Left-wing media seethes over success of anti-child trafficking film Sound of Freedom

Reports from left-wing news sites, Jezebel and the Guardian, have tried to discredit the hit release, Sound of Freedom, linking it with conspiracy theories. The movie tells the story of Tim Ballard, a man who started an organization to fight child sex trafficking. It stars Jim Caviezel, who acts the role of Ballard. 

Jezebel, rated left by All-Sides Media, ran a story called, "'Sound of Freedom' Is an Anti-Child Trafficking Fantasy Fit for QAnon." Written by Rich Juzwiak, the report says that the movie is helping to peddle QAnon theories. 

The Guardian, rated lean-left, also published a report about it with similar sentiments, calling it "QAnon-adjacent."

According to the American Jewish Committee, QAnon is a "loosely organized, far-right network of people who believe the world is controlled by a satanic cabal of pedophiles and cannibals, made up of politicians (mostly Democrats), mainstream media, journalists, and Hollywood entertainers. This cabal is accused of controlling a ‘deepstate’ government whose purpose is to undermine and attack President Donald Trump and his supporters."

The bloodletting and organ harvesting of children is mentioned in each of the articles as part of the conspiracy. However, reports from the BBC have confirmed that harvesting of organs and blood has taken place with children being trafficked from Africa to the United Kingdom.

Tim Ballard - who started Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), the organization whose beginnings are depicted in Sound of Freedom - has posted footage on his social media of raids on organ harvesting operations in Western Africa.

In a recent interview with Jordan Peterson, Ballard addressed the conspiracies and an instance in Africa specifically, saying, "It's very real, there’s witch doctery. They take these children, they take their organs, they take their blood, they drink it, they take the genitalia of children... These are real things."

"So, I might say something like that and then they connect it to something a QAnon person says about a celebrity who must be doing this too. But there's no evidence to back that. They make a false connection there," Ballard continued. 

Tim and the anti-child sex-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) have repeatedly clarified their positions on anything related to QAnon conspiracies, saying they are not associated with it. 

Other criticisms have resurfaced online, including a 2021 article by Meg Conley at Slate, criticizing Ballard and OUR about a sex trafficking raid in 2014 she was able to go on. 

However, after going on the raid with the organization in 2014, she wrote about a different movie, The Abolitionists, depicting one of OUR's operations, saying, "In August, I went on an undercover sting with them in the Dominican Republic... My life was changed. I know firsthand the, at times, miraculous works of O.U.R. And yet, the movie last night pushed me back into my seat and pulled my eyes wide open."