An opinion piece for CNN went viral during Veterans Day for being so over-the-top, it’ll make your eyes roll.
“We thank soldiers for their service because they devote themselves to protecting our freedoms, and we should,” guest writer Joseph Holt said in a 2018 piece.
“But we should also thank the media for the same reason – especially when the stakes have never been higher.”
Twitter has been blowing up with screenshots. Take a look —
How is this real 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/lawYerSllx
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 11, 2021
Even far-left “fact-checker” Snopes admitted the quote was legitimate. Snopes wrote, “This is a genuine opinion piece that was published on CNN.”
However, Snopes also issued some caveats. “It was not published on Veteran’s Day… and it was more than three years old when it again went viral on social media in November 2021.”
That’s all true… but the article still compared political journalists to military service members.
The author whined about Trump’s portrayal of the press as “the enemy of the people.”
He also clutched his pearls after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was excluded from a press conference and CNN’s Jim Acosta was “aggressively jeered at a Trump rally.”
Acosta reportedly endured “aggressive” insults. Soldiers risk their lives.
Some journalists — like foreign correspondents in Afghanistan — have put themselves in harm’s way, but Acosta was working as a political correspondent.
Plus, Trump eventually switched up his approach to press conferences.
At one point, Trump was only sending his press secretary to conservative outlets like Fox News. At another point, Trump himself was giving two-hour conferences on the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet, the op-ed author continued to scaremonger about Trump. He announced, “The stakes have never been higher.”
The author portrayed Trump as a unique threat to the press, but the press has always faced criticism from politicians.
President Joe Biden only takes questions from pre-approved list of reporters. Former President George W. Bush accused the media of failing to report the “good news” from Iraq, NPR reported in 2006.
“Politicians, after all, have been blaming reporters for their problems for as long as there have been politicians and reporters and problems,” NPR’s Eric Weiner said after Bush’s comment.
Did you hear? Biden has a cheat sheet: a list of friendly reporters
The Horn editorial team