CNN: King of the Gaslighters

 

One of my favorite stories about CNN, and one I keep coming back to, is from the end of 2017, when anchor Anderson Cooper had an anti-Trump tweet sent from his verified account. What clearly happened was someone else with access to the account accidentally tweeted under Cooper’s account instead of their own. The tale CNN spun was so ridiculous it could not be believed. They claimed the phone was somehow broken into in a gym locker room by a mysterious third party, who somehow was able to unlock the phone, send the nefarious one-off tweet, and get away undetected. The assumption is this assailant knew the passcode to the assistant’s phone, was able to gain access to a locker, went immediately to Twitter, and did that one silly reply to a President Trump tweet before escaping before identification. CNN went to this length to protect Cooper and his assistant and decided that instead of just saying “he made a mistake and is sorry,” went with the decision to spin a baldfaced lie. The willingness CNN executives had to lie so plainly and so egregiously was incredibly instructive about the network’s relationship with the truth when it becomes inconvenient.

We’re seeing CNN using the same playbook again this week about another member of their talent.

Last week anchor Chris Cuomo left quarantine after his diagnosis with coronavirus. He tried to play the experience off as though he was the victim; a biker (extremely justifiably) confronted the New Yorker about being out and about while still contagious. The biker ended up filing a police report about the incident and the Hill reports,

A Long Island, N.Y., bicyclist has filed a police report after getting into a testy exchange with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo in front of a Hamptons home on Easter Sunday, according to a New York Post report.

The reported filing with the East Hampton Police Department came after Cuomo shared a story on his SiriusXM radio show on Monday about a “jackass, loser biker” who got in his “space” because he was in the front yard with two women and three children at the home, which is still under construction. The bicyclist told the Post that Cuomo had purchased the property.

The Cuomo family is currently living in nearby Southampton, where the anchor and host has been broadcasting from his basement while under quarantine.

Cuomo announced on March 31 that he had tested positive for coronavirus, prompting an outpouring of support from media members and viewers of his CNN prime-time program. The 49-year-old said as recently as Tuesday night that he is still suffering from a low-grade fever.

The Long Island bicyclist, a 65-year-old man who only identified himself as David, told the Post he decided to file a police report to document the alleged incident in case he feels “that this guy’s a threat to me.”

The bicyclist told the Post he’s lived in East Hampton for most of his life.

David said the verbal confrontation occurred after he saw Cuomo outside on Sunday.

“I just looked and said, ‘Is that Chris Cuomo? Isn’t he supposed to be quarantined?’” David said after one of the two women there approached him. “I said to him, ‘Your brother is the coronavirus czar, and you’re not even following his rules — unnecessary travel.'”

“‘Who the hell are you?! I can do what I want!’ He just ranted, screaming, ‘I’ll find out who you are!’” Cuomo responded, according to David.

“He said, ‘This is not the end of this. You’ll deal with this later. We will meet again.’ If that’s not a threat, I don’t know what is,” David added.

And now, despite the fact that Cuomo himself has discussed this incident publicly and that the biker has filed a police report documenting Cuomo’s excursion outside, he has decided to make a show of his “immersion” from his basement at the end of quarantine.

As CNN continues to hysterically rail against the President’s war on fake news, it’s worthwhile to recall these kinds of stories about how willingly CNN engages it in it.

 

Published in General
Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 18 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    It’s kind of like this Joey Bishop scene Deny, deny, deny.

    • #1
  2. David Carroll Thatcher
    David Carroll
    @DavidCarroll

    CNN dishonest?  I’m shocked.   

    • #2
  3. JennaStocker Member
    JennaStocker
    @JennaStocker

    Right on. They double-down in their claim to be the last truth-tellers against Trump. But their continuous stunts like this causes nothing but doubt in their reporting. In a time in which we are told to take this virus gravely serious, they are the butt of their own jokes.

    • #3
  4. Retail Lawyer Member
    Retail Lawyer
    @RetailLawyer

    There was a TV doctor, kind of cute in a TV way, who was fired for violating an Ebola quarantine.  Her name was Nancy Snyderman.

    • #4
  5. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    I didn’t know anything about Chris Cuomo until coronavirus, and I’ve never seen his show. Dude sounds like a piece of work. Sheesh.

    • #5
  6. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Bethany Mandel:

    The willingness CNN executives had to lie so plainly and so egregiously was incredibly instructive about the network’s relationship with the truth when it becomes inconvenient.

    We’re seeing CNN using the same playbook again this week about another member of their talent.

    Bethany,

    But Bethany dear, didn’t you get the memo, “The facts don’t matter only the narrative matters.” Seriously, CNN is a symptom of everything that is wrong in American society. A major news outlet whose sole job is to inform the public, continuously misinforms the public. Pathetic.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #6
  7. rgbact Inactive
    rgbact
    @romanblichar

    Nah, Trump is the king of the gaslighters. CNN and Trump deserve each other. They are reality show/Hollywood merged with politics. It hasn’t hurt Trump much. It likely won’t hurt CNN. We’ll see if these C-19 stunts end up paying off in grabbing more liberal viewers from MSNBC long term.

    • #7
  8. E. Kent Golding Moderator
    E. Kent Golding
    @EKentGolding

    rgbact (View Comment):

    Nah, Trump is the king of the gaslighters. CNN and Trump deserve each other. They are reality show/Hollywood merged with politics. It hasn’t hurt Trump much. It likely won’t hurt CNN. We’ll see if these C-19 stunts end up paying off in grabbing more liberal viewers from MSNBC long term.

    Trump will be out of the public eye within 5 years.   CNN will still be broadcast in airports and waiting rooms in 5 years.

    • #8
  9. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Wow, this guy makes Fredo looks intelligent. I could only watch that “immersion” scene up to the point where he fake coughs on his wife. What an idiot.

    • #9
  10. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    CNN was my first go to during Desert Shield. I was a young Lt in the USAF and faced with the prospect of going to war, and they had the coverage.

    During Desert Storm, we would watch CNN during a moment of downtime before stepping to our jet. Many of my crewmates grew disgusted with the coverage of CNN during that time. I am sure they were glad when Fox News came on the air.

    For me, I completely gave up on CNN when Eason Jordan penned this explanation following the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/the-news-we-kept-to-ourselves.html

    Eason Jordan was fired/resigned once he accused the US military of “deliberately targeting journalists” during OIF.

    Which leads me to a couple of quotes describing the state of journalism since Jordan was let go.

    “The News We Kept to Ourselves”, kind of says it all. Doesn’t it?

    • #10
  11. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Instugator (View Comment):

    CNN was my first go to during Desert Shield. I was a young Lt in the USAF and faced with the prospect of going to war, and they had the coverage.

    During Desert Storm, we would watch CNN during a moment of downtime before stepping to our jet. Many of my crewmates grew disgusted with the coverage of CNN during that time. I am sure they were glad when Fox News came on the air.

    For me, I completely gave up on CNN when Eason Jordan penned this explanation following the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/the-news-we-kept-to-ourselves.html

    Eason Jordan was fired/resigned once he accused the US military of “deliberately targeting journalists” during OIF.

    Which leads me to a couple of quotes describing the state of journalism since Jordan was let go.

    https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/332494589934047234

    https://twitter.com/jtLOL/status/501493192953319424

    “The News We Kept to Ourselves”, kind of says it all. Doesn’t it?

    This is one of the worst episodes in the history of journalism. The press lost all of its credibility at that moment. For me, they have never had any credibility since.

    I wish people would realize that what we call “the news” is really an official announcement of some sort from someone (the government or any other organization of any kind) presented in a marketing format. It’s a business. It has no interest in anything except itself. It exists solely to make money. It is designed to pique human emotion. They are really good at it. Which is fine with me. But the public needs to accept that reality.

    • #11
  12. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    What you have to remember here is in their current economic model, CNN doesn’t have to care about Chris Cuomo’s phoniness or hypocrisy, as long as none of the higher-ups at AT&T care.

    CNN is bundled with the other Warner Media channels to cable and satellite subscribers — you want TBS, TNT, TCM and HBO, you gotta take CNN and HLN as part of the deal. So as long as people want to watch new movies, old movies or endless reruns of “The Big Bang Theory”, CNN gets paid out of the overall rights pot for those channels. Plus in the current media model of more and more fractured viewing audiences, the idea is no network can possibly get a diverse audience and high ratings (or in the newspaper or online markets, high number of readers). So just pick a certain demographic with some disposable income and sell that to advertisers.

    CNN chooses urban, middle and upper-middle income angry progressives as their target audience, and panders to them just as MSNBC does in hopes of retaining a small but loyal audience of core viewers. In that world, Chris Cuomo has been framed as part of #TheResistance, and any news that would possibly go against that narrative — like Chris defying his own brothers quarantine orders and going on in public while still suffering from coronavirus — is memory holed, in favor of the the narrative of the heroic anchorman who emerges from his bunker to fight for truth and justice again.

    This Orwellian narrative is also playing out in the non-personing of Tara Reade on CNN, who can’t even be mentioned less she negatively impact Jo Biden’s campaign … unless the signal goes out sometime in the future from the proper people that Joe needs to be replaced by someone with a little better speaking and memory skills. If that happens and Biden won’t leave quietly, you won’t be able to escape seeing heroic Chris Cuomo and other CNN anchors obsessing about Tara Reade’s charges and how it’s time for a change.

    • #12
  13. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    A “biker” makes Chris Cuomo appear to be a tough guy, rather than using the term bicyclist. We called bicyclists gutter bunnies when I was cop. I suppose Chris Cuomo wanted to give the impression he confronted a Hells Angel, or Gypsy Joker. I’m sure his listeners would have not been impressed if he said he chased off a 65 year-old gutter bunny.

    Yes, I know that gutter bunny is acerbic, sarcastic, labeling, and not very nice.

    • #13
  14. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Doug Watt (View Comment):

    A “biker” makes Chris Cuomo appear to be a tough guy, rather than using the term bicyclist. We called bicyclists gutter bunnies when I was cop. I suppose Chris Cuomo wanted to give the impression he confronted a Hells Angel, or Gypsy Joker. I’m sure his listeners would have not been impressed if he said he chased off a 65 year-old gutter bunny.

    Yes, I know that gutter bunny is acerbic, sarcastic, labeling, and not very nice.

    Doug,

    Yeah, to call a 65-year-old guy riding a bicycle who lives down the street from you a “biker”, gives you an idea just how fake Chris Cuomo’s fake news is.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #14
  15. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Doug Watt (View Comment):

    A “biker” makes Chris Cuomo appear to be a tough guy, rather than using the term bicyclist. We called bicyclists gutter bunnies when I was cop. I suppose Chris Cuomo wanted to give the impression he confronted a Hells Angel, or Gypsy Joker. I’m sure his listeners would have not been impressed if he said he chased off a 65 year-old gutter bunny.

    Yes, I know that gutter bunny is acerbic, sarcastic, labeling, and not very nice.

    Cuomo didn’t think anyone would track the bicyclist down and get his side of the story, forgetting that the New York Post wasn’t going to miss out on something like this, where Fredo’s not only going to SiriusXM and ranting about his scary adversary, he’s also making noises like mere anchoring on CNN is beneath him, and he now desires a higher calling — though to be fair, being an anchorman on the current incarnation of CNN would be a degrading occupation for a lot of people.

    (The Post also dredged up this 20-year-old story on Cuomo’s personality, which wouldn’t be any big deal, except that it fits in with the angry, privileged attitude he’s shown during his recent public confrontations.)

    • #15
  16. Hammer, The Inactive
    Hammer, The
    @RyanM

    Wouldn’t it be “emersion?”

    • #16
  17. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    to me it was the show trial they had after the Parkland shooting, esp because I used to believe Tapper was a good journalist. Having the Broward County Sheriff allow to push his talking points so soon after the shooting was not journalism. Setting up Dana Loesh and Sen Rubio to push an anti-2nd amendment agenda is not journalism. The fact the CNN got a media award for this shows the state of CNN and journalism

    • #17
  18. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Hammer, The (View Comment):

    Wouldn’t it be “emersion?”

    If you have to explain. . .

    • #18
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.