November 25, 2017: Trump: Fox ‘much more important’ than CNN
President Trump praised Fox News and ripped CNN on Saturday, saying on Twitter that the conservative-leaning news network is more important than the cable news network. In his words via twitter, “Fox News is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!”
Trump’s tweet is his latest attack on CNN, which he branded earlier this year as “fake news.” The tweet comes amid tensions over a potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner. The Justice Department allegedly told AT&T to sell off either CNN’s parent company or DirecTV as a condition of approving the merger.
The department formally sued AT&T to block the $85 billion merger on Monday, arguing that it would hurt competition and consumers. AT&T has denied it has offered to sell the cable network, or that it would in the future.
CNN employees respond to Trump after latest attack on network
CNN and some of its staff are hitting back at President Trump after he suggested that the network and its international arm were spreading so-called “fake news” around the world. President Trump’s tweet drew quick responses from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and national security correspondent Jim Sciutto, who rushed to the defense of CNN International, the news networks’ world news arm.
“realDonaldTrump My CNNi & CNN colleagues regularly risk their lives in #Syria #Iraq #Afghanistan #Niger and beyond, following US Troops into war-zones, chronicling natural disasters, holding dictators to account & profiling everyday heroes,” Sciutto wrote on Twitter.
“Thinking about cnn, I and my brave and hard-working colleagues there who cover famines and wars and politics and terrorism and everything else,” Tapper tweeted. “Amazing men and women, thank you for your continued excellence.”
But Trump’s tweet also drew a direct response from CNN itself. The network responded to the president in a tweet pointing out that it is, in fact, Trump’s job to represent the U.S. abroad – not CNN’s.
“It’s not CNN’s job to represent the U.S to the world. That’s yours. Our job is to report the news,” the network wrote from its public relations account.
Another CNN employee, media reporter Oliver Darcy, also chimed in on the president’s comment, noting that he followed up on the tweet with a post linking to an obscure pro-Trump website listing the president’s accomplishments since taking office.
“Today in real life: The president directs people to MAGA pill dot com after claiming CNN embarrasses U.S. in front of world w/misinformation,” Darcy tweeted.