sharp Observer I highlighted the seeds of the intended narrative buried in CNN’s latest attack on Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio.
Four CNN reporters wrote a more than 2,200-word piece on Tuesday.Workers at a factory funded by Kentucky startup J.D. Vance allege ‘nightmarish’ working conditions”
Their aggressive piece begins by highlighting Vance’s purported guiding principle for investing in companies: “Companies should not just make a profit, but contribute to American communities.” The rest of the piece is designed to suggest that Vance’s principle didn’t apply when it came to his investment in AppHarvest, an agricultural company that neither made a profit nor contributed to the community.
However, this carefully constructed and exploitative narrative is undermined by confessions in the CNN article that other publications may seek to cover up or omit.
For example, the horrific story about the company’s working conditions is undermined by the official sources cited in the article. This inconsistency alone should undermine the intended narrative, but even more damning than what CNN is trying to convey is the company’s own admission that it employed immigrant workers, faced lawsuits, and went bankrupt long after Vance left.
But the attack article has already served its purpose, and is being widely circulated on left-leaning blogs and in mainstream media.
Publications They claim that the evidence is taken out of context and distorted at the expense of Mr. Vance.
For example, The New Republic concluded: “As the Republican vice presidential nominee, Vance has touted his business record, but AppHarvest marks another major blow for him and his campaign.”
Kamala Harris’ emergency management director, Amar Moosa, also picked up on the story, arguing that Vance was personally responsible.
“Wow. This is a devastating deep dive into some of JD Vance’s business ventures. Not only did this company go bankrupt, he treated his employees terribly and made them work in unbelievable conditions.”
Written Musa.
The Harris campaign has proven willing to rewrite
history And they appropriate news headlines for political gain. This Orwellian reflex has lessened the need for media aides, but the liberal media seems intent on continuing to create ammunition for the Democrats’ various attempted character attacks on President Donald Trump and his running mate.
CNN’s latest article hints at a new attempt to attack the Republican candidate’s business acumen. After all, accusations of recent eccentricities have largely fallen flat, and unlike Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vance’s military record seems untouchable, although Wikipedia editors have certainly tried.
company
Following the success of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance was reportedly hired by AOL co-founder Steve Chase in 2017 to help his seed fund, Rise of the Rest, invest in underserved markets. According to CNN, Vance met with Jonathan Webb, founder of Appalachian indoor farming company Rise of the Rest.
App Harvest.
Webb, who had big ideas for building an indoor vertical farming hub to grow fruits and vegetables within a day’s drive of the majority of the U.S. population and in an area with plenty of water and land, had reportedly exhausted his savings and credit and was in desperate need of liquidity.
Vance, along with several other early investors, offered to invest in the company, and was reportedly appointed to the board that same year, though evidence suggests he didn’t formally join until 2020.
During his involvement, Vance reportedly pumped millions of dollars into the company while heading up his own venture capital firm, Nariya, to ensure the agribusiness’ success.
The company has since received investments from other major companies.
Martha Stewart The company, led by former Impossible Foods CFO David Lee, went public in February 2021 and was at one point reported to be valued at more than $1 billion.
Vance retired from the company’s board of directors in April 2021. At the time,
attention About X:
Now that we are a public company, there is a limit to what I can do to help, and I am considering political activism. Whatever I do politically, I hate the current crazy political orthodoxy. So last month, I discussed resigning with the other directors. The basic idea was that I intend to continue to speak my mind, and I want to do so without being bound by the demands of a public company board of directors. And I thought that would be better for the company.
in spite of
promiseThe company has since been hit by turmoil, with multiple Litigationand eventually went bankrupt.
When AppHarvest, which started with more than $341 million in debt, declared bankruptcy last year, its chief financial officer said:
Court Documents The company effectively went bankrupt “due to lower than expected yields on all crops, higher than expected costs, a tight stock market and a decline in its share price,” the report said.
Accusation
CNN re-enacted 2023
effort The left-leaning climate magazine Grist featured a handful of former employees’ allegations of brutal quotas and intolerable working conditions in a critical piece, mainly relating to the greenhouse heat issue.
Former AppHarvest employee Anthony Morgan said his working conditions and benefits at the company’s 60-acre greenhouse in Morehead, Kentucky, started out good but deteriorated over time. Morgan claims the company gradually cut costs, reduced some benefits and increased production quotas, which meant he had to spend more time in the hot greenhouses.
“It was a nightmare that never should have happened,” Morgan said.
Months after Vance severed ties with the company, CNN reported that it had begun relying on migrant workers, who were allegedly kept out of sight when politicians and other “bigwigs” toured the facilities.
Following AppHarvest’s legal troubles and eventual collapse, several former employees suggested to CNN that Vance and other directors “should have recognized and acted on warning signs that the company’s executives were misleading the public and its own investors.”
“Like many of us, our decision to work for AppHarvest completely wiped out our livelihoods,” Morgan said. “I blame all of the original investors.”
Buried Revelation
CNN’s attack piece is filled with confessions and statements that undermine the story.
For example, while Vance reportedly continues to invest in the company, CNN acknowledges that he “stepped down from AppHarvest’s board of directors in 2021 to begin his political career.”
CNN also noted at the end of the article that “Vance is not named in any of the lawsuits” filed by AppHarvest.
“It’s a shocking, deep dive into Kamala’s despair.”
As for complaints about intolerable working conditions and cuts to benefits, state inspectors visited AppHarvest’s facilities at least three times but never issued a ticket, the article said. Additionally, “inspectors noted they observed or heard about safety practices during their visits, such as mandatory heat breaks and providing beverages to employees.”
A spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education and Labor told CNN that an inspection of Appharvest’s facilities found no violations of “recommended national guidelines for protecting employees from heatstroke, including regular access to fresh drinking water, scheduled breaks and opportunities to escape heat.”
A member of AppHarvest’s senior management team told CNN in a forwarded statement:
The allegations against AppHarvest do not reflect matters discussed at the company’s board of directors during JD’s tenure, and it’s easy to see why: AppHarvest implemented strong heat stroke prevention measures when temperatures soared in the summer months following JD’s departure, continued to pay 100% of employee health insurance premiums through mid-2022, and maintained a dedicated workforce to Appalachia throughout its existence.
Critics slammed the CNN article and the Harris campaign for further misrepresenting the facts.
Abigail Jackson, spokeswoman for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri);
Responded Harris’ emergency response manager Ammar Moosa reposted the article, pointing out that “JD had nothing to do with this. JD left the company long before these terrible issues arose, and CNN decided to bury that important information at the end of the story.”
MAGA War Room Account
Tweeted“Wow. This is a devastating article that delves deep into Kamala’s despair. The article literally states that none of this happened while JD was with the company. FAKE NEWS!”
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