Last week, President-elect Donald Trump held a media summit at Trump Tower, where he reportedly spent twenty minutes scolding some of the most powerful men and women in the television news business. The meeting was said to be the launching point for a “reset” between Trump and the media, but it doesn’t seem like we are destined to see a cessation of hostilities anytime soon.
On Twitter Tuesday, Trump launched into a fresh rant against CNN, which he dubbed the “Clinton News Network” during the election campaign season. In his online remarks, Trump suggested that the network still deserved that moniker.
“I thought that CNN would get better after they failed so badly in their support of Hillary Clinton however, since election, they are worse,” Trump wrote.
On Monday night, Trump had some choice words for the cable news giant.
“CNN is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, that they don’t know what to do,” he wrote.
Trump is irritated by CNN’s reporting on his claim that millions voted for Hillary illegally, thus negating her advantage in the popular vote count. Without evidence for this fraud, however, it’s hard to see him gaining traction in this particular fight.
On the other hand, his claim that CNN is biased against him stands on much firmer ground. According to the Washington Examiner, in fact, there is “some tension” inside the halls of the CNN Center due to the network’s admitted vendetta against the president-elect.
From the story:
“CNN has always pledged to hold Trump accountable and that’s what we should be doing,” another source told the Examiner. “Since the election, CNN has out MSNBCed MSNBC,” the source said, referring to the liberal slant at CNN’s competitor. “In the long term, that’s a dangerous place to be.”
Furthermore, CNN’s Chris Cuomo said on his program that it was up to him and his network (and the entire news media) to oppose Trump’s policies. “The media cannot yield,” Cuomo said. “This administration is going to demand constant fact-checking and opposition.”
There’s nothing wrong with our free press taking an adversarial approach to the president – when that approach is grounded in objectivity and fact. What we have here, though, is a network (and CNN isn’t alone by any means) that only takes an adversarial approach to Republicans. As long as that bias exists, Trump has every right – nay, every duty – to call it out.
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