US Politics

The same Trump whose White House this week refused to recognise Pride Month? (Unlike previous Administations).

Quite frankly, from your bizarre obsession with reviving old posts of mine to “fact check” (using information not available to me at the time of posting), to your assumption that I use an Australian TV presentation forum as my main means to discuss German and American politics… This is quite possibly the strangest argument I’ve been a part of.

Yesterday Trump posted a video on Twitter in which he pretended to tackle and repeatedly strike a man in a business suit, his face replaced by the CNN logo, outside a wrestling ring. He may disagree with CNN’s reporting since he became President, but this video has simply gone too far. He has attacked nearly every major media outlet in the country.

I say good on him… we need him to attacking CNN more and hold them to account for the fake news they spread.

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Honestly I find this a weird line in the sand for people. Why is this controversial? Just a shitpost.

He previously attacked Megyn Kelly (blood out of her wherever) and also the recent Mika scandal.

I think the only mainstream media outlet that Donald Trump hasn’t attacked is Fox News (and other outlets owned by that company).

Wrong.

This whole ‘controversy’ over Donald Trump posting a doctored GIF of him punching CNN is ridiculous. It is a total storm in a teacup. The ‘inciting violence’ rhetoric being peddled is absolute nonsense. It’s clearly meant to be a joke.

By far the worst thing about this saga is that a few hours ago, CNN tracked down the person who created the GIF, and are blackmailing them by threatening to reveal their identity if they didn’t make a grovelling apology and shut up. All for photoshopping a CNN logo in place of a wrestler’s head. Absolutely ridiculous. Rumors are circulating that the person is 15 years old, for crying out loud.

Now imagine if someone created a photoshopped GIF of Hillary Clinton beating up the Fox News logo or whatever, and Fox News threatened to pull the same shit. Imagine the outrage that would inevitably come from CNN and other media outlets of similar political views.

This is the kind of shit causes people to become disillusioned with the media, and they will inevitably head for alternative sources - whether they are legitimate, or not.

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Agreed. It was at worst a bit of harmless fun.

Not sure what CNN’s endgame here is…

CNN has vastly estimated the risks of picking a fight with the internet…

But yeah, it’s fucking pathetic and so painfully partisan. I never expected them to get worse than Fox.

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According to a Reddit post and some analysis from internet sites, the man who did the CNN video is 40 years old - not 15 - and also drew up and posted an infographic listing every Jewish presenter at CNN. He also has a post history with a few anti-Jewish and anti-black slurs

https://www.adl.org/blog/analysis-of-reddit-user-claiming-responsibility-for-president-trumps-cnn-video

The account name is HanAssholeSolo if anyone wants to check.

The poster has since apologised to CNN and promised to stop posting hateful things online.

Does this change things for anyone?

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Totally agree. Threatening to dox the individual, no matter what his age, is so unethical for a media organisation. I mean, even the notion that the individual should apologies for creating a MEME for god’s sake is just the most ridiculous thing I have heard of.

In any case - why does the individual behind the meme even matter? Any person could have stuck a CNN logo on a video and made a gif meme.

Obvious answer: Hitler drank milk, Trump drinks milk, so Trump is Hitler. Apply the analogy here - attempting to smear Donald Trump for posting a random gif, by pointing to the faults of the original poster on reddit. Just so bizarre and childish from CNN.

“The internet”, rightly so, is outraged about this - CNN has lost alot of credibility, along with the additional hidden tape recordings which have come out today.

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I agree that CNN is in the wrong by threatening to reveal his identity. Punching down at a 40-yo father and veteran isn’t a good look. The press’ role should always be to keep those in power in check, rather than indiscriminately going after random shitposters.

There is however plenty of wrong information out there, and the context (especially anti-Semitism and anti-Islamic rhetoric) matters.

Of course CNN has lost a lot a credibility, after all it’s supposed to be in the middle, not favouring anymore, unlike MSNBC which leans to left & FOX which leans to the right. CNN is just as bad as MSNBC in reporting fake news & bashing Trump all the time, they can dish it out, but can’t take it when Trump hits back at them, they act like they are the innocent victims, it’s a disgrace.

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The “Trump is inciting violence with that gif” accusation is particularly amusing, based on what is the most comical, non-threatening video I’ve ever seen.

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Honestly wouldn’t think it was bad but then

Holy shit like that guy should stay on 4chan for that trash.

Also lol https://www.reddit.com/r/HanAssholeSolo/

https://imgur.com/a/mlZ5t

Honestly I have little sympathy. No one is entitled to consequence-free speech.

Even if the person is a real shitty racist dickhead, I still think a massive media corporation targeting a single person for what was a relatively tame online post is unacceptable. Remember, this guy was targeted by CNN solely for that relatively tame post with the CNN logo Photoshopped in place of a wrestler’s head - not all the other horrible stuff they’ve done.

Exactly. We’re not all sitting here crying in a corner about the random individual from reddit - we’re analysing the ethics of a large media organisation doxing an individual, and obtaining an apology from the creator of a gif which is critical to that media brand.

This doesn’t even link in to any of the issues…are you saying his free-speech, expressed in other random gifs and posts which have not been widely published, means that the media is allowed to threaten and dox him on an unrelated matter? Otherwise I don’t see on what other basis you saying this. A weird non sequitur.

Remember that “list of Trump lies” the NYT produced last week? They should add this one to it immediately.

In Washington, Mr. Trump repeated his impatience with Mr. Xi. In a post on Twitter on Wednesday, the president said China’s trade with North Korea had grown by almost 40 percent in the first quarter.

It was not clear where Mr. Trump got his 40 percent figure.

China’s trade with the North grew 37.4 percent during the first three months of the year…

:roll_eyes: