Tag: CNN

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Shep Smith Defends CNN Again: “CNN’s Reporting Is Not Fake News”

Shep Smith

Yet again, Fox News’ Shepard Smith took to the airwaves today to defend CNN after White House press secretary Sean Spicer excluded CNN and others from a closed door press “gaggle.”

“For the record, ‘fake news’ refers to stories that are created, often by entities pretending to be news organizations, solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance.

“In short, fake news is made up nonsense delivered for financial gain. CNN’s reporting was not fake news. Its journalists followed the same standards to which other news organizations, including Fox News, adhere.”

Watch below:

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Anderson Cooper’s Fiery Interview With Trump Advisor Kellyanne Conway

Don’t let the length of the clip fool you. This was quite riveting to watch.

Good on Anderson that he doesn’t back down. Make sure you watch to the end when he CONFIRMS that CNN never linked to the document dump or to Buzzfeed.

Conway is wrong, spinning for the Trumpers, and never acknowledges she’s wrong.

What’s clear is Team Trump has a huge chip on it’s shoulder that folks didn’t think he would win.

Near the end Conway asks why 8 years ago at this time CNN was reporting that President Obama was headed to Oslo to pick up a Nobel Peace Prize, but no one’s reporting that about Trump today.

Umm, maybe because Trump hasn’t won a Nobel Peace Prize???

From CNN:

In a fiery exchange, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and Anderson Cooper clash over CNN’s reporting of the classified documents presented to President Obama and President-elect Donald J. Trump http://cnn.it/2jG0Mom

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Fox News Defends CNN: No Journalists Should Be ‘Belittled’ By A President

Fox News’ Shepard Smith

In a bit of surprise, Fox News’ Shep Smith issued a statement today on behalf of Fox News defending CNN for the report it posted last night regarding a collection of what appeared to be “opposition ammo” meant to possibly attack Donald Trump during the presidential campaign. The main point being that CNN’s reporting was “distinctly different” from BuzzFeed’s which drew Trump’s ire.

CNN’s story, unlike Buzzfeed’s, specifically did not include the unedited dossier of unverified allegations made about Trump’s ties to Russia. Nor did CNN include any “details” of the items from the report. Smith added that no journalists should be treated in the way Trump treated CNN’s Jim Acosta, who got into a brief contretemps with Trump today at the president-elect’s first press conference since last summer.

Trump refused to take any questions from Acosta today despite continued requests, and Acosta later shared that Trump’s press secretary threatened to have him thrown out of future press events if he continued to press the president-elect.

Here’s part of Smith’s statement today:

“President-elect Trump today told CNN’s Jim Acosta that his organization amounts to fake news. CNN’s exclusive reporting on the Russian matter was separate and distinctly different from the document dump executed by an online news property.

“Though we at FOX News cannot confirm CNN’s report, it is our observation that its correspondents followed journalistic standards and that neither they nor any other journalists should be subjected to belittling and delegitimizing by the President-elect of the United States.”

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CNN Cuts Ties To DNC Chair Donna Brazile

DNC chair Donna Brazile

CNN has severed all ties with DNC chair Donna Brazile after the latest WikiLeaks email dump seems to show Brazile sharing debate questions with the Clinton campaign.

CNN says it is “completely uncomfortable” in continuing with Brazile as a political contributor in light of the hacked emails, and as such, Brazile has resigned her position with CNN.

Via Politico:

Hacked emails posted by WikiLeaks show Brazile, whose CNN contract was suspended when she became interim DNC chair over the summer, sharing with the Clinton campaign a question that would be posed to Hillary Clinton before the March CNN Democratic debate in Flint, and sharing with the campaign a possible question prior to a CNN town hall also in March.

In a statement, CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas said that on Oct. 14, the network accepted Brazile’s resignation.

“On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile’s resignation as a CNN contributor. (Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.) CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor,” Pratapas said.

A CNN employee, speaking on background, suggested Brazile may have met the woman who was supposed to pose the question about lead poisoning during a service event planned the day before the debate.

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Melania Trump: Billy Bush “Egged” My Husband On To Say “Inappropriate” Comments

After spending months attacking the “biased” mainstream media, it is interesting that Donald Trump dispatched his wife, Melania, to do a one on one interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN.

I guess he knows where the audience is.

Melania Trump says her husband was “egged on” in the 2005 tape in which he made lewd comments about his own sexually aggressive behavior toward women — remarks she says were “boy talk.”

“I said to my husband that, you know, the language was inappropriate. It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know,” the wife of the Republican presidential nominee said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, which is set to air at 8 p.m. ET Monday.

“And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on — it was only a mic. And I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on,” she said, referring to Trump and NBC’s “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush. She said they were engaged in “boy talk, and he was led on — like, egged on — from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.”

I’m not sure exactly how to take that “egged on” comment. Does that mean that a 59 year old Donald Trump was too weak willed to be his own man? That Billy Bush was the “alpha” and Trump the “beta?”

If you can’t handle yourself against the mental machinations of Billy Bush, how are you going to stand up to the leaders of foreign nations?

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Media Matters To CNN: Cut Ties With Corey Lewandowski

How is it possible that former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is still receiving pay from the Trump campaign while currently on payroll at CNN as “political analyst?”

From Media Matters:

CNN hired Corey Lewandowski in late June after Donald Trump relieved him of duties as campaign manager. What looked at first like an indefensible hire has mushroomed into perhaps the worst conflict-of-interest problem in the history of cable news. It’s time to send a message to Jeff Zucker and CNN: Cut ties with Corey Lewandowski at once.

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Trump Goes Whiny-Baby When Not Congratulated On GOP Nomination

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump whines that CNN’s Chris Cuomo didn’t begin this morning’s interview with a “congratulations” on becoming the GOP nominee, even though Cuomo had already congratulated Trump the last time they spoke.

Lord, the ego.

From Mediaite:

Cuomo started off by asking Trump about a line of rhetoric that has emerged from the campaign trail — “you are attacking Hillary Clinton for the sexual past and indiscretions of her husband,” he noted — a tactic that may give voters pause. “What is your thinking on this line of attack?” Cuomo furthered.

Did Trump answer the question? Not even close. “Well this is a nice way to start off the interview,” the presumptive nominee said with all the sensitivity of a kid in a candy store who was denied his Sour Patch Kids. “First of all, you should congratulate me for having won the race. I thought, you know, at least there would be a small congratulations but I’m not surprised with CNN because that’s the way they treat Trump.”

“You know, they call it the ‘Clinton Network,’ and I believe that. So, uh, let’s start off right there,” Trump continued to say during his phone-in hit. “I said congratulations the last time we spoke!” clarified Cuomo.

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CNN: Discussion Of Race Relations Gets Tense Between Van Jones & Jeffrey Lord

I was watching CNN last night when this really powerful discussion occurred between former Obama staffer Van Jones and former Reagan staffer/Donald Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord about race, the Ku Klux Klan and the Democratic Party.

The exchange must have gone on for at least ten minutes, at times getting very heated.

Here’s just an excerpt via the Washington Post:

Though Jones allowed that pundits had not “respected” Trump voters, he said that “there is a dark underside here…. He is whipping up and tapping into and pushing buttons that are very, very frightening to me and frightening to a lot of people.” He added: When Trump, who declined to denounce the KKK in an interview Sunday before doing so on Twitter, is “playing funny with the Klan, that is not cool” — especially given the candidate’s outspoken position on Muslim extremists.

“I know this man, when he gets passionate about terrorism,” Jones said of Trump. “I know how he talks about terrorism. The Klan is a terrorist organization.”

Lord, citing the KKK’s historic connection with the Democratic Party, turned up the temperature. “A leftist terrorist organization,” he said.

Jones started to look a little angry.

“We’re not going to play that game,” Jones said.

Lord: “We are going to understand history.”

Jones: “No, you need to take a serious look at the fact that this man is playing fast and loose…. When you talk about terrorism, he gets passionate. He says, ‘No, this is wrong.’ But when you talk about the Klan, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know.’”

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Democratic Candidates On CNN Townhall Tonight

CNN hosts a townhall discussion with both Democratic presidential nominees, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton & Sen. Bernie Sanders, tonight at 8pmET/5pmPT.

Personally, I like the townhall format more than a debate scenario. Less attacking each other and the questions come from the voters, which I find more interesting.

Early on some folks called for more debates than the original six announced. I wasn’t crazy about that idea as I think you get in six debates about all the interchange between candidates you need.  Of course, three more debates were eventually added to the schedule.

But in a townhall setting, real every day Americans get to directly ask the candidates what they care about.

#Better