**Written by Doug Powers
Well, CNN continued its incredible run of self-inflicted crotch-kickings today. It started like this:
On Thursday morning’s edition of ‘New Day,’ CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta discussed the short press conference President Trump and the Polish president gave this morning in Warsaw. The two leaders only took four questions — two from each country’s press corps — and left several follow up questions unanswered.
Acosta also questioned the president’s claim that it was “three or four” intelligence agencies that determined Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 election, not “17 intelligence agencies” as the New York Times erroneously reported.
“Where does that number come from?” Acosta wondered about the “three or four” figure.
The CNN White House correspondent proceeds to call Trump’s “three or four” intelligence agencies claim “fake news” and speculates that “if we go to the administration, and ask them for this question, I’m not sure we’re going to get an answer, and if we do, it will be off camera.”
Where does the “three or four” figure come from?
The New York Times – and other outlets – had reported for months that “17 American intelligence agencies” agreed Russia orchestrated cyber-attacks before the election.
But The Times on June 28 issued a correction, noting “the assessment was made by four intelligence agencies – the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency.” The Times bluntly concluded: “The assessment was not approved by all 17 organizers in the American intelligence community.”
The AP was also forced to “clarify”:
The Associated Press published a “clarification” on June 30 about four different stories stating all 17 intelligence agencies agreed the Russians interfered in the election in order to help Trump. Instead, it acknowledged, not all those agencies were involved in that assessment
So even Acosta’s accusation of “fake news” is “fake news” — all based on previous “fake news” that’s since been corrected.
Here’s how CNN’s week has gone so far:
Also, Acosta slammed Trump for calling on a “friendly” reporter:
Isn’t it a “fake news conference” to take a question from a reporter who is essentially an ally of the White House? https://t.co/vD7DgAZXIv
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) July 6, 2017
Maybe Trump should call on more totally objective journalists like the ones employed by CNN:
Don’t you miss the days when Obama was president and would only take questions from hard-hitting reporters with super-challenging questions?
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
