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CNN Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 20, 2017 40 Comments
I'm so old, I remember when the breaking news was that James Comey was fired because he sought additional resources from the Department of Justice for the Russia investigation. The New York Times broke the story on May 10, 2017, Days Before Firing, Comey Asked for More Resources for Russia Inquiry:
Days before he was fired as F.B.I. director, James B. Comey asked the Justice Department for more prosecutors and other personnel to accelerate the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election. It was the first clear-cut evidence that Mr. Comey believed the bureau needed more resources to handle a sprawling and highly politicized counterintelligence investigation.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 17, 2017 12 Comments
The most egregious part of the Trump administration is the media's coverage of the Trump administration. Dating back to campaign season Trump, political media disproportionately focused on Trump's every coming, going, meal, and insignificant oddity. Not much has changed post-election.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 13, 2017 24 Comments
The media seems to "jump the shark" on Trump at least once a week. The newest example comes from CNN which wants you to know President Trump gets two scoops of ice cream while other people get only one. This is a real report from CNN:
Trump gets 2 scoops of ice cream, everyone else gets 1 -- and other top lines from his Time interview President Donald Trump is living every child's dream: More ice cream. According to an extensive interview with TIME Magazine, Trump's White House staff has settled into Trump's routine and know his desires, sometimes before he does.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on May 11, 2017 18 Comments
How do you know that Jason Johnson was peddling hyperbole? Because after making his melodramatic statement, he insisted, "that's not hyperbole." On CNN this morning, Johnson—of Univision-owned The Root—speaking of the Comey firing, declared "this is how democracy dies." He said of the current situation that it is "no longer a functioning democracy," adding the obligatory "this is a constitutional and sovereignty crisis." On the same panel, CNN's Ron Brownstein portrayed President Trump as "a president who simply is systematically committed to delegitimizing and undermining any institution that he believes can check or challenge him." Brownstein claimed that "the only question is how does the political system respond? Does it have the will to defend the checks and balances that have constrained the arbitrary exercise of presidential power?"

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on May 01, 2017 8 Comments
During a discussion on CNN this morning of the health care mandate, radio host Michael Smerconish said, "The way in which you can afford to pay for people with pre-existing conditions is if you get a guy who's a stud like Chris Cuomo who works out and is healthy, and get him into the pool." From far rejecting Smerconish's embarrassing bit of ingratiation, Cuomo engaged in some dabbing that would make Cam Newton proud. See the screencap.

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.
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