Tag: CNN

CNN anchor gets House Republican to admit he communicated with the White House on Mueller

The following article by Aaron Rupar was posted on the ThinkProgress website December 21, 2017:

Jim Jordan went on CNN to defend his Comey/Clinton conspiracy theory. It did not go well.

During a CNN interview on Wednesday evening, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) admitted that he’s discussed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign with the White House.

Asked by anchor John Berman if he’s “had conversations with the White House about the Mueller investigation,” Jordan initially tried to talk over Berman and ignore the question. But under sustained grilling, Jordan eventually admitted that he has in fact discussed the investigation with Trump administration officials.

“Well of co– I talk with the White House about all kinds of things,” Jordan said. “We’ve had talks with the White House about tax policy, we have talks about welfare policy, we had talks about Obamacare — of course we’ve had talks with the White House.” Continue reading “CNN anchor gets House Republican to admit he communicated with the White House on Mueller”

CNN botched a story about Trump Jr. — who claims, without evidence, that reporters ‘got played’

The following article by Kristine Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website December 9, 2017:

Donald Trump Jr. strongly criticized CNN, saying it fell for sources pushing a false narrative. (Charlie Riedel/AP)

By Saturday, Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter feed was filled with tweets and retweets slamming CNN over its bombshell-turned-dud story involving WikiLeaks documents and the president’s eldest son.

Trump Jr., who, like his father, is vocally partisan and highly critical of the mainstream media on Twitter, claimed — without evidence — that CNN reporters Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb “got played” by their “puppet masters.” He also tweeted that CNN’s “democratic sources” are trying to push a false narrative.

“I won’t hold my breath for an apology, or for you to call out your puppet masters on the left that fed you BS knowing you would gleefully run with it without ever checking the other side,” Trump Jr. said in a Saturday morning tweet that addressed Raju, CNN’s senior congressional correspondent. “Apparently it was just too good a scoop for you to actually do your job. You got played.” Continue reading “CNN botched a story about Trump Jr. — who claims, without evidence, that reporters ‘got played’”

CNN hits back at Trump after criticism of foreign reporting

The following article by Jason Schwartz was posted on the Politico website November 27, 2017:

Critics at the network say the president’s tweets endanger journalists in countries hostile to a free press.

Credit: Olivier Douliery, TNS

The feud between Donald Trump and CNN reached new heights on Monday, as the network came back swinging against the president’s latest attacks, including that CNN International misrepresents the U.S. to its global audience.

According to sources at the network, Trump’s tweet over the weekend criticizing CNN International produced extra frustration and exasperation because of the inherent risks of overseas reporting and the feeling that his message imperiled journalists working in countries hostile to a free press.

During his Monday broadcast, anchor Wolf Blitzerresponded to the president’s latest claims of “fake news,” saying, “CNN and CNN International are not sponsored by any state, nor any autocrat, nor any political organization, and despite the constant criticism from the president, we are unwavering in our mission, free and independent as the press should be.” Continue reading “CNN hits back at Trump after criticism of foreign reporting”

Trump looms large in AT&T antitrust battle

The following article by Harper Neidig was posted on the Hill website November 22, 2017:

President Trump’s feud with CNN is casting a shadow over the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block AT&T from merging with Time Warner, the news outlet’s parent company.

The Justice Department’s decision to bring a lawsuit against a vertical merger — a deal involving two companies that aren’t direct competitors — is a major shift in antitrust policy from previous administrations.

To those who have been raising the alarm about corporate consolidation, the move is long overdue, and a sign that regulators in the Trump administration won’t be a rubber stamp for such major deals.  Continue reading “Trump looms large in AT&T antitrust battle”

Kushner told Time Warner exec CNN should fire a fifth of its staff: report

The following article by Josh Delk was posted on the Hill website November 10, 2017:

Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner told an executive from CNN’s parent company earlier this year that the news organization should fire 20 percent of its staff over its coverage of the 2016 election, according to a new report.

Kushner told Time Warner executive Gary Ginsberg that CNN should fire the employees because they were so wrong in their analysis of how the election would turn out, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

A White House official said Kushner didn’t intend for the comment to be taken seriously and was only trying to make a point, according to the Journal, which reported that the remark “wasn’t taken lightly” inside Time Warner. Continue reading “Kushner told Time Warner exec CNN should fire a fifth of its staff: report”

Justice Department Says Not So Fast to AT&T’s Time Warner Bid

The following article by Michael J. de la Merced, Emily Steel, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Cecilia Kang was posted on the New York Times website November 8, 2017:

An AT&T store in Manhattan’s East Village. Credit Christian Hansen for The New York Times

It seemed like a match made in media heaven. AT&T is a telecommunications giant whose reach stretches to millions of people all over the country, and Time Warner, the owner of CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., has content galore. Together, the two companies would create a colossus straddling the worlds of internet access, news and entertainment.

Until last week, AT&T’s pending $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner seemed destined to close by the end of the year. On Wednesday, however, tensions between the Justice Department and executives at the two companies spilled out into the open.

Now it seems possible that the Justice Department and AT&T will end up battling each other in court. The ongoing negotiations have also demonstrated how the Trump administration may regulate big-ticket mergers and acquisitions, representing the first major test for the government’s antitrust strategy. Continue reading “Justice Department Says Not So Fast to AT&T’s Time Warner Bid”

CNN is paying Stephen Moore to lie to its viewers about health care

The following article by Craig Harrington was posted on the Media Matters website July 17, 2017:

Credit: Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

Discredited economic pundit and former Trump campaign adviser Stephen Moore continues embarrassing CNN during news segments with his supposed policy expertise. Media Matters compared two of Moore’s recent appearances — one in which he appeared alongside a credentialed policy expert, and one in which he faced only an ill-prepared network host — and found distinct differences in the tone of each discussion. These differences demonstrate the dangers of news outlets continuing to rely on unscrupulous hangers-on from the Trump administration to comment on policy issues.

Over the years, Media Matters has chronicled Moore’s shoddy predictions, intentional misinformation, and misleading claims. Despite ample evidence of Moore’s gross incompetence as an economic analyst, CNN still hired him in January under the guise of “senior economics analyst” to serve as a sort of in-house surrogate for the Trump administration. Moore has spent his time at CNN undermining his colleagues and embarrassing his network while ceaselessly parroting the Republican Party’s agenda. His shameless defense of the president’s unfounded reasoning for withdrawing from the Paris climate accord even led Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs to blast CNN on its own program for maintaining a relationship with the pundit. Continue reading “CNN is paying Stephen Moore to lie to its viewers about health care”

Trump Punishes CNN After It Challenged Him, Rewards Breitbart For Sucking Up

The following article by Oliver Willis was posted on the Media Matters website January 11, 2017:

During Donald Trump’s press conference, the president-elect criticized CNN for reporting on alleged contacts between his campaign and the Russian government, and then CNN reporter Jim Acosta tried to ask a question. Trump refused Acosta’s repeated requests. Soon after, Trump solicited a question from Matthew Boyle of the embarrassingly pro-Trump Breitbart News, who served up a softball.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that “classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” The documents also reportedly included “allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.” Buzzfeed followed CNN’s article by publishing pages of raw memos related to the allegations.

At his press conference, responding to a question from CBS’ Major Garrett, Trump elaborated on a tweet he sent out on Wednesday morning in which he wrote, “Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

Trump said BuzzFeed would “suffer the consequences” for publishing the memos and that CNN went “out of their way to build it up.”

CNN reporter Jim Acosta then attempted to ask Trump a question, noting, “Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question?” Trump refused and waved him away. Acosta persisted, and Trump refused and said CNN is “terrible,” told Acosta to be quiet, and said, “You are fake news,” before moving on to another reporter.

A few minutes later, Trump turned to Matt Boyle of Breitbart.com, who proceeded to ask Trump about “all the problems that we’ve seen throughout the media over the course of the election” and “what reforms do you recommend for this industry here?”

It would hardly be possible to ask a more sycophantic and fawning question, but coming from Breitbart, it’s not surprising.

Breitbart has become the all-but-official voice of Trump over the past two years. The site has tied itself into absurd knots to defend him and attack his opponents in both the Republican and Democratic parties, while also mangling and inventing stories to serve his campaign’s narrative.

Stephen Bannon, Trump’s incoming chief White House strategist, has been the chairman of Breitbart and has overseen its transformation from a more traditional conservative outlet to what he described as a “platform” for the so-called “alt-right,” whose noxious brand of white nationalist nativist politics now dominates the conservative movement.

Breitbart’s dedication to Trump and its vilification of his perceived enemies were reflected in its writeup of the contentious exchange between Trump and Acosta, headlined “Trump to CNN: You Are Fake News.” Breitbart.com also posted the following headlines on its front page:

In turn, Trump has often used the millions of followers he has on social media to direct web traffic toward Breitbart stories promoting him and his conspiracy theories.

Later on CNN, Acosta reported that Republican National Committee communications director and incoming Trump press secretary Sean Spicer told him that if he were to persist in asking Trump questions in the same manner, he would be “thrown out of this press conference.”  (After his combative exchange with Acosta, Trump later fielded a question from CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond.)

The lesson from Trump is that he won’t accept the sort of adversarial journalism CNN has engaged in here, which is necessary and vital for a modern, functioning democracy. But if you suck up like Breitbart did (and has done), you will be perfectly fine.

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