A producer for MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” called China’s human rights abuses an “alleged” occurrence, despite the U.S. government declaring that China’s actions in Xinjiang amounted to a genocide.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced earlier this month that the Biden administration was launching a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing because of China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.”
Far-left MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin appeared to downplay the credibility of the genocide and human rights abuses committed by China in a tweet that he posted on Sunday.
“Japan has decided not to send senior officials to the Beijing Olympics in February — a move that will align it with the U.S. diplomatic boycott over China’s alleged human rights abuses,” Griffin wrote on Twitter.
Griffin’s remarks sparked widespread backlash on Twitter with the word “alleged” becoming one of Twitter’s top-10 trending news items late on Sunday evening.
Notable responses to the tweet included:
- Richard Grenell, former Acting Director of National Intelligence: “It’s truly pathetic that a U.S. media outlet who pushed the Russian collusion hoax for 4 years, the phony Russian bounty story and believes Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinformation doesn’t believe Tiananmen Square was real.”
- Max Abrahms, international security professor: “Thank you MSNBC producer for saying that China’s human rights abuses are just alleged and not firmly established you absolute clown.”
- Gary Connolly, political commentator: “Yes, ‘China’s alleged human rights abuses’ … wait until Kyle finds out what China allegedly does with the alphabet people.”
- Stephen L. Miller, political commentator: “The funniest thing is picturing Kyle wanting to tweet a harmless news info thing, but then having to send it to NBC W&M for clearance, waiting for a response, and then waiting for approval for This dumb benign post, all because China might not approve.” He added, “If you have to do all of that my dude, maybe just decide to stop tweeting and delete the account.”
- Ian Miles Cheong, journalist: “Alleged? How much is China paying you to wash Xi’s feet?”
- Bryan Suits, political commentator: “Anyone directly connected to @NBCUniversal that even references China’s well-reported human rights abuses via social media should have an updated C.V. and recent headshot ready to go. Weibo is watching.”
- Rushan Abbas: “As a relative of an Uyghur victim of #China’s genocidal policies, @kylegriffin1 , I’m offended with your choice of words. “Alleged” human rights abuses? Are Uyghur lives & testimony discardable? For Americans, genocide must be a hard line.”
- Brian Riedl, economist: “‘Alleged.’ Kyle’s network is covering the Olympics, so they have joined the Hollywood and NBA in kissing up to Beijing. It all conveniently shows us whose virtue signaling on all other political and human rights issues can be safely ignored.”
- Giancarlo Sopo, media strategist: “This will age worse than milk left outside, but it also doesn’t matter because the left holds most of the institutional power in this country. That means it’ll be swept under the rug, just like the New York Times’ support for Stalin and Castro. The rules don’t apply to them.”
Other notable responses included:
NBC paid $7.75 billion for the rights to the Olympics from 2022 to 2032, including Beijing, so the word “alleged” is doing a lot of CYA here. https://t.co/becheIv4mi
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) December 27, 2021
"Alleged" https://t.co/ra4b8ti8k6
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) December 27, 2021
NBC chooses to air the Olympics in China, despite the opportunity it gives one of the greatest human rights abusers in the world to whitewash its crimes.
Also, from NBC talent: “alleged human rights abuses.” https://t.co/8dys3RsjKc
— Chris Hartline (@ChrisHartline) December 27, 2021
MSNBC promotes CCP propaganda. Typical. https://t.co/OKQNa99mnD
— Elliott Hamilton (@ElliottRHams) December 27, 2021
2 Democrats in Congress sent a letter to NBCUniversal CEO in mid December calling for commitment from the broadcaster to provide background on human rights abuses over there in China during coverage of Olympics.
MSNBC Senior producer with over 1 million followers: “Alleged” pic.twitter.com/a9hZ2YJ4Ob
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) December 27, 2021
“Alleged.” What cld possibly cause someone to hedge at this point. Hmm https://t.co/ZgGjLCntV2
— Rebeccah Heinrichs (@RLHeinrichs) December 27, 2021
“Alleged” 👀👀 https://t.co/12Pi6UBHWL
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) December 27, 2021
“Alleged”. FFS. https://t.co/kJ30ixiXut
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) December 27, 2021
Alleged senior producer at MSNBC 😵💫
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 (@ChristinaPushaw) December 27, 2021