CNN Host: You Know, Maybe We Should Admit to Censoring People

They’re getting close. Sooo close. And yet, still not quite there.

Give Abby Phillip some credit, though, for progress. Her Saturday morning panel show discussed Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, and Kmele Foster suggested that progressives need to acknowledge their role in censoring their political opponents for, oh, years. Phillip immediately agreed and extended the argument (via Twitchy):

🚨NEW: CNN’s Abby Phillip calls on “liberals” to *ADMIT* they censored and canceled too much🚨

“They should acknowledge — not just in passing — but actively acknowledge where things went wrong.”

“It’s not just enough to say, ‘Well, my cancel culture was fine, but yours is… pic.twitter.com/36OQZ9TM0P

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) September 20, 2025

FOSTER: This is the ideal argument for limited government. There used to be conservatives in this country, a libertarian. I still believe in that. And look, I actually do want to call out something I heard earlier this week Ezra Klein and Ross Douthat having a conversation. And there was this moment where Ezra says, you know, I probably needed to acknowledge back a couple of years ago that we were a little too censorious, that the left was actually interested in kind of intimidating —

PHILLIP: I think that’s something more liberals should say.

FOSTER: I think it would help.

PHILLIP: They should acknowledge, not just in passing, but actively acknowledge where things went wrong. That’s the only way to move forward.

FOSTER: Agreed.

PHILLIP: I think, in a way, because otherwise — ALLISON: What would we acknowledge?

PHILLIP: I think you have to acknowledge that there is a — listen, cancel culture was a thing. OK, it was actually a thing. And it’s not it’s not just enough to say, well, my cancel culture was fine, but yours is wrong. There has to be an acknowledgment that, yes, now I think everybody understands what free speech really looks like and what it means. And then you have to apply that thinking to what was happening four or five or six years ago and say something.

It wasn’t just ‘cancel culture.’ It was a campaign to actively deplatorm opponents, both individually and organizationally. We’ll get to that in a moment, though; at least Phillip acknowledges the problem exists at all, which is more than most in her industry, and more than most at CNN.

Did this lead to a revelatory moment on-air for CNN? Well, not exactly:

ALLISON: But this is the difference about — I don’t like cancel culture, but the only difference I would say is it wasn’t the president of the United States canceling them. Joe Biden wasn’t canceling somebody. Kamala Harris wasn’t canceling. It might have been individual citizens and individual citizens actually have the ability to say I don’t like it, and let their dollars, let their viewership, let their subscriptions —

Ahem. Joe Biden’s administration used the State Department (and HHS) to actively censor dissent and debate on Big Tech platforms. They used the State Department’s Global Engagement Center — originally chartered to deal with hostile-state propaganda — to quash speech by American citizens. Their partners, such as Newsguard, went after advertisers that sponsored speech that Newsguard and other “fact checkers” deemed to be “misinformation.” 

Not only did Biden and Harris run this Big Brother operation, they tried to get a second term while lying about Biden’s congnitive impairment while the mainstream media ran all sorts of lies about “cheap fakes” and Sharp As A Tack® propaganda on their behalf — most certainly including CNN. And then when the fraud blew up (on CNN!), Protection Racket Media operatives tried to profit off of the briefly hot Now It Can Be Told genre. 

So one cheer to Phillip for a brief moment of clarity on Saturday. Don’t expect that moment to last. 

If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!