The War of Words between Trump and CNN

The largest mainstream purveyor of fake news in the leftist media market has just made a stunning declaration in response to President Trump’s comments on the quality of their output. What began as a fairly typical dig by the president has turned into the Grand Reveal of hypocrisy at the heart of the Clinton News Network.

While the story may be ranking high on a number of news sites, it could be for reasons the network in question has failed to consider. Is it possible that people are reading the story aghast at the nerve of a news network with such a dire history of factual reporting claiming to be actual ‘reporters of the news”?

The Background

President Trump Tweeted out that, “#FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!” which despite his clearly biased stance is actually the truth.

The only major network available all over the world for American news is CNN. You can tune in to their broadcasts in every hotel room in China and across Asia; it is often the only English language channel available. As such, it is regarded as “representative” of the U.S. in the same way that the BBC is considered representative of Britain.

The Response

CNN responded by Tweeting, “It's not CNN's job to represent the U.S to the world. That's yours. Our job is to report the news. #FactsFirst.”

By stating that their job is to “report the news,” they have left themselves open to a vast array of criticism from an ever-disenchanted electorate who has named the agency the “Clinton News Network.” The Washington Examiner quotes a Harvard study into media bias during President Trump’s first 100 days in office:

“The coverage of some news organizations was so negative, according to the Harvard study, that it seems hard to argue that the coverage was anywhere near a neutral presentation of facts. Assessing the tone of news coverage, the Harvard researchers found that CNN's Trump coverage was 93 percent negative, and seven percent positive. The researchers found the same numbers for NBC.”

So CNN stating that they report the news is not quite accurate: they report their personal interpretation of the news.

The Ramifications

Whilst it is likely that the majority of the leftist media will come out in support of CNN and denigrate the president for “attacking the media,” the reaction of real people will be more forgiving.

Social Media is already awash with commentators agreeing with the president, mocking the president yet admitting that CNN does not report real news and those that just have a hard time taking CNN seriously as a news channel.

Sadly, CNN does represent the U.S. overseas. But that doesn’t mean it does a good job of it.