Monday’s PBS News Hour promoted former CNN reporter Maria Ressa, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression,” but her tough experiences as a journalist in the Philippines taught her the wrong lessons — that freedom of speech on social media is responsible for the rise in authoritarianism around the world, using the left-wing excuse of disinformation to call for the silencing of disagreeable voices online.
Without any irony about free speech, her presence was part of the News Hour’s “On Democracy” series, launched after Trump’s victory, which so far has been an excuse to cue up various liberals to warn darkly that elected President Donald Trump is a dictator.
The title of Ressa’s book alone clues viewers in about the slant of her forthcoming segment.
Co-anchor Geoff Bennett: Nobel…
