Valparaiso YMCA Accused Of Censorship After Banning CNN From TVs
CHICAGO (CBS) — Not long after President-elect Donald Trump accused CNN of being “fake news” and refused to take a question from a CNN reporter, the Valparaiso Family YMCA has declared the channel off-limits in its workout room.
“To me, it’s blatant censorship that I find very surprising,” said Greg Quartucci, who has been a member of the YMCA in Valparaiso for more than a decade.
He said CNN has been a fixture on a TV at the Valparaiso Y for years.
“The timing of this was very peculiar because I think it was basically a day or two after Mr. Trump claimed that CNN was fake news,” Valparaiso YMCA member Greg Quartucci said. “I think they switched to the cooking channel.”
He said the Y turned off CNN shortly after Trump’s angry confrontation with CNN correspondent Jim Acosta at a news conference last week. When Acosta tried to ask a question at Trump’s first post-election news conference, the president-elect repeatedly shut him down.
“No, not you, your organization is terrible. Quiet. Quiet,” he said. As Acosta continued trying to ask a question, talking over another reporter, Mr. Trump continued: “Don’t be rude. Don’t be rude. Don’t. Be. Rude. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.”
Quartucci said the Y has given in to a minority who complained about CNN, and he called it “blatant censorship.”
“It is a Christian organization. It’s all about freedom and opportunity, and what they’re doing, I personally think is against what they have on their walls and against what they have as their mission,” he said.
A statement from the Valparaiso Y said:
“In order to eliminate perceived political bias associated with national news outlets, the Valparaiso Family YMCA will only be showing local news channels in the future.”