Mainstream media outlets followed CNN’s lead in banning an ad approved by Trump on his first 100 days in office that accused their journalists of promoting “fake news.”
The Trump campaign has condemned a decision by ABC, NBC and CBS to follow CNN’s lead in banning an ad promoted by the president’s campaign for 2020 regarding his accomplishments during his first 100 days in the White House.
“It is absolutely shameful to see the media blocking the positive message that President Trump is trying to share with the country,” said Michael Glassner, the executive director of Trump’s campaign. “It’s clear that CNN is trying to silence our voice and censor our free speech because it doesn’t fit their narrative.”
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and consultant, also accused the media outlets of clamping down on free speech.
“Apparently, the mainstream media are champions of the First Amendment only when it serves their own political views,” she said. “This is an unprecedented act of censorship in America that should concern every freedom-loving citizen.”
At particular issue for CNN and the others is the ad’s accusation that the media promotes “fake news.” After listing several of Trump’s accomplishments, including confirmation of a new US Supreme Court Justice, the narrator says that “you wouldn’t know it from watching the news.” At that moment, a “fake news” graphic is superimposed over facial captures of news anchors from NBC, CNN, ABC and CBS.
“CNN requested that the advertiser remove the false graphic that the mainstream media is ‘fake news,'” the network stated on May 2. “The mainstream media is not fake news, and therefore the ad is false and per policy will be accepted only if that graphic is deleted.”
A spokesperson for ABC said that “we rejected the ad because it did not meet our guidelines,” but “we have previously accepted Trump ads and are open to doing so in the future.”
An NBC spokesperson stated that “consistent with our policies, we have agreed to accept the ad if the inaccurate graphic, which refers to journalists as ‘fake news,’ is corrected.”
By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News