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User:CaroleHenson/Ben Swann/July 2018 review

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Line-by-line review of Ben Swann. See Talk:Ben Swann/Archives/2018/July#Line-by-line review

This version was moved to the main article on July 28, 2018.

Ben Swann
Ben Swann speaking at the 2013 Liberty Political Action Conference (LPAC) in Chantilly, Virginia.
Swann in 2013
Born
Benjamin Swann

(1978-07-17) July 17, 1978 (age 46)
El Paso, Texas
Alma materBrigham Young University
California State University, Dominguez Hills
OccupationJournalist
TelevisionKFOX-TV/El Paso (1999–2007)
KTSM-TV/El Paso (2008–2010)
WXIX-TV/Newport, KY-Cincinnati (2010–2013)
Newsmax TV (2014)
RT America (2014–2015)
WGCL-TV/Atlanta (2015–2018)
Websitetruthinmedia.com

Benjamin Swann (born July 17, 1978) is an American television news anchor, political commentator and journalist. He has worked as a sports producer, news journalist and producer, and managing editor on network affiliates, FOX, and RT America of the Russian state-owned TV network RT. He received a number of television journalism awards by 2009.

Swann created the series, Reality Check, which he used to espouse conspiracy theories, such as Pizzagate, and those surrounding the Aurora, Colorado and Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and the 9/11 attacks. His viewpoints have often mirrored Russian propaganda, including Pizzagate and the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. He has also questioned the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War, whether United States had a role in the development of ISIL, and other prevailing opinions about geopolitics and whether vaccines cause autism.

He was forced by his employer to bring down the internet media channel and most of his social media sites in 2017. He was fired in 2018 from CBS affiliate WGCL-TV in Atlanta, Georgia for pursuing his Reality Check show and alt-right theories, particularly Pizzagate. Since then, he has been a contributor to a Libertarian and Conservative news commentary source and has hosted Reality Check.

Education

[edit]

Swann was homeschooled with nine brothers and sisters in El Paso, Texas, and earned a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from Brigham Young University in 1993, at the age of 15, and a master's degree in History from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1994, at the age of 16.[1][2]

Career

[edit]

Swann's initial and ongoing interest has been to be a church leader. At the age of 15 he became a youth pastor at his local Baptist Church in Canutillo in El Paso County, Texas. At the age of 19, he began preaching at revivals in Texas. Unable to find a position as a pastor in El Paso, he followed one of his brother's suggestion to get a job in TV news. At that time, four of his brothers worked in television.[3] Three were news cameramen.[1] He worked for a period of time for KDBC-TV. In 1998, he moved to KFOX to work as a news cameraman.[3]

After working in Portland, Oregon, as an assistant pastor, Swann returned to the Fox station KFOX in El Paso as a sports producer.[3] He then filmed, edited, and reported his own news and sports stories. Swan became a morning co-anchor and managing editor at the station.[1][2] In 2008, he became an evening news anchor for the NBC affiliate KTSM-TV.[1][2][4] He received a number of awards beginning in 2002.[5] For instance, he won Lone Star Emmy Awards in 2005[6] and 2009,[7] as well as a national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2002 for Continuing Coverage of Alexandra Flores.[2][5] During this period, Swann was an investigative journalist for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN News), writing about Mexico's drug wars on the Texas border.[2]

He left El Paso in December 2010 to become an evening TV news presenter at Cincinnati, Ohio's Fox affiliate WXIX-TV, co-anchoring with Tricia Macke.[1][2] He produced a series entitled Reality Check that garnered media attention for his advocacy of Ron Paul's positions.[8] While he was at WXIX-TV, he started a Facebook page called "Full Disclosure" where, according to Adweek, he asked "questions about controversial subjects he says are ignored by the national media."[9]

On October 23, 2012, Swann served as a panel member on a third-party presidential candidates debate hosted by Larry King in Chicago, Illinois, and broadcast on C-SPAN, Al Jazeera America, and online through the sponsorship of the Free & Equal Elections Foundation.[10][11]

In April 2013, Swann announced he would be leaving WXIX-TV Fox 19 at the end of May,[9] and then started a social media channel called "Truth In Media" to continue production of his show Reality Check.[12] Truth in Media was a collaboration with Republican Liberty Caucus and Joshua Cook.[13] His Reality Check show covered controversial stories. The Daily Beast has reported that many of Swann's segments echo talking points from media outlets such as RT and InfoWars that are rarely seen in more mainstream news media.[13] Swann's Reality Check segments were uploaded to his YouTube channel and had garnered 10,376,570 views and over 73,500 subscribers before he took his channel offline.[14] One theme of Swann's Reality Check has been his support of Ron Paul's presidential campaigns, with his goal of providing fairer coverage for Paul than the conservative or liberal national press. However, he provided more misinformation, particularly regarding the authorship and the veracity of questionable content in the newsletters put out by the campaign.[15]

From May 2013 until June 2015, Swann appeared regularly on RT America in Washington, D.C.[13] For three months in 2014 he hosted the Ben Swann Radio Show on the Republic Broadcasting Network, a far-right network that has aired holocaust denial and other antisemitic conspiracy theories.[16]

In 2015, he was hired by CBS affiliate WGCL-TV in Atlanta, Georgia.[17] He was suspended in January 2017 for running a story attempting to revive the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, and was reinstated after he took down his Truth in Media and Reality Check sites.[18][19] He was fired on January 29, 2018, after the station learned that he had been trying to revive Reality Check without their knowledge and permission.[18][20] The station's general manager said that Swann's Reality Check program had "often veered into alt-right conspiracy theories."[21] According to Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, he has lost credibility as an objective journalist due to his interest in furthering conspiracy theories.[22]

Swann relaunched Reality Check in 2018 after he was fired by WGCL-TV.[23] He is also a contributor for the Libertarian and Conservative news commentary site Liberty Nation.[24]

Controversial views and claims

[edit]

Swann is known for promoting a number of conspiracy theories and false claims, several of which are aligned with narratives pushed by his former employer, the Russian state-run RT.[25][13]

While working for a Cincinnati-area Fox affiliate WXIX-TV in 2012, Swann suggested on his personal YouTube channel that Adam Lanza did not commit the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by himself.[22][26] See Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting conspiracy theories. He also discounted the conclusion that 2012 Aurora shooting was conducted by a lone gunman.[13][8] There is no evidence that any additional shooters were present at the shootings. The theory of multiple gunmen may have been influenced by early news reports of the events.[27][28][29]

While working for CBS affiliate WGCL-TV, Ben Swann dedicated a Reality Check segment to the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory that emerged during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle, contended that Pizzagate may have been true, and called for a police investigation of the allegations.[30][31] Misinformation regarding Pizzagate was spread through social media and websites.[32][33] The story was discredited by a wide array of organizations, including the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, fact-checking sites, and reputable news organizations.[34][35][36][37] After the Pizzagate segment aired, Swann was briefly suspended from WGCL-TV and he later closed some of his social media accounts,[38] but he left one Facebook account where he continued to post conspiracy theories.[39]

In 2013, Swann questioned whether the Syrian government used chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War.[40][41] In December 2016, Swann aired a segment titled "If (Syrian President Bashar al) Assad is Committing Genocide in Aleppo, Why Are People Celebrating in the Streets?"[13] The piece used language that was similar to Russian propaganda about Syria. In addition, Russian-backed production and distribution of polished videos that were spread on Facebook and websites in the United States.[25] There is overwhelming evidence that Assad's forces were responsible for chemical attacks in Syria according to a fact-finding article that examined information from Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch, intelligence gained by world leaders, and an investigative report by Bellingcat. This conclusion is based upon the Assad regime's track record for use of chemical weapons, sightings of helicopters, and footage of gas cylinders. While evidence of chemical use by Assad's forces is clear, use of chemical weapons by rebel forces has not been ruled out.[42]

Swann has also sought crowdfunding for an episode titled, “U.S and partners intentionally created ISIS”.[13] According to national security analyst Peter Bergen, there are four key factors in the development of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. One is the the repressive regime of President Bashar al-Assad that resulted in the Syrian Civil War in 2011, and ISIS forces gaining strength in Syria in 2013. Saddam Hussein's former commanders supporting ISIS in its victories. Incompetent rule of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki which resulted in Sunnis preferring ISIS to the Shia government. Lastly, the Iraqi army did not effectively manage the threat by ISIS in Iraq.[43]

Swann has questioned whether 7 World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, the way authorities said it did.[22] See also 9/11 conspiracy theories. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigated the events of 7 World Trade Center.[44]: 6–7  NIST determined that diesel fuel did not play an important role, nor did the structural damage from the collapse of the Twin Towers. Fires burned out of control during the afternoon, buckling critical columns, and ultimately causing the building to fall downward as a single unit. The fires, which were fueled by office contents and burned for seven hours, along with the lack of water, were the key reasons for the collapse.[45]: 21–22  This made the old 7 WTC the only steel skyscraper at the time to have collapsed from fire.[46][47] The NIST report found no evidence supporting the conspiracy theories that 7 World Trade Center was brought down by controlled demolition.[45]: 26–28 

In an appearance in 2015 RT America, Swann said that “any credible evidence does not seem to exist” that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.[13] The plane's crash was investigated by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and the Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT), who concluded that the airliner was downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine.[48][49]

Swann has hosted on his personal website posts with headlines about the public image of Vladimir Putin, such as "Putin: Russian military not threatening anybody, we are protecting our borders" and "Putin demonized for thwarting neocon plan for global domination."[50][51] He started out the latter post, "For it is a rule which invariably holds true – if the Western elites praise the leader of a foreign country it means he is doing something which is good for those elites and bad for his country. If he's demonized, as Putin is, it's the other way round."[50] By western commentators and the Russian opposition, Putin has been described as a dictator.[52][53] American diplomats said Putin's Russia had become "a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a "virtual mafia state."[54][55] The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project named Putin as the 2014 Person of the Year, recognizing "the person who does the most to enable and promote organized criminal activity."[56][57] The Dalai Lama criticized Putin's foreign policy practices, claiming it to be responsible for isolating Russia from the rest of the world.[58][59][60]

Regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Swann hosted a segment on WGCL-TV titled “5 Problems with CIA Claim That Russia Hacked DNC/Podesta Emails.”[13] It is the consensus of the US and Western intelligence agencies that Russian agents hacked the emails, and in July 2018, 12 Russian military intelligence agents were indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for allegedly hacking the email accounts and networks of Democratic Party officials.[61]

Swann is an anti-vaccine activist and, by way of conspiracy theories, has attempted to deny or discredit the scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause autism.[62] Scientific consensus is that vaccines do not cause autism.[63][64][65]

Personal life

[edit]

He was married in 1999 to his wife, Jasmine.[66] He lived in Portland, Oregon, where he was an assistant pastor at a Presbyterian church.[1] After six[3] or 18 months, he moved back to El Paso.[1] Swann and his wife have five children,[2] who have been home-schooled by Jasmine.[66] He was ordained in 2000 at the Southern Baptist Convention.[3] In 2001, he was hired as the youth minister for the Trinity-First United Methodist Church in El Paso.[3] As of 2014, he has been a youth pastor for 17 years.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Kiesewetter, John (December 13, 2010). "Precocious Texan climbed ranks to anchor". Cincinnati Enquirer. Abridged version at "Meet Ben Swann, New Fox19 Anchor". Cincinnati.com. December 13, 2010. Archived from the original on 1 June 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "FOX19 names Ben Swann as new co-anchor". Fox19. 2010. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Leonard Martinez (July 25, 2003). "Preaching the Good News". El Paso Times. pp. D1–D2. Retrieved July 27, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. second page
  4. ^ NPT Staff (February 8, 2008). "Media Watch: Swann Flies to a New Station". Newspaper Tree. El Paso, TX: EPmediagroup.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Ben Swann: KFOX Morning News Anchor/Reporter". KFOX. January 24, 2006. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
  6. ^ "Outstanding New Segment: Breaking News/Single Story". 2005 Lone Star Emmy Awardees. Lone Star Chapter of the NATAS. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  7. ^ "News Special". 2009 Lone Star Emmy Nominations. Lone Star Chapter of the NATAS. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  8. ^ a b Seitz-Wald, Alex (14 January 2013). "Sandy Hook truther-reporter?". Salon.
  9. ^ a b Eck, Kevin (April 3, 2013). "Anchor Ben Swann to Leave WXIX". Adweek.
  10. ^ Harper, Jennifer (19 October 2012). "Inside the Beltway: Third Party Goes Forth". The Washington Times. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  11. ^ Groer, Annie (24 October 2012). "Third-party candidates finally get their own presidential debate". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  12. ^ Eck, Kevin (January 19, 2017). "WGCL Anchor Tries to Prove Pizzagate is Real Without Any Evidence". Adweek.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins, Ben (2017-01-19). "Meet Ben Swann, the Republican Pizzagate Truther Hosting Atlanta's CBS Nightly News". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  14. ^ "Ben Swann". YouTube. Retrieved 2016-07-13.
  15. ^ Wemple, Erik (January 19, 2012). "Cincinnati anchor goes deep on Paul campaign". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 3, 2013. 'Reality Checks probing of national political issues is working for Fox 19.... [The stories] consistently fill out four of the top five traffic-generators for the Fox 19 site.
  16. ^ Johnson, Timothy (19 January 2017). "CBS Atlanta Anchor Who Gave "Pizzagate" Conspiracy Theory Credence Previously Worked With Anti-Semitic Outlet". Media Matters for America.
  17. ^ Ho, Rodney (June 15, 2015). "CBS46 management explains radical changes including five new anchors June 15". Atlanta Journal Constitution.
  18. ^ a b Ho, Rodney (January 29, 2018). "CBS46's Ben Swann fired after attempt to bring back Reality Check". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018.
  19. ^ Ho, Rodney (January 27, 2017). "CBS46's Ben Swann returning Monday January 30 after post-'Pizzagate' hiatus". Atlantic Journal-Constitution. The Daily Beast also noted that he had worked for Russia Today, a Russian government funded media operation...
  20. ^ Ho, Rodney (July 4, 2018). "MSNBC's Thomas Roberts returns to Atlanta as a CBS46 evening anchor". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  21. ^ Warren, James (January 30, 2018). "How a bulldog TV host turned lapdog in Trump interview". Poynter Institute.
  22. ^ a b c Haberman, Maggie (January 13, 2016). "'Super PAC' Backing Jeb Bush Uses Conspiracy-Minded Journalist in Ad". The New York Times.
  23. ^ Ho, Rodney (January 31, 2018). "Ben Swann reintroduces his Truth in Media site and Reality Check program". Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  24. ^ "Ben Swann". Liberty Nation. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  25. ^ a b Collins, Ben (28 December 2016). "Putin TV: Aleppo Slaughter Is Fake News". The Daily Beast.
  26. ^ Weigel, David (January 14, 2016). "How a libertarian TV host became the focus of a Bush-Rubio fight". The Washington Post.
  27. ^ "Sandy Hook Exposed". Snopes.com. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  28. ^ Stuart, Hunter (11 February 2013). "Sandy Hook Hoax Theories Explained: Why Newtown 'Truther' Arguments Don't Hold Up". Huffington Post. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  29. ^ Sieczkowski, Cavan (16 January 2013). "Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theory Video Debunked By Experts". Huffington Post. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  30. ^ Wemple, Erik; Wemple, Erik (2017-01-18). "CBS affiliate's 'big question': Why no law enforcement investigation of 'Pizzagate' allegations?". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  31. ^ "'Why Hasn't Any Investigation Taken Place?' CBS Host Defends Pizzagate Conspiracy". www.mediaite.com. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  32. ^ Alexander, Cedric (December 7, 2016). "Fake news is domestic terrorism". CNN. Archived from the original on December 9, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  33. ^ Peck, Jamie (November 28, 2016). "What the hell is #Pizzagate?". Death and Taxes. Archived from the original on December 3, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  34. ^ Ariens, Chris (January 19, 2017). "CBS News Distances Itself From Affiliate's Pizzagate Report". Adweek.
  35. ^ Gillin, Joshua (December 6, 2016). "How Pizzagate went from fake news to a real problem". PolitiFact. Archived from the original on December 6, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  36. ^ LaCapria, Kim (December 2, 2016). "A detailed conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate" holds that a pedophile ring is operating out of a Clinton-linked pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong". Snopes.com.
  37. ^ Alam, Hannah (December 5, 2016). "Conspiracy peddlers continue pushing debunked 'pizzagate' tale". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on December 7, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2016. One might think that police calling the motive a 'fictitious conspiracy theory' would put an end to the claim that inspired a gunman from North Carolina to attack a family pizzeria in Washington over the weekend
  38. ^ Ho, Rodney (February 1, 2017). "Ben Swann's Truth in Media site down, Twitter, Instagram, FB accounts gone". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  39. ^ "Ben Swann and Pizzagate". The Atlanta Constitution. December 25, 2017. p. D1. Retrieved July 25, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ^ Rachelsb (September 17, 2013). "Ben Swann's controversial 'truth' event attracts controversy -- and campaigns". Star Tribune.
  41. ^ "The Two Major Problems With President Obama's Syria Address". Ben Swann. September 11, 2013. Archived from the original on September 13, 2013.
  42. ^ Williams, Martin (April 20, 2018). "Syria chemical attack: the evidence". Channel 4 News. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  43. ^ Bergen, Peter (January 4, 2016). "Did Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton create ISIS?". CNN. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  44. ^ McAllister, Therese (December 12, 2006). "WTC 7 Technical Approach and Status Summary" (PDF). NIST. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2008. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
  45. ^ a b NIST NCSTAR1-A: Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 (PDF). NIST. November 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
  46. ^ Rudin, Mike (July 4, 2008). "9/11 third tower mystery 'solved'". BBC News. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  47. ^ "7 World Trade Center - The Skyscraper Center". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Archived from the original on April 20, 2013.
  48. ^ Crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 (PDF) (Report). Dutch Safety Board. 13 October 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2015.
  49. ^ Weaver, Matthew. "MH17 crash report: Dutch investigators confirm Buk missile hit plane – live updates". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  50. ^ a b Swann, Ben (November 8, 2014). "Putin demonized for thwarting neocon plan for global domination". Archived from the original on August 18, 2015.
  51. ^ "Putin: Russian military not threatening anybody, we are protecting our borders". Ben Swann. November 12, 2016. Archived from the original on December 12, 2016.
  52. ^ Andrew Osborn (25 September 2011). "Fears Vladimir Putin will turn Russia into outright dictatorship". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
  53. ^ William J. Dobson (10 June 2012). "What, Me a Dictator?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  54. ^ David Leigh; Luke Harding (2011). WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy. PublicAffairs. p. 223. ISBN 978-1-61039-062-0.
  55. ^ Marcel Van Herpen (25 January 2013). Putinism: The Slow Rise of a Radical Right Regime in Russia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-137-28280-4.
  56. ^ "Vladimir Putin Wins OCCRP's Person of Year for 2014". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. 1 January 2015.
  57. ^ "Investigative Journalists Name Putin Corruption's 'Person Of The Year'". RFERL. 1 January 2015.
  58. ^ Golding (September 7, 2014). "Dalai Lama: Putin wants to 'rebuild' the Berlin Wall". New York Post.
  59. ^ "Putin is 'self-centred', Dalai Lama says". Times of India. September 7, 2014.
  60. ^ Henderson (September 7, 2014). "Dalai Lama attacks 'self-centred' Vladimir Putin". The Telegraph.
  61. ^ 12 Russians indicted in Mueller investigation. CNN.com, July 13, 2018
  62. ^ Richard Moskowitz, MD (September 19, 2017). Vaccines: A Reappraisal. Skyhorse Publishing. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-5107-2258-3.
  63. ^ Bonhoeffer J, Heininger U (2007). "Adverse events following immunization: perception and evidence" (PDF). Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases. 20 (3): 237–46. doi:10.1097/QCO.0b013e32811ebfb0. PMID 17471032. S2CID 40669829. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-26.
  64. ^ Boseley, Sarah (February 2, 2010). "Lancet retracts 'utterly false' MMR paper". The Guardian. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
  65. ^ Taylor, Luke E.; Swerdfeger, Amy L.; Eslick, Guy D. (June 2014). "Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies". Vaccine. 32 (29): 3623–9. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.085. PMID 24814559.
  66. ^ a b John Kiesewetter (December 12, 2010). "Precocious Texan climbed ranks to anchor". The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. 27. Retrieved July 26, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
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Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:American male journalists Category:American television reporters and correspondents Category:Brigham Young University alumni Category:California State University, Dominguez Hills alumni Category:Journalists from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Journalists from Ohio Category:Journalists from Texas Category:Journalists from Washington, D.C. Category:People from Atlanta Category:People from El Paso, Texas Category:People from Washington, D.C. Category:Television anchors from Atlanta Category:Television anchors from Cincinnati Category:Television anchors from Washington, D.C.

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