CNN Defends Decision To Further DEEPEN Divide Between The People And Free Press

CNN Defends Decision To Further DEEPEN Divide Between The People And Free Press

CNN, along with Buzzfeed, has come under fire for their decision to publish a document alleging that Russia had compromising information on Donald Trump. Both CNN and Buzzfeed came under immediate fire for the report, which immediately was questioned. But instead of backing down, CNN is defending their reporting.

trump-cnn

Donald Trump had a press conference on Wednesday, where he blasted Buzzfeed, calling it a “failing pile of garbage.” When a CNN reporter attempted to ask Trump a question, he told him to “be quiet,” saying that the news organization was a “terrible organization” that spreads “fake news.”

For their part, CNN released a statement saying that their reporting was “vastly different” from the unverified documents released by Buzzfeed. “CNN’s decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different than BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos. The Trump team knows this. They are using BuzzFeed’s decision to deflect from CNN’s reporting, which has been matched by the other major news organizations,” the statement read.

“We are fully confident in our reporting. It represents the core of what the First Amendment protects, informing the people of the inner workings of their government; in this case, briefing materials prepared for President Obama and President-elect Trump last week. We made it clear that we were not publishing any of the details of the 35-page document because we have not corroborated the report’s allegations.”

Still, even CNN employee Jake Tapper criticized the network. While he said Trump was wrong for not taking the reporter’s question, he also added, “irresponsible journalism hurts us all.”

Even Vice President-elect Mike Pence had some harsh words for CNN over the controversy. “You know, I have long been a supporter of a free and independent press and I always will be,” Pence said. “But with freedom comes responsibility. And the irresponsible decision of a few news organizations to run with a false and unsubstantiated report, when most news organizations resisted the temptation to propagate this fake news, can only be attributed to media bias and attempt to demean the president-elect and our incoming administration, and the American people are sick and tired of it.”

For Trump, he only wants one thing from the media: honesty. “I don’t recommend reforms, I recommend people that have some moral compass,” Trump said. “I’ve seen people destroyed. I’ve seen people absolutely destroyed, and I think it’s very unfair. So all I can ask for is honest reporters.”

Share this!

Enjoy reading? Share it with your friends!