So, CNN is now in the blackmailing business. Yep! I never thought that was possible too, but, apparently, they are, and in a big way too.
Actually, it’s not just CNN, but the majority of the mainstream media that have gone into the blackmailing business because a citizen made a funny video of Trump beating up a personified CNN.
The story as I understand it, so far, is that an American who has yet to be named, took an old WWE video of President Trump beating up someone, superimposed the CNN logo on the head of the person being beaten up, and posted the doctored video on Reddit.
President Trump got wind of the video, and tweeted it out where it somehow went viral. Now, CNN are not happy about the imagery of President Trump figuratively beating up on their network, probably because of the ongoing war between the president and the mainstream media in general, and CNN in particular.
As a result, the network has taken action to remedy that situation, or action it thought would help remedy the situation. The action CNN has taken, according to social media in general and Twitter in particular, is that it has snooped out the citizen behind the video, and, according the trending twitter hashtag #CNNBlackMail, has blackmailed him into removing the video from the internet, and promising not to make any more videos about CNN.
CNN wrote in an article that it was not publishing the user’s name “because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.” It continued: “CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.”
That last part of the quote does make it appear that what they are doing is bullying a private citizen out of his right to free speech with their wealth and power, as tweeted by Julian Assange. “A multi-billion dollar TV network blackmailing a private citizen into not making funny videos about it is not journalism, CNN. #CNNBlackmail“
A multi-billion dollar TV network blackmailing a private citizen into not making funny videos about it is not journalism, CNN. #CNNBlackmail
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) July 5, 2017
There’s no gainsaying that Americans have not been impressed by this perceived abuse of power by CNN, and have been showing their outrage anyway they can.
Many have vented their anger on twitter using the aforementioned twitter hashtag, with all sorts of funny tweets and gifs.
Some of my favorites can be found below:
CNN: "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."#CNNBlackMail pic.twitter.com/uDtw3rxzqR
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) July 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/882669002228682756
Donald's happy day #CNNBlackMail
Keep the tweets coming 😂🤣😅 https://t.co/CJmkEFQsHO— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/joshdcaplan/status/882669920592547846
https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/882663399401766913
RKO otta nowhere to @CNN #CNNBlackmail pic.twitter.com/PdGVMF4x9U
— Sudirman Sinaga (@7_N_G) July 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/bbidoill/status/882647605825679360
Breaking News
ACME stock sets another high as @CNN continues daily product purchases despite the 100% fail rate of each plan#CNNBlackmail pic.twitter.com/BDvv1tZEQ0— PlayTheTrumpCard ⚡️ Trump 2024 (@PlaysTrumpCard) July 5, 2017
You can use the #CNNBlackmail hashtag to see more of the absolutely devastating jokes being made about CNN on twitter. It appears that CNN’s quest to arrest this situation has backfired, and the only people who appear to be defending the network are some of their mainstream media accomplices who are joining the effort to discredit and damage the reputation of the yet to be named video maker.
In fact, Huffington Post already has a hit piece out on this poor video maker who just made a funny video where they called him every name on the face of the earth, from NAZI, to racist, to anti semite. How you equate this funny video with all of those things is what I have yet to determine, but I’ll be very interested to know what they call the makers of the thousands of new videos popping up all over the internet.
This is definitely not a well thought out move by CNN, and what it shows is that the network believes it’s losing the war it picked with Mr Trump and that has made them a bit jittery which is leading to reckless decisions like this.
Actions like this can only lead to more damage being done to CNN’s reputation instead of launder it, and coming in the same month when that network had to fire three reporters for filing falsehoods in a story about President Trump and Russia makes it even worse.
It’s definitely not the best of times for CNN….right now.
