Trump and his loyalist FCC Chairman Brendan Carr keep threatening to abuse their power to punish Trump’s political enemies. They just did it again, threatening CNN for posting “fake news”—when it was simply reporting a real announcement from the Iranian regime that contradicted Trump’s claims.
Deadline reports:
About 90 minutes after announcing a two-week ceasefire in the war in Iran, Donald Trump was irate over CNN’s reporting of a statement issued by the country’s Supreme National Security Council, declaring victory and averting the president’s threat to launch attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Trump posted on Truth Social at 8:01 p.m. ET, “The alleged Statement put out by CNN World News is a FRAUD, as CNN well knows. The false Statement was linked to a Fake News site (from Nigeria) and, of course, immediately picked up by CNN, and blared out as a ‘legitimate’ headline. The Official Statement by Iran was just released, and posted on TRUTH, below. Authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed on the issuance of the Fake CNN World Statement, or was it a sick rogue player? CNN is being ordered to immediately withdraw this Statement with full apologies for their, as usual, terrible ‘reporting.’ Results of the investigation will be announced in the near future.” …
CNN is defending its reporting on the statement. A spokesperson said, “The statement in question was obtained by CNN from Iranian officials and reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets. We received the statement from specific official Iranian spokespeople who are known to us.” …
Other outlets, including The New York Times and PBS, reported on a statement similar to the one that CNN did. …
Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, also weighed in on Trump’s post attacking CNN.
Carr wrote, “More outrageous conduct from CNN. Fake news is bad enough for the country, but pushing out a hoax headline in such a sensitive national security moment as this requires accountability. Iran put out an official statement that simply cannot be squared with the one CNN’s false headline attributes to them. Time for change at CNN.”
The Justice Department is currently reviewing Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.
Carr has no direct authority over CNN, because it broadcasts on cable TV, not over the airwaves. But Trump has a history of abusing the extensive powers of the executive branch, including using antitrust regulations to block planned mergers, to shake down media companies and intimidate them into providing friendlier coverage.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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