Fallout continues after pro-Trump rioters storm halls of Congress
The 'Special Report' All-Star panel give reaction and analysis to the events on Capitol Hill
A CNN reporter was accused Thursday of pushing China propaganda over a tweet linking the pro-Trump mob that stormed Capitol Hill to Hong Kong protesters acting in defiance of the Chinese Communist Party regime.
Following the violence that disrupted the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory, CNN International correspondent Will Ripley juxtaposed an image of rioters climbing the exterior walls of the Capitol building with an image of protesters who crashed the Hong Kong Legislative Council in 2019.
"Hong Kong, 2019 — Protestors storm Legislative Council Washington, 2021 — Protestors storm US Capitol," Ripley captioned the tweet.
Ripley then explained, "Top image shows HK’s pro-democracy movement and bottom image shows America’s pro-Trump movement. Two very different groups, but both feeling marginalized/persecuted and disrupting a government they don’t trust."
Ripley's comparison was sharply condemned by critics.
"Morally repulsive," former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss reacted. "This is CCP propaganda being delivered by a CNN reporter."
"This is a COMPLETELY WRONG comparison," pro-Democracy Hong Kong activist Nathan Law exclaimed. "The protestors in Hong Kong are fighting for legitimate demands of democracy and freedom. They stormed into a symbol of autocracy and political persecution. I don't think you want to equate the congress in Hong Kong to the US."
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"An embarrassingly bad tweet from a usually top notch journalist," reporter Melissa Chan wrote. "One group is a white nationalist, conspiratorial Q mob wanting to usurp the results of a democratic election, the other group WANTS free and fair elections as they stand against authoritarian Communist China."
"This comparison from is so bloody wrong on many levels. If you don’t know what you are saying, just don’t say it," journalist Vivienne Chow wrote.
"I genuinely believe that someone who speaks Mandarin or Cantonese and has a good grasp on the political mood in Hong Kong wouldn’t have made this comparison," Korean Herald business reporter Hyunsu Yim tweeted.
"Media moving from 'Yesterday’s events were bad' to 'Comrades, bow before Pres. Xi' with surprising haste," Grabien founder and news editor Tom Elliott quipped.
"This is a very bad tweet," The Dispatch editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg stated.
CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
Over the past several months, CNN has repeatedly been accused by critics of pushing Chinese government propaganda throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
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Back in April, Donald Trump Jr. mocked CNN's star anti-Trump reporter Jim Acosta, who accused his father of "scapegoating" China during the height of the outbreak.
"Maybe time for a name change from CNN to Xi NN. It’s much more fitting," Trump Jr. quipped.
That same day, CNN.com was criticized for running an article critics said "literally published Chinese propaganda" by citing a media outlet controlled by the Chinese government that touted the regime's alleged control of the spread within one of its military branches.
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CNN later updated its article, changing the headline and edited the story to make it appear somewhat skeptical of China's claims.
CNN was further mocked in November for a report finally tying the coronavirus's origins to China, something critics said was "10 months" too late.