Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Trump Has Driven CNN Stark, Raving Mad
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski replaced beach-goer Chris Christie as the internet’s goat of the week.
While the rest of America was celebrating Independence Day, CNN kept digging its own grave.
Furious over a silly video President Donald Trump posted Sunday, the flailing network sicced Senior Editor Andrew Kaczynski on its creator. He tracked down an anonymous Reddit user who first posted the GIF of Trump tackling a wrestler whose head was replaced with a CNN logo. Kaczynski then found out the person’s real name and threatened to release it if he misbehaved again:
After posting his apology, “HanA**holeSolo” called CNN’s KFile and confirmed his identity. In the interview, “HanA**holeSolo” sounded nervous about his identity being revealed and asked to not be named out of fear for his personal safety and for the public embarrassment it would bring to him and his family.
CNN is not publishing “HanA**holeSolo’s” name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.
CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.
That’s right: a Senior Editor for CNN is blackmailing an American citizen for daring to criticize them.
This isn’t Kaczynski’s first attempt at destroying a private citizen’s life. As a BuzzFeed reporter, he gained notoriety for publicizing a lame joke Tweeted by a 30-year-old PR director named Justine Sacco. As Sacco was boarding a plane from London to Cape Town, South Africa, she poked fun at many people’s poor understanding of the continent. Kaczynski decided the joke was racist and helped gin up a digital lynch mob while she was in the air for 11 hours sans internet. By the time Sacco landed, she was mobbed by reporters, was fired from her job, and had to go into hiding. [Update: Another link demonstrating Kaczynski’s role is here.]
Kaczynski’s insanity was just the latest in CNN’s string of horrible decisions related to Trump. Last week, CNN accepted the resignations of three star journalists over their retracted story falsely connecting a Trump associate to a Russian bank. Before that, CNN’s parent company helped fund a performance of Julius Caesar, in which a Trump stand-in is assassinated. In the past month, the network retracted another anti-Trump story proved false by James Comey’s testimony, fired Kathy Griffin for posing with an effigy of Trump’s decapitated head, and censured host Reza Aslan for wishing rape on a Republican congressman. Not to mention the Project Veritas videos catching CNN employees mocking Americans and admitting that the endless Russia allegations are a big nothing-burger.
For all the criticism of Trump’s self-defeating tweets, his steady attacks on CNN have provoked the network to reveal how awful they truly are. Perhaps the President can Tweet a new video in which CNN body-slams itself.
Published in General, Politics
I would slash my own wrists before associating myself with a character from Star Wars.
You don’t like Star Wars? Everybody likes Star Wars. At least the original movies…
Exclusive footage of CNN extracting their apology.
The first tenant of Buddhism: Every man for himself.
The London Underground is not a political movement.
These are facts. I looked them up.
Exclusive footage of the Revenge of the Internet Nerds on CNN!
I think what you guys are seeing in Trump is someone who understands how to manipulate the media in an opposite way that the media is usually able to manipulate the low information voter. Recall for instance how skits on SNL would be used to create a news story or a segment on CNN. This would be used as an opening for talking heads in the serious media to take snarky swipes at a Republican in an attempt to create in the LIVs’ minds a certain caricature of the GOP. Well my reading on this is that Trump is making the media out to look utterly stupid in the minds of the LIVs. This may or may not translate into LIVs voting in droves for Trump, or Republicans in general, but it also is discrediting the media in the minds of the LIVs. In the sense that this could be good, maybe when the media put out that this or that policy of the GOP is going to kill the elderly, starve children, and impoverish the poor, the LIVs won’t be paying any attention. Who really knows? Maybe Trump just likes to make fun of these people and he doesn’t really care what we here on Ricochet think.
CNN is filled with morons.
This Fourth of July, CNN lit its credibility on fire and invited everyone to come over and roast the weenies.
My John McLaughlinesque prediction…
This will be forgotten in less than two weeks.
On a scale of 1 being no chance and 10 representing metaphysical certitude, I rate this prediction as a 9.8.
Two weeks, that is overly pessimistic. I give it not even until Friday. Heck it might have died even before then, I only found out about this today…most people were preoccupied with grilling and fireworks over the last few days for some reason.
Filling sand bags.
W’s administration “fashion[ed]” themselves as the grownups” in just about every situation, and by the time W left office his approval level was lower than that of belly button lint.
I’d love for being seen as a grownup to count for much more than it does, but sadly it no longer counts for much. It’s time we recognize that and act accordingly.
The only way we’ll ever be able to make what should matter to people matter again is to be better than the other guys at what does matter to them now, and what matters is being good at silly insults. Although the battlefield should be on the plain of high ideals and discourse, it’s currently in the valley of childishness. Whip their tails at this stupid stuff, and we’ll have the chance to battle again in the ways we should be doing battle. Pretend we’re above it all and prioritize “acting like grownups” over facing reality and we’ll be stuck in this ridiculous mire forevermore.
CNN: Working hard to unite the right.
That makes at least two really good results so far, and some lesser ones.
The legality of the doxxing aside, they are drawing the ire of people who will gladly and systematically dox every single employee of CNN.
And how they will howl if that happens.
On the plus side, now there are two famous Kaczynskis.
Update: Sorry @ctlaw I didn’t see you’d beaten me to the punch :)
To be fair, she was Director of Corporate Communications for a multi-billion dollar media corporation. If anybody should know how social media works, it should have been Justine Sacco. She wasn’t fired for being offensive. She was fired for incompetence.
Post has been referenced by Ace of Spades HQ
I’d like to say here for the record and in the presence of these witnesses that I think CNN is treating me fairly and humanely. They are a trustworthy, ethical news organization with an outstanding journalistic record. To my wife, I want to tell her not to worry and that the chair is against the wall. Also, I think light beer tastes terrific, Nickelback plays great music and the designated hitter rule is one of the best things ever to happen to baseball.
And to think CNN gave candidate Trump millions of dollars worth of free airtime during the Republican primaries. So ungrateful! :(
… and Brian Stelter is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being you’ve ever known in your life?
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/03/11/shia-lebeouf-raised-secret-flag-to-protest-trump-see-what-pro-trump-americans-replaced-it-with/
http://www.dailywire.com/news/15396/trolls-strike-again-shia-laboeuf-goes-hiding-hank-berrien#
I believe the term is “weaponized Autism”.
Yeah, but that’s a little ‘inside baseball’.
I was confused by the same thing. Is there evidence for that?
The thot plickens….
The GIF used by the president and Han******* are similar, but there are differences. From BuzzFeed:
And those differences are pretty obvious and pretty glaring.
I pity CNN. After all, if they didn’t have Trump to dwell upon, what other stories would there be to report? Korea’s launch of an ICBM? A Russia-Sino pact to block our Missile defense system in the Pacific? Oh wait….. ??
John has a long mustache.
Yes they would. You could skip the whole (in my opinion staged) feud with Morning Joe and this entire thing would still have gone down like this. One thing is for certain, CNN has no business calling Trump “thinned skinned” ever again.
Aaaaaaand a new Project Veritas CNN video just dropped.