CNN | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 21
Image 01 Image 03

CNN Tag

Yeah, CNN threatened to out the guy who made the CNN wrestling meme. But the threat, according to CNN, was just some language that the legal suits stuck into the CNN statement. So if you complain about it, you're just part of a social-media "mob" that is falsely playing the victim. That was the argument made on Reliable Sources hosted by CNN's Brian Stelter. John Avlon of the Daily Beast, a CNN analyst, warned the media not to let the criticism "distract" them from the "real issue": President Trump's tweet of the wrestling GIF.

James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released another undercover video featuring CNN's New Day associate producer Jimmy Carr, who doubles down on his comments from a previous video from Project Veritas and criticizes New Day host Chris Cuomo. "I mean granted, anything I've said to you I would defend on the record," he told the Project Veritas investigator. "I don't think I said anything wrong." Carr was captured in previous videos calling President Trump a clown, calling American voters stupid as shit, and saying Kellyanne Conway looks like she got hit by a shovel.

CNN is having a rough time, albeit completely self-inflicted. The network with a penchant for making itself and its reporters the story is now the subject of universal internet ridicule and rightly so. Andrew Kaczynski, CNN reporter (formerly of Buzzfeed) who loves to dig through Trump appointee books and academic thesis in search of improper citation, penned a post describing how CNN was able to track down an anonymous Reddit user who claimed responsibility for CNN gif President Trump tweeted. The gif showed Trump punching a figure with a CNN logo affixed in place of a face.

Was the Godfather pleasantly surprised that someone saw the light after waking up with a horse head in his bed? Don't think so. But for some reason, CNN host Alisyn Camerota expressed surprise and delight that the guy who created the video of Donald Trump taking down someone with the CNN logo superimposed on his face has apologized — after CNN unmasked him and tracked him down.

Remember Joe the Plumber? Before the 2008 election, Joe asked Obama about his fiscal policies. Obama made himself look terrible by saying he believed in spreading the wealth around. In an obvious effort to take the heat off of Obama, the media attacked Joe the Plumber. Within hours, we knew Joe's real name and address. His tax history was even leaked to the press.

America has a problem, a fact problem. And it's being felt across the political spectrum. Yesterday morning as tradition dictates, I met one of my oldest and dearest friends for brunch. She's well-informed, well-read, incredibly bright, and quite liberal. After catching up on all things personal the conversation shifted to the current political climate. She expressed her frustration with having to sift through ten different articles from major, legacy publications, in order to piece together the basic facts of any given story.

James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released part three of its explosive investigation into CNN and its obsession with the Russia-President Donald Trump narrative. This video contains two parts surrounding New Day associate producer Jimmy Carr. He speaks to two investigators and tells them that Trump "is a clown," thinks voters are "stupid as sh*t," and guarantees that Trump has paid for abortions. O'Keefe then shows how Carr's New Day program edited a segment with Trump voters that made one man appear to be a conspiracy theorist.

James O'Keefe's Project Veritas dropped the second video of a series to expose the media's bias against President Donald Trump. This video catches CNN's Van Jones, one of the more prominent leftist contributors, admitting the Trump-Russia narrative is mostly a "nothing burger." Yesterday's video showed a CNN producer calling the narrative "mostly bullsh*t."

James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released the first video in a series they claim will expose the bias of mainstream media outlets. The video released Tuesday shows an investigator questioning CNN producer John Bonifield about the President Donald Trump-Russia narrative that has dominated the news cycle. Bonifield admitted to the investigator that Trump "is probably right to say, like you are witch hunting me" and that the narrative is "mostly bullsh*t right now" and the network doesn't "have any giant proof."

CNN has changed rules on how the company handles stories about Russia after the network had to retract and delete a story on Friday. BuzzFeed reported that CNNMoney executive editor Rich Barbieri sent out an email on Saturday that told employees they should not "publish any content involving Russia without coming to me and [CNN Vice President] Jason [Farkas]."

Interviewed by Alisyn Camerota on CNN this morning, Kellyanne Conway wanted to discuss the progress that the Trump admin has made on a variety of fronts, from job creation to regulation roll-back to health care. But Camerota cared about one thing only: Russia, and a just-published Washinton Post report that Putin ordered efforts to hurt Hillary and help Trump. Eventually, Conway had enough:

"Alisyn, I know that we just like to say the word "Russia, Russia" to try to mislead the voters. And I know that CNN is aiding and abetting this nonsense as well."

Video surfaced Sunday showing what appears to be a CNN film crew staging or at the very least, assisting with the optics of an anti-ISIS Muslim protest in London. Film crews from CNN, BBC, and the AP set up in the middle of the street well before any protest began and before protesters were in place.

James Taranto's late, lamented Wall Street Journal column had a running tongue-in-cheek rubric, "We Blame George W. Bush," in which the former president was blamed for everything under the sun, despite his utter lack of connection to it. In that spirit, Taranto might have had a field day with a panel discussion on CNN this morning, in which the participants did their best to blame President Trump for an incident in Montana in which the Republican congressional candidate has been accused of manhandling a reporter. Co-host Alisyn Camerota got the ball rolling by asking whether there is "some sort of larger story or message we should take away here . . . growing aggression against the press."

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.

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.

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.

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?"