CNN takes Liz Cheney from daughter of Satan to savior of the Republic
May 17, 2021
Before embracing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as the hero of the anti-Trump hour, CNN previously treated her as just another infamous GOP hack who was on the wrong side of history — on every issue.
It fulfills a pattern that is all too common, with fawning news coverage of conservatives who attack their own party after previous coverage condemned them.
Cheney has become the Republican face of those who blame Trump for everything wrong in politics after she voted for his impeachment in February. Last week she was voted out of her leadership position for continuing to oppose Trump’s leadership in the GOP, as former president.
CNN has run banner headlines helping Cheney appear the hero by decrying Trump’s position as leader of the party as “dangerous” and saying Republicans in the House, according to Cheney, are only supporting Trump “out of fear for their lives.”
Yet previous coverage of Cheney by CNN appears to show her as just the typical out-of-touch Republican.
When, in 2018, Cheney defended the enhanced interrogation and detention program that was run under her father, Dick Cheney, as vice president, CNN ran a lengthy rebuttal from a previous anti-Trump hero, Meghan McCain.
McCain’s father, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, suffering from torture before he served in Congress. Cheney’s comments were directed to the Senator who was a critic of U.S. interrogation methods during the Global War on Terror.
“My father doesn’t need torture explained to him,” Meghan McCain taunted Cheney via Twitter.
My father doesn’t need torture explained to him. https://t.co/ajrtr7Vn5A
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 15, 2018
In 2013, CNN covered a dust-up between Cheney and her sister, Mary Cheney, who married Heather Poe in 2012 and thus is an advocate of same-sex marriage.
“For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage,” Mary Cheney wrote on Facebook according to CNN, citing the New York Times. “Liz – this isn’t just an issue on which we disagree – you’re just wrong – and on the wrong side of history.”
In 2019, CNN recorded Cheney as one of 23 House members who voted against a House resolution that condemned hatred and intolerance because it did not specifically condemn comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) that were widely panned as anti-Semitic.
But the headline was misleading, only offering, “Who voted ‘no’ on the resolution to condemn bigotry, anti-Semitism” rather than offering the more complicated truth — that the no votes came because the resolution wasn’t strong enough on anti-Semitism.
Also in 2019, CNN ran a piece about the Golden Globes that featured Cheney when actor Christian Bale compared her father, Dick Cheney, to Satan.
“Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role,” the actor said about his role in “Vice,” playing then-Vice President Cheney, to which Liz Cheney was quick to defend her father on Twitter.
Satan probably inspired him to do this, too. Christian Bale arrested for 'assault on mother and sister'| The Independent. https://t.co/kesnNno9Zv
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) January 7, 2019
CNN coverage of Liz Cheney completes the pattern of Mitt Romney, John McCain, John Boehner, James Comey and others, none of whose leadership was good enough as Republicans, but became celebrated by the media when they acted as anti-Republicans.