For CNN, Mt. Rushmore was 'majestic' in 2008

FPI / July 9, 2020

Mount Rushmore National Memorial hasn't changed.

It is carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. The monument's roughly 60-foot-high granite faces depict U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The monument was completed in 1941. No other faces have been added. It hasn't been moved. But, for leftists in the media, it isn't the same Mt. Rushmore.

For CNN's army of pundits and "journalists," the America where Mt. Rushmore is situated has changed. In 2008, CNN proclaimed the monument to be "majestic." In 2020, it is "racist." Why? Three words — President — Donald — Trump.

During the president's visit to Mt. Rushmore on Independence Day weekend, CNN called the massive carved sculptures of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln a “monument of two slave owners” on “land wrestled away from Native Americans.”

But the monument was something very different when Democrat President Barack Obama visited the monument.

“Barack Obama is campaigning in South Dakota,” CNN anchor Ron Marciano said in 2008. “That state’s primary is Tuesday. Obama arrived there late last night and got a good look around Mount Rushmore — it’s quite a sight if you haven’t seen it.”

“Barack Obama is in South Dakota today,” added fellow CNN anchor Betty Nguyen. “He arrived there last night. Take a look at this. He got a good glimpse of the majestic Mount Rushmore.”

Washington Times columnist Joseph Curl noted that "when Trump visited, somehow the site had morphed into a racist ode to slave owners."

CNN’s Washington correspondent Joe Johns said: “At a time of racial unease, when protesters are tearing down statues of slaveholders and calling for the names of Confederate generals to be removed from army bases, the Rushmore event is a reminder that Trump is fighting to preserve these relics of heritage and history that some see as symbols of oppression. And to indigenous people, Mount Rushmore, with four white presidents, two of whom were slave owners, is one of those symbols.”

CNN correspondent Leyla Santiago said: “President Trump will be at Mount Rushmore, where he’ll be standing in front of a monument of two slave owners and on land wrestled away from Native Americans told that, uh, be focusing on the effort to ‘tear down our country’s history,’” she said.

During her report, a chyron on screen said, “Reexamining ‘Independence’ Day” (yes, the word “Independence” in quotes). And at the end, anchor Jake Tapper said simply: “All right. Leyla Santiago, with that report, thank you so much.”

Curl noted that "many astute viewers caught the blatant two-faced bias."

Trump campaign Deputy Director of Communications Zach Parkinson posted a video clip from 2016, when then-presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders visited the monument.

“In 2016, CNN’s Jeff Zeleny called Mount Rushmore a ‘monument to four great American presidents’ … Bernie Sanders said ‘this is our country at its very best,’ called it an ‘incredible achievement,’ and said it ‘really does make one very proud to be an American,’ ” Parkinson wrote on Twitter.

Parkinson added: “Fascinating how CNN called Mount Rushmore ‘majestic’ and ‘quite a sight’ in 2008 when Obama visited, but now its a symbol of slavery and stolen land.”

And he noted that CNN’s Jim Acosta — a longtime sufferer of Trump Derangement Syndrome — gushed when Obama visited Mount Rushmore, calling it in 2008 a “fitting stop for a presidential contender.”

Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept noted: “Pursuant to the new moral stricture promulgated this week by the NYT & CNN — that Mount Rushmore is a shameful monument to racism and white supremacy — both CNN and Bernie Sanders ought to repent for this praise they jointly heaped on it in 2016.”

Curl noted: "As you already know, we’ve descended into full idiocy. The world — with its cancel culture and PC police, its race riots and pandemic panic — has gone insane, and there’s no end in sight."

Think that’s hyperbole? Then consider this: CNN wants to ban such “racist” words and phrases as “blackball,” “sold down the river,” “whitelist” and, of course, “master bedroom.” The liberal cable network notes that the term “master bedroom” first appeared in 1926 — 63 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves — but adds this wonderful line, “While it’s unclear whether the term is rooted in American slavery on plantations, it evokes that history.”

Curl continued: "What’s the point of all the madness, you ask? It’s all to discredit President Trump, who CNN and most every liberal 'news' outlet has been painting as a blatant racist since before he moved into the White House. And for CNN, it’s a game they play openly and brazenly."

Free Press International