CNN has been forced to retract a story aimed at undermining Donald Trump’s presidency. Along with its retraction of the Russia-related article, CNN also announced three of its employees responsible for yet another fake news hit piece have resigned.
The cable news network, once the leader in its field, continues to tarnish its name and give more reason to ignore anything it reports.
“CNN said Monday that three journalists, including the executive editor in charge of a new investigative unit, have resigned after the publication of a Russia-related article that was retracted,” reported CNN’s Brian Stelter. “Thomas Frank, who wrote the story in question; Eric Lichtblau, an editor in the unit; and Lex Haris, who oversaw the unit, have all left CNN.”
Stelter added: “In the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignations of the employees involved in the story’s publication.”
According to Stelter, CNN Management conducted an internal investigation that found “some standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published.”
CNN was still unwilling to admit the story itself was inaccurate. Stelter defended the debunked story.
Another staffer interviewed after the meeting said the retraction simply meant, “that the story wasn’t solid enough to publish as-is.” The staffer insisted that neither the retractions nor the resignations meant the story was wrong.
Haris, the head of the CNN investigative unit, is the only CNN official who resigned who gave a statement for the story.
“On Friday, CNN retracted a story published by my team. As Executive Editor of that team, I have resigned,” said Haris. ”I’ve been with CNN since 2001, and am sure about one thing: This is a news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else. I am leaving, but will carry those principles wherever I go.”
President Trump has been vocal in calling out CNN for what it is – a regular funnel for fake news. Trump has criticized CNN’s president, Jeffrey A. Zucker, in news conferences from the West Wing.
The battle between Trump and CNN reached a fever pitch during the summer when CNN reporter Jim Acosta launched a broadside against then White House press secretary, Sean Spicer for limiting television coverage of briefings.
The Washington Times reports that Zucker was deeply upset with last week’s debacle. Zucker has invested extensive resources into covering the Trump White House and several anonymous sources at the network say he is extremely troubled there were no more internal checks on the accuracy of the story.
One of the sources said, “Mr. Zucker helped lead an internal inquiry that found the story was published despite concerns expressed by CNN’s standards team.”
The resignations are the latest in a series of gaffs and outright fabrications from the network. Kathy Griffin, host of CNN New Year’s Eve special lost her contract after she published a photograph in which she appeared to be holding a likeness of the President’s severed head. It severed ties with host Reza Aslan after he tweeted a series of vulgar posts about Mr. Trump. And another story that inaccurately predicted the congressional testimony of James B. Comey was retracted.
Aslan, an Iranian-American scholar who was the host of the network’s weekly show “Believer,” after Mr. Aslan assailed President Trump in a series of vulgar messages on Twitter after the terrorist attack at London Bridge. His program that covered global religion was abruptly canceled after he described the president as “an embarrassment to humankind” and compared him to a piece of excrement.
CNN reported last June that Comey would dispute President Trump’s claims that the FBI Director said he was not under investigation on multiple occasions.
The report, titled “Comey expected to refute Trump,” was compiled by four CNN journalists, including Brian Rokus, Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, and Jake Tapper.
Just two days after CNN’s apology, Borger reiterated the report’s claims in an appearance on the network. In spite of knowing it to be inaccurate Borger said: “Comey is going to dispute the president on this point if he’s asked about it by senators, and we have to assume that he will be,” said Borger, the network’s chief political analyst. “He will say he never assured Donald Trump that he was not under investigation, that that would have been improper for him to do so.”
The strategy is obvious – report fake news and hope people don’t notice the ‘retractions’.
~ American Liberty Report
