking on expert subjects. But at least they don’t tell their viewers to take their coronavirus wisdom from 17-year-old, troubled teenagers.

The same liberal journalists who have scolded people for so much as questioning the wisdom of the federal government’s top coronavirus experts, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, are now literally telling people to get their scientific analysis from Greta Thunberg.

To be clear, you shouldn’t hold contempt for Thunberg — you should feel bad for her. She is a deeply troubled young woman with a long history of struggles with depression, OCD, eating disorders, bullying, and more. Sadly, she has latched onto an alarmist, unscientific doomsday tale of a pending climate apocalypse as a way of coping. There’s nothing horribly wrong with this; Thunberg is a young woman of admirable passion and should pursue her beliefs. What’s disturbing is to see liberal journalists exploit such a young, ill-informed activist to push their political agenda even to her detriment.

Frankly, it’s ridiculous that liberal journalists include Thunberg in their climate change coverage, and she has a history of misstatements and offers no expertise of any kind. But at least that is actually her area of focus, one could say. The idea that Thunberg is going to be made a star of CNN’s coronavirus coverage … just boggles the mind. The activist’s climate change views are ill-informed already, but no doubt she knows even less about infectious disease, economics, and public health.

This isn’t what you’re supposed to get from CNN, supposedly the “facts first” network. This is the kind of thing you’re supposed to read in the Onion. But increasingly, it’s hard to tell the two apart.

Source: The Washington Examiner