CNN Hypes Trump Using Obama's Middle Name; 'Post-Fact Check Culture'

Matthew Balan | August 11, 2016
Font Size

[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

On the 11 August 2016 edition of CNN's Legal View, Ashleigh Banfield zeroed in on Donald Trump recently using President Obama's name, including "Hussein." Ali Velshi replied that "we ought not be all that surprised; because...not so long ago, Donald Trump had still not let go of his idea that Barack Hussein Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim. As a Kenyan-born Muslim, I can tell you he's not one of my people." Brian Stelter played up that Trump is "using coded language...we should recognize the code words that are being used; the dog whistles that are being blown here."

Correspondent Eugene Scott later bemoaned that "we are in a post-fact check culture in this election. And what we put out — regardless of how much we say that this is not what the evidence and the intelligence supports — a lot of his [Trump's] supporters will not believe us...because he's created this system of mistrust in the media....if you've made up in your mind that conspiracy theories are what you're going to buy into, and that you're going to disagree with CNN no matter what we say, you get away with things like that."

donate