White House crows over CNN mistake
NEW YORK — The White House quickly took advantage Tuesday of the resignation of three CNN journalists over a retracted story, issuing blistering presidential tweets and a media scolding at the afternoon press briefing. Conservative provocateur James O’Keefe piled on by releasing a video with a CNN producer caught on camera talking about the network’s Russia coverage being ratings-driven.
CNN late Monday accepted the resignations of journalists Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris over last week’s web-only story about Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci’s pre-inaugural meeting with the head of a Russian investment fund. The network retracted the story on Friday and apologized to Scaramucci.
An appreciative Scaramucci tweeted:
“@CNN did the right thing. Classy move. Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on.”
The misstep on a relatively minor story — it was never mentioned on any of CNN’s television networks — left some White House staff members jubilant, believing it handed them a new talking point to use as a cudgel against mainstream media organizations they feel are biased against them.
That happened quickly Tuesday when Sarah Huckabee Sanders addressed reporters at the briefing. She said the “constant barrage of fake news” is distracting from other news. Sanders urged all Americans to watch a video posted by O’Keefe’s Project Veritas featuring CNN producer John Bonifield — even though she couldn’t vouch for its accuracy.
“If it is accurate, I think it’s a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism,” Sanders said. “I think that if we have gone to a place where the media can’t be trusted to report the news, then that’s a dangerous place for America.’’
She was interrupted by reporter Brian Karem of the Sentinel Newspapers, who accused Sanders of inflaming anti-media sentiment. “Everyone in this room is only trying to do their job,” he said.
After Sanders left the stage, she was criticized on Fox News Channel, where Trump-friendly views usually dominate. Wall Street Journal editor John Bussey told Fox’s Shepard Smith that “the White House could actually learn from CNN’s example” about being forthright when caught saying something untrue.
Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that “they caught Fake News CNN cold.” He lumped ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post together in the same “fake news” category.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also tweeted a link to the Bonifield video. Besides talking about ratings, the Atlanta-based producer in CNN’s medical unit said the network has no “smoking gun” showing wrongdoing by Trump and that “the president is probably right to say, look, you are witch-hunting me.”
CNN said in a statement that it is standing by Bonifield. “Diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong,” CNN said.
O’Keefe told The Associated Press that Project Veritas got the video on Friday and that a portion, in an elevator, was recorded at CNN’s headquarters.
O’Keefe and Project Veritas have a track record of aiding Republican causes, often by using hidden cameras and hiding identities, and Trump’s nonprofit foundation has made two $10,000 donations to the organization.
The CNN resignations came after an investigation carried out by CNN executives concluded that longstanding network procedures for publishing stories weren’t properly followed. “There were editorial checks and balances within the organization that weren’t met,” a CNN source said of the story that was heavily dependent upon one anonymous source..
“We pulled it down not because we disproved it,” said a CNN source, adding that there was “enough concern” on some factual points that “given the breach in process, we decided to pull it down.”
John Podhoretz, a conservative columnist for The New York Post and editor of Commentary magazine, tweeted that “CNN published a bad story, pulled it, apologized. 3 journalists quit. That’s impressive and decisive action. Yelling ‘fake news’ is unfair.”