WGCL anchor and Reality Check reporter Ben Swann ran a 5-minute story questioning the truth behind allegations that Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and Washington, D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong were involved in a secret pedophilia ring.
During his story which ran during the Atlanta CBS affiliate’s 11 p.m. newscast Tuesday night, Swann raised doubts that Pizzagate was fake news despite multiple reports to the contrary. As FTVLive reports “Snopes, Politifact and Fox News couldn’t find any evidence. The New York Times dissected how the story went mainstream.”
Pay close attention to who Swann references as his source for reviving Pizzagate.
“To be clear, not one single email in the Podesta emails discusses child sex trafficking or pedophilia. That is a fact,” Swann told viewers of the Meredith-owned station. “But there are dozens of what seem to be strangely-worded emails dealing with pizza and handkerchiefs. Self-described online investigators say that those words in the emails about pizza and the talk of handkerchiefs is code language used by pedophiles.”
He then spends the rest of his story trying to tie up the loose ends using a pedophilia organization’s hand scribbled logo, artwork from photographer Katie Grannan, and some D.C. bands who’ve performed at Comet Ping Pong, as proof Pizzagate may be real.
A 28-year-old North Carolina man, armed with an assault rifle, came to Comet Ping Pong to “self-investigate” the story back in December, firing one or more shots into the packed pizzeria.
We’ve reported about Swann before. Back in 2013 he questioned whether the FBI knew about the Boston Marathon bombings.
“I will say Ben was meticulous with his fact-finding and sourcing on his Reality Check segment,” WGCL news director Frank Volpicella told The Daily Beast.
We reached out to WGCL and Meredith to comment further on his story. We’ll update when we hear back.
Swann launched his Reality Check segments while at WXIX in Cincinnati, then left to start his own social media channel called Truth in Media. He was hired by WGCL in June, 2015. Here’s his story:
>UPDATE: Richard Huff, executive director of Communications at CBS News told TVSpy “WGCL-TV in Atlanta is not owned or operated by CBS. As such, CBS News has no editorial control over the station’s news product.”