Fox reporter John Roberts: “The president may have a legitimate argument” that he and his son are being censored by Twitter

Roberts sanitized Donald Trump Jr.'s spread of dangerous coronavirus lies to reinforce the zombie claim that social media censors conservatives

On July 28, Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts made the ignorant claim that “the president may have a legitimate argument” that he and his son, Donald Trump Jr., are being censored (though Roberts said “censured”) by Twitter after the social media company limited the younger Trump’s account functionality for 12 hours and forced him to delete a tweet violating Twitter’s policy against coronavirus misinformation, while an anti-Trump hashtag was also trending. 

The president does not have a legitimate argument that he and his son are being censored -- or censured -- by Twitter. Despite incessant claims otherwise, there is no evidence that social media censors conservatives. 

Roberts’ argument is that, while Trump Jr. was forced to delete a tweet sharing “research that sort of flies in the face of this idea that hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin is not any kind of an effective treatment for coronavirus,” an anti-Trump political group was also “allowed to run with the hashtag #TrumpKillsTexas merely as a fundraising ploy.”

The president’s son sharing conclusively debunked coronavirus misinformation as if it’s important factual information will directly endanger lives, moreso given that the pro-Trump right-wing media audience has a pathological distrust of mainstream media. The hashtag #TrumpKillsTexas does not compare.

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Citation From the July 28, 2020, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

JOHN ROBERTS (FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT): Donald Trump Jr. had his Twitter account partially suspended. He is not allowed to tweet, retweet, like, or follow anybody for the next 12 hours because of a tweet that he put out yesterday regarding research that sort of flies in the face of this idea that hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin is not any kind of an effective treatment for coronavirus.

...

ROBERTS: What Donald Trump Jr. tweeted was, "This is a must-watch. So different from the narrative that everyone is running with." It was a video of Houston doctor Stella Emmanuel, who is from Nigeria originally, saying that the science around hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin not being an effective treatment for coronavirus is, quote, "fake science." At the same time, the president continuing his feud with Twitter. The president upset that so many topics that are negative about him are making the trending section. 

...

ROBERTS: It's interesting to point out too, Sandra, that the president, suddenly this morning is trending number one with the hashtag #TrumpKillsTexas. This is a fundraising effort by the political action committee Midas Touch, which is producing political videos that troll President Trump. So the president may have a legitimate argument in that he is being censured, and his son is being censured, and yet people are allowed to run with the hashtag #TrumpKillsTexas merely as a fundraising ploy.