CNN's latest "Whole Story" special, titled "The Left Insurgency," opened with Hasan Piker. It closed with Hasan Piker. In between, host Donie O'Sullivan gave the socialist streamer and the Democratic Socialists of America the kind of uncritical airtime most political organizations have to buy.
CNN called it journalism.
The hour-long special functioned less like a documentary and more like a recruitment video for the DSA — described on air as "the largest socialist political organization in the country." The framing was simple: Piker and David Hogg "are now part of an insurgency" working to pull the Democratic Party leftward. No pushback. No skepticism. Just the narrative, served warm.
The special paraded DSA-aligned figures through sympathetic segments. Cynthia Nixon appeared at a No Kings Rally. Bernie Sanders spoke at a DSA rally in the Bronx. Darializa Avila-Chevalier, a DSA candidate running in New York, got her own hero arc — without any mention of her history organizing anti-Israel protests at Columbia University. That's a detail you'd think a news organization might find relevant. CNN did not.
Hogg delivered the kind of line that writes itself: politicians should "represent the people. Not the special interests buying out our elections." A nice applause line from a guy whose entire political career is a special interest.
To CNN's minor credit, they did include one dissenting voice. Democrat strategist James Carville showed up around the 27-minute mark with this: "They don't win elections. They never run against Republicans. They just run against other Democrats. And their only message is, 'we're going to blow everything up.'" That's a career Democrat saying the quiet part out loud about his own party's socialist wing. CNN buried it in the back half and moved on.
The special also cited CNN data analyst Harry Enten's finding that 2 in 3 Democrats now have a favorable view of socialism. That statistic got treated as a sign of momentum rather than a warning. Whether it's momentum or a cliff depends entirely on which side of the camera you're sitting on.
Piker closed the show with a prediction: "There is 0% chance that whoever the elected Democrat is that wins the primary will be pro-Israel in any way, shape or form." That's not political analysis. That's a campaign promise from a guy who just got a free hour on a major cable network to make it.
The DSA's platform includes abolishing ICE, universal childcare, and free public education "from cradle to college." These are not fringe policy papers from some campus Marxist reading group — these are the stated goals of the organization CNN just spent an hour promoting without a single tough question.
Carville was right. They don't run against Republicans. They run against Democrats. And now they've got CNN running their ads for free.
The "be more like Scandinavia" crowd used to have to buy airtime. Now they just have to answer Donie O'Sullivan's phone call.
