Politics

CNN Spends Day Fighting #Blackmail Backlash

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Ted Goodman Contributor
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CNN found itself on the defense Wednesday after it published a piece explaining how it tracked down and identified the man behind a video of President Donald Trump body slamming CNN.

The network, still reeling after a series of public relations issues in June, explained how it identified an anonymous Reddit user that claimed credit for the video attached to the president’s tweet.

The network said that Reddit user “HanAssholeSolo” was behind the video, adding that they had located his real-life identity Monday. Network officials contend that they tried to contact him, but did not hear back. The Reddit user with the name “HanAssholeSolo” then deleted all of his posts and issued an apology only after being contacted by CNN, the network says.

“CNN is not publishing ‘HanAssholeSolo’s’ name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again,” the network explained in an article. “In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.”

“CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change,” the article concluded, to the outrage of Trump supporters on social media.

Many Twitter users were furious over what some described as a veiled threat to the anonymous user.

The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., joined in on the criticism.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a Harvard-educated attorney, said that the actions by CNN were “troubling.”

“CNN decided not to publish the name of the Reddit user out of concern for his safety,” a network official told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Any assertion that the network blackmailed or coerced him is false. The user, who is an adult male, not a 15-year-old boy, apologized and deleted his account before ever speaking with our reporter. CNN never made any deal, of any kind, with the user. In fact, CNN included its decision to withhold the user’s identity in an effort to be completely transparent that there was no deal.”

The president said that he may start referring to CNN as the Fraud News Network (FNN).

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Ted Goodman