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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/2/2167103/-CNN-almost-forgot-that-time-Trump-plotted-a-coupCNN tried to ignore Trump's coup attempt
Hunter for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
Tuesday May 02, 2023 · 2:00 PM EDT
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On Monday, CNN announced that they would be holding a "presidential town hall" hosting one and only one Republican candidate: Donald Trump, the seditionist coup plotter who attempted to nullify a U.S. presidential election by hoax or by force rather than give up power.
"The event, hosted by CNN This Morning anchor Kaitlan Collins and airing at 9 PM ET on May 10, will feature the former president taking questions from New Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters who plan to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary," says CNN.
There was no mention of that coup attempt in CNNs original announcement. There was a one-sentence mention of Trump's New York indictment for cooking his company books to hide hush money payments while on the campaign trail, and a mention of the current defamation trial against Trump leveled by writer E. Jean Carroll, but no mention of Trump pressuring Georgia election officials to change vote totals, no mention of his extended efforts to convince his vice president to refuse to recognize the electoral votes of multiple states during the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress convened to ratify Joe Biden's victory, and no mention of Trump's role in gathering and setting loose a mob for the specific purpose of intimidating Congress into accepting whatever alternate electoral count his seditionist allies might propose.
It was only after the company had been subjected to widespread online mocking and contempt that it expanded its announcement to mention that Trump is still under federal investigation for his role in the Capitol attacks. That mention is called additional details, in the CNN note acknowledging the revision. One imagines that CNN was simply too surprised by the breaking news of its own scheduled programming to have filled in the details correctly the first time through.
The evidence uncovered about Trump's actions is hardly mysterious. In particular, it is known that Trump publicized an intended "march" to coincide precisely with the formal counting of electoral votes; that he was aware of violent elements within that crowd; that he was told that many in the crowd were armed and would not give up their weapons in order to pass through rally metal detectors; that he responded with the furious demand that the metal detectors be turned off and the crowd be allowed to keep their weapons; that he then told the crowd to "march" to the U.S. Capitol, planning on joining the crowd himself before security officials refused to allow it; that he saw the violence outside the Capitol, and did nothing; that he saw live coverage of rioters break into the Capitol, and did nothing; that he was in contact with evacuating lawmakers who asked him to step in, but acted instead to spur the crowd by condemning the hiding Mike Pence as the crowd searched for him; and that after the violence subsided, he repeatedly condemned the arrests of those who violently entered the building and demanded their release, even promising their pardon.
Yet none of that made it into the first CNN announcement. It was, apparently, considered less significant than either his indictment for book-cooking or a civil defamation lawsuit filed against him.
Attempting to overthrow the legitimate government of the United States with the assistance of crooked allies and a violent mob, barely more than 2 years ago, is swept aside in favor of more current news cycles. This is an industry-wide affectation, and CNN no doubt thought all was set right again after an additional details section was added to satisfy democracys most pedantic allies.
Actually, no. Forgetting to mention the violent attempted coup in the news release was a quibble; hosting the man who sponsored it in the first place remains the far more flagrant act.
CNN has done its level best to side with political corruption and even acts of sedition as it repeatedly slides right to court the backers of both rather than give up access to them, or lose the viewership of those that support them. Journalism often declares its highest function to be the exposure of powerful figures who break the public trust for their own profit, but in the CNN version, the journalism part is scrubbed and, instead, talking heads are hired to defend the corruption and to analyze, in political terms, whether the corruption will "help" or "hurt" them in the current election cycle.
There has been not one CNN executive who has known shit about journalism in a very long time, and parent company heads make it their business to ensure that the "balance" between covering corruption and defending it, between coup opposition and coup support, between fact and hoax, and between democracy and fascist overthrow is never far enough out of tilt that the network cannot boast to both groups that it has shown respect for their point of view.
There is an easy method of not giving the architect of an attempted overthrow of our government lavish televised events meant to promote his return to power: simply don't do it. Tell the pardon-promising endorser of political violence that he can go to hell for all he wants, but the company will neither specially promote him, nor look to make a crooked buck in doing so. This is not hard. It is well within the purview of network executives to determine that the public danger outweighs the network's obsessive-compulsive need for spectacle.
It would require the integrity that nobody in the entertainmentnot "news," but entertainmentindustry can abide even being in the same building with, but most of the rest of the American public is familiar with the notion of don't side with terrorists, that being something that the "news" channels of two decades ago were quite willing to drill into our heads.
Trump attempted the overthrow of our government. "But he's also a presidential candidate!" network executives will whine. Yes. Choose which of those two things is more important. You can interview him. You can analyze him. You can do all the other journalistic things that the network might do with a Columbian cartel head, but you would not give a Colombian cartel head an hour-long television special in which he can speak with his American addicts about what his new pricing plans will be. Grow the smallest possible spine, you gutless worms, and declare that "attempted to overthrow our very government" is perhaps the one news event you can think of that would overweigh campaign trail "coverage."
FarPoint
(12,474 posts)From the posts I see here on DU...CNN looks like they are pushing tRump to get attention/ ratings....I sense many there are employees at CNN who puke on the job now...
Hotler
(11,473 posts)area51
(11,936 posts)True Blue American
(17,995 posts)Destroying CNN! It is not fit to watch starting with him taking Reliable Sour es off the air.
UpInArms
(51,290 posts)I cannot express my disgust and contempt for the spineless money grubbing corporate worms any better than the Daily Kos Staff.
SpamWyzer
(385 posts)my television 40+ years ago. CNN and all the slime that issues forth from the flatscreens remains, nay, has become WORSE than when I gave up the "drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation..." I recommend print sources for information...the text is the only thing to deal with, not a bunch of paid professional liars.
jaxexpat
(6,871 posts)Plus, the fact that sometime the sentences just don't make sense.
OMGWTF
(3,985 posts)I constantly see terrible grammar, missing words, and spelling errors online. My husband says that I should always have a black Sharpie and a bottle of Wite-Out with me to fix all of the apostrophe abuse we see on signs when were out and about.
jaxexpat
(6,871 posts)calimary
(81,566 posts)Does nobody hire editors anymore? Good Grief!!!
Appalling!
sheshe2
(84,012 posts)mahannah
(893 posts)Scrivener7
(51,080 posts)uponit7771
(90,370 posts)Alexander Of Assyria
(7,839 posts)jaxexpat
(6,871 posts)Until the fruits of slant and propaganda have borne their fruits, societal dissolution, anarchy and first-hand danger for all from all quarters, the status quo will remain, bloated and useless.
erronis
(15,450 posts)The M$M will obviously not police itself. They sometimes offer some juicy tidbits to feed the librals (msnbc?) but they'll continue to serve their real masters, $$$$
Will this lead to anarchy and dissolution? I think we are a bit more resilient than that, but at several stretching points.
Independent press and free access to news sources (keep the internet free!) are vital. When they start closing down those avenues then we know it's a war.
jaxexpat
(6,871 posts)Some species have evolved right into extinction though the survivors debate the details.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,719 posts)ShazzieB
(16,617 posts)The poll asks "Is CNN trying to OutFox Fox?"
They may be in danger of outfoxing Fox, but I can't decide if they're actually trying to or not!
Submariner
(12,513 posts)Warner the middle man company isnt calling the shots. The same AT&T CEO that funded OAN and its fascist message, is at the top of the heap at CNN.
Collins from Tucker Carlsons Daily Caller is their tool at CNN now.
AT&T one of the top donors to election deniers and and anti-abortion politicians.
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)CNN has not shrunk from airing reports that are highly critical of Trump.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,544 posts)Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)even when they are odious characters like Trump.
We don't live in a single-party state state where the press serves as house organs of the party. Not yet anyway.
Ironically, many CNN critics seem to want CNN to be more like FOX (rather than less).
harumph
(1,920 posts)Trump has big money behind him because an activist subset of the ultra rich want the neutering of the federal gov't and
to break the US into little fiefdoms - better to arbitrage goods and services that way between
borders and without regulation.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,544 posts)Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)bluesbassman
(19,385 posts)If CNN was merely having a candidate on their network, they would do it as a guest on one of their talking head shows. This is absolutely promotion; calling it a Presidential Town Hall is proof of that. At this time (thankfully) Trump is no longer President, so calling it that when NO OTHER candidates are invited is the very essence of promotion of Trump on the part of CNN.
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)They have leading candidates on for Town Halls.
I'm appalled that Trump is "the leading candidate" for the GOP, but that's the reality.
Cha
(297,953 posts)how it tries to get rationalized.
DT is a GD Domestic Terrorist who Inciting Violence and Death against our Nation's Capitol Building.
Propaganda for Ratings Much, CNN?
Septua
(2,265 posts)Surely, a structured, moderated meeting will get around to addressing his Big Lie and lack of any evidence to support it, the classified documents issue, etc. Trump has never done well in interviews he doesn't control.
I'm actually surprised he accepted the invitation and will be even more surprised if he shows up for a Q&A session hosted by anyone other than Sean Hannity.
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)Biden will beat him like a drum.
gab13by13
(21,483 posts)It wouldn't be the first time a candidate knew the questions ahead of time.
Septua
(2,265 posts)Another article: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/01/cnn-donald-trump-town-hall-pushback
But this is risky business and CNN should go into this clear-eyed: Trump will lie and he will attack. Trump has been repeating the same torrent of lies in his speeches and interviews with rightwing media figures for months. Nothing he will say will be new.
So if CNN lets him get away with it unchallenged, they have no excuse. CNN isnt being graded on a curve here.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see if CNN gets an A or F.
ShazzieB
(16,617 posts)This made me realize I was wrong when I said elsewhere on DU that I hadn't watched CNN in tears. I don't watch any of their nightly news shows anymore, but I do watch some of the Special Reports, including this one, which was very, very good. It didn't pull any punches and it was anything BUT favorable to Trump.
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)CNN "going fascist" is a "big lie" conspiracy theory.
It makes DU look bad.
gab13by13
(21,483 posts)CNN has always leaned to the right, it is just moving further right.
CNN and MSNBC are owned and managed by right wing domestic oligarchs. Disclaimer, I do watch Nicolle Wallace.
Response to Just A Box Of Rain (Reply #26)
Post removed
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)who has supported my party and embraced its liberal values since childhood.
Only on DU is that "problematic."
FoxNewsSucks
(10,435 posts)Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,544 posts)ShazzieB
(16,617 posts)When were these firings of which you speak?
ShazzieB
(16,617 posts)The most recent, American Coup: The January 6th Investigation.
, aired in January 2023.
When were these firings of which you speak?
MrsCoffee
(5,803 posts)the bottom for dollars. The billionaires are greedy. Not to mention, going FOX lite fits CNN billionaire board members agenda.
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Silent Type
(3,016 posts)"The former president is also under scrutiny by special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading a pair of investigations one into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and the other on the handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. And Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis plans to announce charges this summer from the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
"The former president is also being sued by former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s and subsequently defamed her after she went public about the incident. Trump has also denied Carrolls allegations. Trump has refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, continuing to falsely claim that the election was stolen from him, even as Trumps rivals and some of his allies have urged the Republican Party to move on from 2020. . . . . .
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/01/politics/donald-trump-town-hall/index.html
ShazzieB
(16,617 posts)I still think it's little weird have a candidate town hall for a primary election that's, what? 8 or 9 months away? But it sounds like it's happening no matter what any of us think.
gab13by13
(21,483 posts)dchill
(38,601 posts)ShazzieB
(16,617 posts)I just googled, and I'm seeing February 5 for the Iowa caucus and February 13 for the NH primary. So Iowa is 9 months away if I'm doing the math right, and NH the following week.
I don't know if it's normal to have a town hall 9 months ahead of time or not. I didn't think it was, but I'm really not sure.
flying_wahini
(6,689 posts)Ill just bet his lawyers are having gut pain watching him puff up like a bloated pig that he is.
I wont watch CNN anymore.
BComplex
(8,082 posts)Because that is clearly their intent.
ArizonaLib
(1,242 posts)That is how Hillary lost to Trump. It should have never been close. They do this every election.
kairos12
(12,894 posts)Coup National Network
They are a disgrace.
Goebbels would be proud.
DownriverDem
(6,235 posts)I will not watch. Other sites will do it and report about it for me.
Septua
(2,265 posts)..all the crowd on "Deadline White House" are pissed about it, for the OP's same reason.
Nicolle said it's not about fact checking rather how do you cover someone who embraces violence, someone who was fine with Mike Pence being hung, someone who isn't a normal politician.
republianmushroom
(13,829 posts)LiberalLovinLug
(14,179 posts)They rush to fill in the Trump coverage gap.