Patterico's Pontifications

10/4/2019

CNN Declines To Air Trump Political Ad; Trump Floats Idea Of A ‘State-Run’ News Network

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:10 am



[guest post by Dana]

Ratcheting up the animosity with President Trump, CNN says no to airing new Trump 2020 campaign ad:

CNN is declining to run a new Trump 2020 presidential campaign ad, citing falsehoods and the ad’s open attacks on network stars.

The 30-second ad, titled “Biden Corruption,” peddles misleading accusations about Joe Biden and his son Hunter in an attempt by President Donald Trump to deflect from controversy over his pressuring of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on the former vice president.

“Joe Biden promised Ukraine $1 billion if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son’s company,” the cinematic trailer-like narrator blares. “But when President Trump asks Ukraine to investigate corruption, the Democrats want to impeach him,” the ad continues over footage of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

“And their media lapdogs fall in line,” the narrator continues over footage of CNN stars Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, and Jim Acosta, along with MSNBC primetime host Rachel Maddow.

CNN explained their decision by noting that the ad “doesn’t meet their advertising standards,” and specifically, “in addition to disparaging CNN and its journalists, the ad makes assertions that have been proven demonstrably false by various news outlets, including CNN.”

Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh defended the ad, and attacked CNN:

“Our ad is entirely accurate and was reviewed by counsel, and CNN wouldn’t even describe to us what they found objectionable. This isn’t a cable news channel anymore, it’s a Democrat public relations firm.”

CNN first rejected airing a Trump political ad in 2017, which targeted “fake news,” including CNN.

Trump, who is clearly frustrated with how he is covered by CNN and other media outlets, told an audience in Florida last night, that his administration is considering the development of its own global news outlet:

“CNN is a voice that really seems to be the voice out there, and it’s a terrible thing for our country, and we ought to start our own network and put some real news out there because they are so bad for our country,” Trump told a crowd in Florida. “They are so bad for our country. I go out there and they say, ‘Boy, the media hates your country.’ And it’s just a shame.”

The president then made clear that his proposal was a serious one: “And we really are. We are looking at that. We should do something about it, too. Put some really talented people and get a real voice out there, not a voice that’s fake.”

[…]

The president also called CNN “corrupt” and said, “They don’t get it, do they? They’ve never got it. Some idiot at CNN said, ‘You can’t win without CNN.’ I guess we showed them. I guess we showed them. And their ratings are so low now that they are no longer the big difference at all. They have really bad ratings.”

Eh, is the President really that serious about it? This isn’t the first time he’s railed about launching a news network to counter CNN:

Anyway, no doubt CNN will decline to run future campaign ads by the President as the race for 2020 heats up and Trump attacks the network for its “fake news,” and CNN does its level best to “shape the news” to favor Democrats. For an example of what a Trump-administration news outlet might look like, Politico reminds us of this clip from his Twitter campaign account:

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

55 Responses to “CNN Declines To Air Trump Political Ad; Trump Floats Idea Of A ‘State-Run’ News Network”

  1. Honest to God, Trump and CNN are two peas in a pod, and richly deserve each other.

    Dana (05f22b)

  2. Can we lock both in a room, and carry on without them?

    Appalled (1a17de)

  3. The ghost of Herr Goebbels must be smiling.

    John B Boddie (11ac33)

  4. the ad “doesn’t meet their advertising standards,”

    … their ad standards being a higher bar than their reporting standards.

    Munroe (53beca)

  5. 1) Wouldn’t the FCC Fairness Doctrine (does that exist on the book?) require CNN to give airtime to Trump’s campaign if they’re also show Democratic campaign Ads?

    2) As to a Trump-own media channel… noooooooooooooo. I’m not sure that’s even kosher legally.

    whembly (fd57f6)

  6. See, this is why Trump and whichever of his podex osculators du jour are advising him are so full of fecal matter.
    Uno: If CNN is such a failure and nobody watches it, why does he want to air his ad on it?
    Dos: If CNN is his enemy and a Democrat organ, why does he want to give it Sheldon Adelson’s and Betsy DeVoss’s hard-earned donations to his campaign chest?
    Do good to your friends and evil to your enemies, isn’t that your motto, Don Don?

    nk (dbc370)

  7. I’m sure the ad was “reviewed by counsel”, but no word as to whether counsel found the ad truthful. The first sentence…

    “Joe Biden promised Ukraine $1 billion if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son’s company.”

    …is a lie, and CNN has no obligation to traffic in Trump’s lies. Anyways, CNN can thank Trump for all the free advertising.

    Paul Montagu (502acd)

  8. “Uno: If CNN is such a failure and nobody watches it, why does he want to air his ad on it?”
    nk (dbc370) — 10/4/2019 @ 9:39 am

    Because thousands transit through DFW airport daily and are forced to watch it, else miss their plane?

    Munroe (53beca)

  9. In my day job I’ve worked on projects to make publicly facing claims. In my experience networks will want to see the data that substantiates a claim before they agree to air it. From what i know the initial claim in Trumps add is not an accurate representation of the facts.

    Time123 (dba73f)

  10. Its like with the ‘scandal’ re netanyahu, over access as carolyn glick explained the nets givle the opposition candidate, coverage which balances out any cash advantage.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  11. “This isn’t a cable news channel anymore, it’s a Democrat public relations firm.”

    This is the only sensible thing that has come out of Team Trump in this matter. If they would leave it at this, and continue to hammer this message, they would probably garner a lot of sympathy. But all this other nonsense about starting their own news station just detracts from their message.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  12. Yeah, its the “Free Market” at work. We have two cable TV news channels in a literal war with the POTUS, and churning out unpaid campaign support for the DNC. But we shouldn’t do anything about it, because they can do anything they want with their quasi-monopolies. The Liberal/Left would never stand for it, if it was a Conservative CNN/MSNBC behaving this way, but we must because of our Libertarian principles. Remember its better to lose and give the Left power forever, then betray our beloved “Free Market”.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  13. Its like the notion get another social media platform, get past the gatekeepers like google and facebook, the dem activists on credit card company boards, the deplatforming alliance presided by chertoff and kristol.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  14. Honest to God, Trump and CNN are two peas in a pod, and richly deserve each other.

    I don’t think it’s fair comparison.

    CNN has their biases (like every network) and isn’t perfect, but they do not routinely represent outright lies as fact. In many cases, when they make errors of fact they correct them. (I am obviously talking about the news element – like all networks, there are plenty of loons saying crazy things from all angles on opinion shows).

    Trump and his henchmen lie continually, and repeat their factually false statements ad nauseum rather than correcting them.

    Dave (1bb933)

  15. Mittens points out the obvious:

    When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated.

    Dave (1bb933)

  16. That’s just crazy talk. The only permissible State-Run/-Collaborating Networks allowed are those that support Fascist-Progressive Democrats!

    Once again, President Trump is GUILTY!….guilty of acting/thinking like a Democrat without actually being a Democrat.

    MJN1957 (6f981a)

  17. Like partnering with a known chinese state appendage huawei mitt, thats what your firm did, just like it was partnered with robert maxwell, how about your man cofer on the burisma board

    Narciso (d1f714)

  18. For the love of…Don’t we already have a state-run news and information network called PBS? And also NPR or whatever they changed their name to? Problem is, both these networks currently take tax dollars out of my pocket to slant the news against this country and against pretty much all conservative principles and especially against Trump. 15 comments and this hasn’t occurred to anyone here?

    PTw (894877)

  19. It’s not obvious at all to me. Trump is such a loony, it could just as easily have been Marvin the Martian that he was asking Ukraine and China to investigate.

    nk (dbc370)

  20. CNN has their biases (like every network) and isn’t perfect, but they do not routinely represent outright lies as fact. In many cases, when they make errors of fact they correct them. (I am obviously talking about the news element. . .

    I think you are giving them too much of the benefit of the doubt here. The larger issue is that they now almost entirely conflate news with opinion. If I am not mistaken, both the Cuomo and Lemon shows are described by CNN as news shows, not opinion shows. If you check out Tucker Carlson’s page on the Fox News site, on the other hand, they at least have the good grace to acknowledge that it is an opinion show: “‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and group think. We ask the questions that you would ask – and demand answers.”

    Trump handles himself like a drunkard at a church picnic, but that doesn’t mean that CNN is any less of a garbage dump of a network.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  21. Yes they serve progressive party interests as do the other five networks not to mention air anerica young turks et al

    Narciso (d1f714)

  22. Start a government-run network? Hasn’t he heard of PBS and NPR? And they are part of the mainstream media.

    AZ Bob (885937)

  23. I think Voice of America is a closer match to what Trump is talking about since he wants media with a worldwide reach, but none of the publicly-funded media will be the cheerleaders he wants. For now, I think he really wants Fox News to stop criticizing him. Someday we may see TrumpTV.

    DRJ (15874d)

  24. How about trafficking in rumor from ambulance chasing lawyers like avenatti, scurrilous authors like michael wolff (you want to spell out how scurrilous)

    Narciso (d1f714)

  25. @5. The Reagan Administration neutered the Fairness Doctrine [hence, the explosion of Limbaugh and assorted clones in conservative talk radio in that era]. The FD applied to lisc., broadcasters over the freely accessible, public airwaves; the cable universe is essentially unregulated- subscribers must pay to access the tiered menus— and as far as the news cablers go, they’re subjected to their own standards and practices– derived from their corporate owners, which may differ slightly between carriers. Hence, unedited profanity in the content and context of reporting may be permitted on one cabler but edited out on another. Still another may use softcore T&A, legs lights and a ‘leg chair’ to draw eyes.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  26. Did marvin the martian by into a critical defende parts subcontractor, which bohai investments enabled

    Narciso (d1f714)

  27. Did you not see the journolist the ben rhodes exho chamber all the reporters who had podesta vet their copy before hand

    Narciso (d1f714)

  28. Before assange compromised confidential communications and signal intercept capacities, who cares, now you press their monopoly thats a war crime.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  29. What Donald Trump said yesterday and what he said in November 2018 are two different things.

    In 2019, he’s talking about creating a new, private, news and opinion network, like Al Gore tried to do. (Air America was not a success and was eventually sold to Al Jazeera for the cable access or “bandwidth.)

    In 2018, he was tweeting about the United States government creating its own network.

    Unfortunately, President Gerald R. Ford (and before that, more unofficially, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and President Harry S Truman and their successors) beat him to it.

    It’s called the Voice of America.

    There is also a U.S. government backed television and radio network broadcasting within the United States. The television portion is called the Public Broadcasting System, or PBS; and the radio portion is called National Public Radio or NPR, and together it’s called the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

    It’s quite liberal, (and very pro-immigrant) but much more calm than MSNBC or CNN, and Trump is probably almost not aware that it exists because it’s not rated by Neilsen I think.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  30. The prosecutor fired in March, 2016, Viktor Shokin soke to Giuliani and he really did speak to him on January 23, but he didn’t say Biden stopped the investigation by firing him.

    He claimed he had already stopped it, and he claimed the reason was that the United States Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey E, Pyatt told him, in either June or July of 2015, that the investigation (I think of Borisma) needed to handled with “kid gloves” and he claimed he understood that to imply that he should do nothing.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  31. What Donald Trump said yesterday and the day before yesterday are often two different things.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  32. State TV? With Trump standards of honesty?

    Every day. Every single day. This loon just keeps getting crazier and more dictatorial.

    Good God. Wake up Republicans.

    noel (f22371)

  33. Just get Tucker C’s dad (if alive and sentient) to run it. He was head of VOA and of CPB at successive junctures in his career, and was suddenly irate, being that it was his ox being gored, at the 1990s Republican plank of defunding public broadcasting.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  34. CNN has the right to run what commericals they want, so long as there is no collusion with outside parties. If they, MSNBC, the broadcast networks and such all agreed to decline Trump political commercials I would hope that the FCC and FEC reamed them a new orifice.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  35. CNN would have been better advised, though, to refuse solely on the basis of disparagement. Asserting that they had the facts and Trump was just lying, where there is really no consensus separate from political alignment, just identifies their politicval alignment.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  36. well that’s what was in the deposition, sammeh, fwiw, now that was regarding the firtash case, which had been poorly handled by lisa page, but the nabu has been problematic since it’s founding in 2014, early on, Tatiana chornovoi, resigned seeing how corrupt the regime was, under yurema, they botched the case in London, then came shokins turn, of course the biggest player was kolomoisky, and the privat bank, no one has touched him even after the bank had to be nationalized in 2016, much like no one really touched goldman, from the Enron investigation through the subprime collapse, yes khuzaimi touched a few token figures, but none of the senior management

    narciso (d1f714)

  37. Mr. Trump stunted his own reach by shutdowning his own ‘broadcast center’– aka the daily WH Briefings, in lieu of tweeting. The USIA, VOA, etc., are the basic U.S. propaganda outlets. And each agency -including the military- has an outlet -or ‘channel’- for piping out their POV [ever watched NASA TV?!] The explosion of carriers- via broadcast, cable or on the web, assures a message or POV gets out. Whether it’s consumed and digested is up to the audience.

    CNN is a fine cable news network– [you know, c-n-n]– and keep in mind, it is a global news network–the first Gulf War earning it well-deserved street cred from the chicken noodle news days. Even today, it’s real time coverage from Hong Kong and China has been outstanding. Their field journalists often deliver content at great personal risk [recall Amanpour on a Moscow roof under tank fire broadcasting live during the Second Russian Revolution, or the CNN crews on air, live, from Baghdad as American cruise missiles screamed in.] They do not sit in a studio on 6th Avenue reading a script.

    It’s current ‘problem’ is simply managerial and specific to the U.S. domestic audience– which is what most all of you see. Turner’s original concept was to make the news ‘the star,’ not the reporters and news readers themselves. When Turner left, management began to veer from that path. To expand the audience, the revenue base and compete w/leggy-lit blondes reading teleprompters – current management has diversified content– ordering up ‘short fuse’ cooking programs and lifestyle series, special documentaries [movies– really?? We have TCM and The Food Network already.]

    CNN is a victim of their own success– which created the likes of competitors MSNBC and Fox, among others. CNN proved news can be a profit center– which it was not for the broadcast networks. For the likes of NBC, CBS and ABC, their news divisions were loss leaders. [CBS head Paley famously quipped the advertising revenue from one entertainment show –‘I Love Lucy’– covered the annual budget for his entire news division.] News was a public service element necessary for FCC lisc, renewal. But adding the profit element to the news mix inevitably influences content- [an issue which often concerned Cronkite BTW]- leading to more and more programming that draws eyes and less ‘sexy’ stories left on the cutting room floor.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  38. CNN has their biases (like every network) and isn’t perfect, but they do not routinely represent outright lies as fact

    Any time I turn them on, I have to change the channel within 10 minutes because I detect I am being lied to or patronized. Maybe not always by an anchor, but often enough.

    Fox takes a little longer.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  39. https://www.scribd.com/document/428765582/Full-Statement-from-U-S-Ukraine-Envoy-Ambassador-Kurt-Volker-on-October-3-2019

    This was the Ambassador’s statement in yesterday’s closed hearing.

    This does quite a bit to undercut the criticism over the phone call…

    whembly (fd57f6)

  40. well shep, not tucker nor Jeannine nor Hannity is the fey face of the network,
    anyone curious about this, just competitors as we were told,

    https://nationalfile.com/breaking-nancy-pelosis-son-was-exec-at-gas-company-that-did-business-in-ukraine/

    why do I go back to Enron, that was eons ago, well that’s where the current director, managed the taskforce, that obliterated Arthur Anderson, but didn’t touch say Robert rubin, who put merged two gas producers and appointed ken lay to the board, but goldman wasn’t touched,

    narciso (d1f714)

  41. But we shouldn’t do anything about it, because they can do anything they want with their quasi-monopolies.

    We should — and we do. We call them out for their biases and we ridicule their excesses. This diminishes their brand and their authority with their viewers. It has had an effect if you see trust polling.

    BUt to do as Trump suggests — institute a government “news” network, which would START OFF as obfious propaganda for the administration does nothing good. It 1) grows government, and 2) gives Leftist administrations an additional propaganda tool (and I guarantee they will use it more effectively).

    Kevin M (19357e)

  42. it’s an alternative, it’s not minitrue, like the bbc deutsche welle, rt or al Jazeera,

    narciso (d1f714)

  43. well that does put a different spin on it, they were sure they were going to get him this time,

    narciso (d1f714)

  44. I dunno, narciso. Trump non-persons people pretty easily.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  45. institute a government “news” network, which would START OFF as obfious propaganda for the administration does nothing good. It 1) grows government, and 2) gives Leftist administrations an additional propaganda tool (and I guarantee they will use it more effectively).

    Wonder why no one has mentioned that we already have a PBS and NPR doing this very thing? Oh, wait…three people already have. Funny, that.

    PTw (894877)

  46. All trump has to do in ad is ask what were hunter bidens qualifications to get $600,000 to sit on the board of a gas company except his old man was veep. Ask why cnn msdnc doesn’t show groper joe bragging he got ukraine prosecutor fired video? Why did chinese commies give hunter biden 1.5 billion to buy defense contractor cnc ( now being prosecuted for giving defense secrets to china ) joe biden then announces that communist china is not an economic threat to american workers! Nothing in that ad would be false.

    lany (2dfdca)

  47. really, he fires them, that’s his shtick, but they are never silenced, even from jail, avenatti doesn’t (redacted redacted) this ‘reign of terror’ is not what’s cracked up to be,

    btw jeff Goldstein, has some thoughts on twitter, in his own piquant way,

    also rip Charles hill, dustbury,

    narciso (d1f714)

  48. https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/04/testimony-from-ukraine-envoy-kurt-volker-directly-contradicts-democrats-impeachment-narrative

    Volker vehemently denied that he ever urged the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on the Biden family.

    “As you will see from the extensive text messages I am providing, which convey a sense of real-time dialogue with several different actors, Vice President Biden was never a topic of discussion,” he said.

    Volker testified that he never even mentioned a delay on U.S. military assistance to Ukrainian officials until late August, when news reports indicated that funding had been put on hold. Volker’s statement directly undercuts claims that the funding was part of a quid pro quo meant to force the Ukrainians to take certain actions in order for the military aids to be released.

    “I became aware of a hold on Congressional Notifications about proceeding with that assistance on July 18, 2019, and immediately tried to weigh in to reverse that position,” Volker testified. “I was confident that this position would indeed be reversed in the end, because the provision of such assistance was uniformly supported at State, Defense, NSC, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the expert community in Washington.”

    “As I was confident the position would not stand, I did not discuss the hold with my Ukrainian counterparts until the matter became public in late August,” he said.

    Volker explained in his remarks that Trump had a dim view of the Ukrainian government given its involvement in 2016 efforts to damage Trump’s presidential campaign, [The ledger showing Manafort gt pad with secret money – SF] and that the president’s view of rampant and widespread corruption in the country was a significant barrier to cooperation between the two nations going forward. According to Volker, the interactions between Giuliani and Ukraine were sought in an effort to persuade Trump that Zelensky’s government could be a trusted U.S. partner.

    Sammy Finkelman (00fff5)

  49. it’s a really unique handle,

    narciso (d1f714)

  50. Shouldn’t CNN be airing the add and letting people decide if its accurate or not?

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  51. like the things they’ve had to retract about scaramucci, and his hedge fund about kushner and WikiLeaks,

    narciso (d1f714)

  52. of course she relied on the echo chamber, that ben Rhodes built,

    https://saraacarter.com/susan-rice-our-democracy-is-under-assault-from-trumps-white-house/

    that david samuels revealed but omri ceren and mike doran fleshed out,

    narciso (d1f714)

  53. 45. PTw (894877) — 10/4/2019 @ 12:52 pm

    Wonder why no one has mentioned that we already have a PBS and NPR doing this very thing? Oh, wait…three people already have. Funny, that.

    I think nobody had when AZ Bob mentoned that @18. Before reading the thread I mentioned that @29, along with mentioning that the idea Trump threw out in 2018 and the one he threw ouut in 2019 were different; one was like the Voice of America and the other was like
    Air America, and I mentioned also that, by the way, there was ag overnment run broadcasting network that boradcast within he United States. I don’t know wo else mentioned that. (I think PBS and NPR it didn’t occur to Trump because it has no ratings.)

    Sammy Finkelman (0d0ca8)

  54. That’s the beauty of convincing his supporters that they cannot believe anyone in the press that doesn’t fawn over him. Trump can present any falsehood he wants without consequence. I looked at a couple of his ads this morning and they really are decent quality deceptions.

    noel (f22371)

  55. It’s not PBS that Trump has in mind. T-BS.

    noel (f22371)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.1047 secs.