The Trump campaign released a statement Sunday accusing CNN of deliberately lying in an effort to mislead the American public about President Donald Trump's attempts to contain the coronavirus.
The campaign specifically cited a seven-minute segment hosted by CNN's Ana Cabrera that repeated the debunked false claim Trump said the coronavirus was a "hoax."
The statement said, what CNN did "is not sloppiness or poor journalism – it is intentional malice and deception, and simply more evidence that the 'news' channel is the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party."
Such tactics are shocking and inexcusable, the campaign added, especially since "at least six entities have debunked the false claim CNN is still spreading."
The campaign lists six sources, which includes FactCheck.org and CBS News, that describe how the Trump statement is twisted to make it appear he termed the coronavirus a hoax.
The campaign's list leads off with The Washington Post, which usually is harshly critical of the president.
But in this case, The Washington Post states, "The full quote shows Trump is criticizing Democratic talking points and the media's coverage of his administration's response to coronavirus. He never says that the virus itself is a hoax."
Although the Post said Trump did indeed play down the spread of the coronavirus and falsely touted the strength of the administration's response, the newspaper labelled attempts to show the president called the virus a hoax "a clear example of deceptive editing" by cutting out large portions of a video but presenting it as a complete narrative.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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