Advertisement
Following more than a years’ worth of binge-publishing fake news about the Trump campaign, CNN has announced the resignation of three of its top journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eric Lichtblau. Along with Thomas Frank and Lex Haris, Lichtblau was found guilty of publishing false information about Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election, a rumor that was apparently started by none other than failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The resignations came to a head after CNN carelessly published a story recently accusing entrepreneur Anthony Scaramucci, an ally of President Trump and a member of his transition team, of colluding with Russia to get Mr. Trump elected. These allegations centered around a delusion by these CNN reporters that Scaramucci was somehow connected to a Russian investment fund that’s currently under congressional investigation, a rumor that has since proven to be completely false.
There was never any proof to support these allegations, other than a single “anonymous source” that CNN and many other mainstream news outlets grabbed onto as “evidence” that President Trump had worked with the Russians to cause Clinton to lose the election. When it became undeniable that the whole thing was completely made up, CNN had no choice but to do something – anything – to try to salvage its reputation. That’s about the time when the story was retracted and the three journalists “resigned.”
“On June 22, 2017, CNN.com published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund,” reads an Editor’s Note published to CNN.com on June 23, 2017. “That story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards and has been retracted. Links to the story have been disabled. CNN apologizes to Mr. Scaramucci.”
That CNN would claim to have “editorial standards” is rather humorous considering this isn’t the first time the network has published fake news about President Trump based on little more than wishful thinking. Back in June, the dying network reported that former FBI Director James Comey was going to dispute the claim that President Trump was not under investigation by the agency.
The CNN article, which was titled “Comey expected to refute Trump,” was once again based on anonymous sources who apparently told the network that Comey’s conversations with the President were “much more nuanced,” and that Mr. Trump had gotten things wrong in claiming that he was not under investigation.
Four CNN journalists – Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper, and Brian Rokus – all compiled the story, with Borger, CNN’s chief political analyst, appearing on TV to state the following:
“Comey is going to dispute the president on this point if he’s asked about it by senators, and we have to assume that he will be. He will say he never assured Donald Trump that he was not under investigation, that that would have been improper for him to do so.”
But that never happened, and CNN was forced to put its foot in its mouth and admit that the whole thing was simply untrue. CNN quickly changed the title of the article to “Comey unlikely to judge on obstruction,” issuing the following statement in a correction:
“CORRECTION AND UPDATE: This article was published before Comey released his prepared opening statement. The article and headline have been corrected to reflect that Comey does not directly dispute that Trump was told multiple times he was not under investigation in his prepared testimony released after this story was published.”
There are just too many “oops!” moments at CNN these days for anyone to take the network seriously anymore. Its days are clearly numbered as more and more Americans learn the truth – and that it can’t be found at CNN.
Sources for this article include:
Submit a correction >>
Advertisement
Advertisements