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CNN Tag

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on April 29, 2017 24 Comments
Après Trump, le déluge! There's a "People's Climate March" on DC happening today, and CNN put a reporter on a bus traveling to the March from Harlem. A protester explained that he was going to Washington because people in inner-city areas "don't have resources to escape if we have flooding or other issues caused by climate change." Shades of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and its apocalyptic vision of a drowning NYC. But not to worry. Worst comes to worst, Al Gore will be out there, plucking people off their rooftops. Al will either be in a boat, or perhaps swooping low in a jet he can afford to charter with part of the proceeds of his $500 million sale of Current TV to the fossil fuel sheikhs of Qatar.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on April 13, 2017 74 Comments
The question of how much taxpayer money is being spent on President Trump's travel to Mar a Lago is worthy of inquiry. But CNN's approach to the subject this morning was a virtual parody of snarky, partisan snideness. Alisyn Camerota trumpeted the fact that President Trump is on a pace to outspend in one year President Obama's travel costs for eight years. But is that so? This AP fact check suggests she might be overstating the cost of presidential trips to Mar a Lago by a factor of three. Moreover, Camerota and guests depicted the Mar a Lago trips as nothing more than Trump golf outings. The reality is that the Palm Beach location has become a working Southern White House—witness its use as the site of President Trump's meeting there with Chinese Premier Xi last week, and with the Japanese Prime Minister in February.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 09, 2017 13 Comments
A Syrian survivor of the 2013 gas attack—in response to which Obama ignored his own red line—calls out Hillary Clinton. Brooke Baldwin, and the left for their rampant hypocrisy regarding Syria and refugees. PJ Media reports:

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin had a chemical attack survivor on her show Friday to discuss the Syrian regime's sarin gas attack on civilians in Khan Sheikhoun and President Trump's subsequent military response. To say Baldwin's transparent attempt to coax an anti-Trump soundbite from Kassem Eid -- who now lives in Germany -- wildly backfired is an understatement.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on April 09, 2017 14 Comments
Lefty journalist Jeremy Scahill found a graphic way to describe the MSM's support for the cruise missile attack that President Trump ordered this past week. Appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources today, The Intercept's Scahill said, "Fareed Zakaria: if that guy could have sex with this cruise missile attack, I think he would do it." Along similar lines, Scahill said that MSNBC's Brian Williams seemed to be "in true love with the cruise missile strike."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on April 05, 2017 15 Comments
On CNN this morning, Chris Cuomo said to Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, "Breitbart is using you as a poster boy. You know that is the president's viewing of choice. He loves to see what they put out. They are using you as the poster boy that Susan Rice was politically motivated in unmasking." Cuomo told Lee, "it does seem as though you're saying Rice has to prove it wasn't politically motivated for me to believe that it wasn't. And that's not fair." Retorted Lee: "That is an absolutely absurd manipulation of what I said. That is not at all what I said. I did in fact say that something like this could have happened. I did in fact say it's not absurd to suggest something like this could have happened. And every time I've said anything like that, it's been accompanied by 'I don't know what Susan Rice did. I don't know the facts of the case."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on April 04, 2017 26 Comments
See update below: Scarborough rips 'hallelujah chorus' dismissing Rice controversy ------------------------------ Move over, Democrats. There's a new opposition party in town. And its name is CNN. Opening his show this morning with a discussion of the emerging controversy over the unmasking of the names of Trump associates in intelligence intercepts, Chris Cuomo said, "so President Trump wants you to believe that he is the victim of a 'crooked scheme.' Those are his words. And here are our words: there is no evidence of any wrongdoing." So it's Trump's words vs. "our words." As if Trump and CNN are two opposing political movements.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on March 28, 2017 13 Comments
Hot stock tip: invest in companies producing anti-smog surgical masks. That is, if you buy into Chris Cuomo's environmental alarmism. On CNN this morning, the panel discussed the Trump admin's announcement yesterday that it plans to roll back some of the Obama-era EPA regs viewed as overly restrictive on the coal industry. Cuomo claimed that the Obama regs are "seen as key to keeping the United States from looking like Shanghai in terms of blowing all kinds of black smoke into the air."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on March 26, 2017 11 Comments
About the last accusation you'd expect to hear leveled at CNN is that it is too accommodating to Sean Hannity and Donald Trump. But that's the charge that former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett has made. Appearing on Brian Stelter's Reliable Sources on CNN today, Lovett first praised Stelter as a "bulwark," noting "you go after Hannity on your show."  Lovett then turned the tables, claiming "but then you turn on CNN, and Hannity's got a little beachhead on half the shows on this network." Lovett's beef was that CNN panels include Trump supporters he disparages.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on March 15, 2017 13 Comments
You might think that—given the chance to chide the star of a competing network—CNN would have called out MSNBC's Rachel Maddow over her failed, overhyped "scoop" on Donald Trump's taxes. But nary a discouraging word about Maddow could be heard on CNN this morning.  Liberal media solidarity more important than beating the competition? Instead, commenting this morning on the release of Donald Trump's 2005 tax return, CNN's Chris Cuomo described the Alternative Minimum Tax [AMT] he paid as a "benefit" to Trump. It was just the opposite. The AMT Alternative Minimum Tax is designed to prevent people with large incomes from using deductions to reduce their tax liability beyond a certain amount. No matter how little a taxpayer would normally pay, the AMT imposes a higher minimum.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on March 13, 2017 14 Comments
CNN's 7 a.m. ET hour today began with a news montage. Have a look, and see if you don't agree that the hit parade of horribles for the Trump administration could just about as easily have been put together by the DNC as by CNN. Here's what was included:
  • McCain calls out Trump to provide evidence of wiretapping.
  • Dem Rep. Adam Schiff saying there'd be an open hearing; an unidentified voice saying "we're going to ask, is there any truth to this."
  • Kellyanne saying "the president has asked for the investigation into surveillance to be included."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on March 08, 2017 18 Comments
On CNN this morning, commenting on a report that President Trump has "no proof, no regrets" over his allegation that Pres. Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, Chris Cuomo claimed "no, proof, no regrets: they only go together with this administration." Really? We only have to go back to the immediately previous administration to debunk Cuomo's claim. Remember President Obama's "proof and regrets" that a video led to the murder of four Americans in Benghazi? Nope? How about "if you like your policy, you can keep your policy?" Or when he told the press on national television the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" at a Harvard professor's home? Remember President Obama's "proof and regrets" over that? Neither do we.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 07, 2017 22 Comments
Outrage everywhere because House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) had the nerve to tell people they should prioritize their budget. On CNN, he spoke about healthcare with Alisyn Camerota:
"Well, we're getting rid of the individual mandate. We're getting rid of those things that people said that they don't want," Chaffetz replied. "Americans have choices, and they've got to make a choice. So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on February 14, 2017 22 Comments
Discussing the overnight resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, CNN's David Gregory managed this morning to work in a broad swipe at the president. Gregory claimed that "the fledgling foreign policy in the Trump administration [has] been a disaster." Really? Gregory ignored: the widely-praised, weekend-long meetings that Trump just concluded with Japanese PM Abe; Trump's positive conversation with Chinese Premier Xi and the confirmation of the One China policy; the re-establishment of the special relationship with the UK and its PM May, and of course the healing of ties with Israel after years of Obama animosity culminating in his perpetration of an anti-Israel Security Council resolution.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 14, 2017 7 Comments
I came across this CNN article that Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder faced many hurdles before his Thursday confirmation hearing because four GOP senators decided to withhold their support. The fast food executive will face the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday. These anonymous sources pointed their fingers at Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK), Sen. Susan Collins (ME), Sem Johnny Isakson (GA), and Sen. Tim Scott (SC). Reading through the article, I saw that CNN only cited Sen. Collins. So I decided to actually do some journalism and reach out to the offices for confirmation on the material provided by the sources.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on February 01, 2017 17 Comments
Did Joe Manchin just open the door for Republicans to invoke the nuclear option if necessary to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court? In appearances on CNN and MSNBC this morning, Dem Senator Manchin blasted his fellow Dems for having invoked the nuclear option in the first place. Said Manchin on Morning Joe: "I've been opposed to the nuclear option. I thought Harry Reid was dead wrong when he did it. I voted against that. My dear beloved senator, prior to my coming here, was Robert C. Byrd and he would be rolling over in his grave knowing what we have done." That could be understood to mean: Dems, if the Republicans now use the nuclear option to confirm Gorsuch, you've got no one to blame but yourselves for having opened Pandora's Box.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 26, 2017 22 Comments
If this weren't so infuriating, it might be funny . . . Appearing on CNN this morning to discuss President Trump's plan to cut funds to sanctuary cities, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio implied that the city will not cooperate in the deportation of thieves who don't use violence because they might be the "breadwinners" of their families. Message to the mayor: thieves aren't bread "winners." They are bread stealers. They're taking bread from the mouths of children whose family earned it legally. In this theater of the absurd, de Blasio held up a list of crimes for which NYC would cooperate with immigration authorities. And non-violent theft is apparently not on the list.
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