Trump Threatens CNN For Very Basic Reporting On His Shitty, Unpopular War
from the this-is-all-extremely-stupid dept
In case you’ve been asleep, what appears to be an increasingly mentally unstable Donald Trump has further destabilized the middle east with a war nobody asked for or wanted. Most U.S. media coverage of Trump’s disastrous Iran war hasn’t been great, but they’ve still occasionally managed to communicate the pointlessness of the endeavor to the electorate (which speaks more of the unpopularity of the war than their reporting chops).
Trump recently announced a “cease fire” with Iran (which apparently isn’t even a cease fire), but refused to state what the conditions of the cease fire or long term peace actually are. The Iranian Security Council issued a list of ten demands that, if agreed to, would leave Iran in a stronger position than when this whole idiocy started:
Some news outlets, like CNN, simply reported directly on what Iran had claimed. This, as you might expect, upset Donald Trump and his top FCC censor Brendan Carr, who are now threatening an “investigation” of CNN for simply repeating what was publicly stated:
Not mentioned (of course) is the fact that Fox News also reported the Iran statement, yet avoided being called out by the president:
Trump later would issue another statement over at his right wing propaganda website, calling for criminal action against CNN (and CNN only), while making up a whole bunch of nonsense (he may or may not believe is actually true):
Trump’s sensitivity here suggests they’re well aware that a massive, superior military has been getting dog-walked by Iranians because Trump and his advisors were too stupid to understand modern, cheap drone warfare and how shipping in the Straight of Hormuz actually worked. The shipping logjam is driving up gas prices and making life difficult for Republicans ahead of the midterms.
There is, of course, absolutely zero basis for any meaningful criminal action against CNN here of any kind that wouldn’t be laughed out of court on free speech grounds. As we’ve seen with corporate media that doesn’t mean they won’t still capitulate embarrassingly, but so far CNN is standing its ground. As it should, since again, all it did was report on an Iranian statement in a very basic way alongside dozens of other news outlets.
The bigger threat, as I keep noting, is CNN’s looming acquisition by Larry Ellison as part of the Paramount Warner Brothers merger. CNN under current management is already very friendly to right wing ideology (see its enthusiastic platforming of MAGA bullshitter Scott Jennings). Under Ellison’s ownership (see: Bari Weiss at CBS) there’s little doubt CNN will be converted into yet another Trump agitprop network.
At which point, Trump will move on to threatening any remaining U.S. corporate media outlets that haven’t either embarrassingly capitulated or been purchased by a right wing billionaire. This is, as I keep repeating, an exact copy of Victor Orban’s autocratic media policy in Hungary, which involves having party-loyal oligarchs buy up all corporate media outlets and pummel the public with propaganda while the government strangles what’s left of real, independent reporting just out of frame.
Filed Under: brendan carr, donald trump, first amendment, free speech, iran, iran war, journalism, reporting, straight of hormuz, trump
Companies: cnn
Comments on “Trump Threatens CNN For Very Basic Reporting On His Shitty, Unpopular War”
The Scott Jennings experience
I don’t really see the “enthusiastic platforming”: it is not like Scott Jennings is given his own feature; he is included in discussion rounds. It gives those who just don’t have the stomach to regularly view Fox et al at least a preview of the MAGA deflection machinery that allows them to put their neighbors’ political leanings better into context rather than having to consider them clinically insane.
It is political education, like an annotated critical edition of “Mein Kampf”. You get the same kind of ritualized transparent disingenuity from Karoline Leavitt, Kristi Noem (now kicked out), Pam Bondi (ditto), of course Trump himself and a number of other lead actors, but without the annotations from saner viewpoints.
Jennings is so transparently rhetorical that I don’t even feel I know what his political opinions would be if he were not paid for them.
They’re going after Redditors for saying mean things about ICE too.
Thank God Trump is in charge! It only cost the US a trillion dollars to give the Iranians everything they want! Art of the deal, baby!!! USA!! USA!! USA!!
P.S. Someone give Trump a Chinese finger puzzle, it’ll keep him busy for a year trying to figure it out.
Re: Nice idea, but
I don’t think that they make them that small. His tiny little fingies will slip right out
Guess where J.D. Vance is this week.
The first rule of Truth is: you do not talk about Truth.
The writing has been on the wall for several years during the Russian invasion of Ukraine of the usefulness of cheap, mass drone warfare over expensive equipment for local air support.
But, as usual, a combination of the old dogs at the US military as well as the military contractors don’t want to change. After all, changing for the military contractors means costs rather than profits.
I’ve got some good and bad news. The good news is that there will be more to make life difficult for the current crop of Republicans. The bad news is that the same problems will crater the world economy and spread misery all around.
Opening Hormuz tomorrow, and ship owners and insurers willing to take the transit, will only soften the blow since it will take, if things go perfectly, half a year to normalize. By the time that the Strait of Hormuz is more likely to open again, and the conflicting priorities around the world, that period can easily take one and a half years after reopening.
The not so fun bits of world production passing through Hormuz:
* ~30% of fertilizers or fertilizer precursors. Just start looking around in the US to see the staggering number of farmers (varies in estimates though from 10% to a whopping 25%) not planting all they can due to the rising fertilizer prices before the actual shortage arrives in the US.
* 20% of LNG. Used in the EU for heating/electricity production. Similarly in Asia but it is also a precursor for some forms of plastic & medicine. That is packaging (among the many uses of plastic) and generic medication for the EU and US market. Also cleaner fuel for some forms of transportation.
* 30% of helium. Oh hello very expensive MRI magnet now playing paperweight. Also the electronics industry uses about 1/3 of the total worldwide helium production.
* 45% of sulfur. About half already accounted for in fertilizer production. Other half is for metal extraction from ore, or chemical precursors (China just restricted export of sulfuric acid for this reason).
* 50% Urea. Do note that a significant part of this is already account for since it is a precursor for fertilizer, but there are other significant applications as well. De-icer, plastic production, catalyst for diesel exhaust NOx reduction.
* 20% of oil (closer to 15% with the various bypasses available at the moment). Plastic, fuel, feedstock for more stuff we take for granted then can be easily listed but it includes things like clothing and detergent.
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They republished enemy propaganda.
It’s like you don’t get it.
War has gone excellently, by the way.
What a retard.
Re:
There is no one who doesn’t have their head all the way up their ass who thinks this war is going well. It has been a disaster on almost every possible measure.
As for your claim that they “republished enemy propaganda” so did your favorite Fox News, dumbass. And, it’s also not illegal to report on what other country’s leadership are saying.
You truly are the dumbest commenter on all of Techdirt, and that takes work, Matty (and yes, it’s obviously you, because you’re the only one who is so pathetic that you think using the r-word makes you sound cool, rather than exposing you for the loser brain that you are).
Why did you stop using your name?
Re:
Yes, the war is going so well that here, diesel is now the equivalent of 15 bucks a gallon, while unleaded is the equivalent of 12 plus bucks a gallon.
Farmers can’t afford to run their machinery to carry out their daily work and food prices are soaring, all while the US and Israel slaughter thousands of innocent people.
It’s going swimmingly!
Re:
If the war has “gone excellently”, why do you seem so angry about defending/justifying it?
Re: Re:
It’s the art of the deal. You fuck up and then just don’t let anyone talk about it. Stable genius stuff.
Re:
You are the fucking enemy.
Re:
Your president is a foreign asset.
Re: Bad bot.
Bad bot. No RAM chips.
The Strait has been open the whole time
Our (South African) ships have been passing freely through the Straits the whole time. Iran even escorts our ships to protect them from terrorist attacks by the US. But then our president isn’t a genocidal maniac.
What you consider an existential threat says a lot about you
When your entire cult is built upon lies there is no greater threat than someone telling the truth.