CNN has responded to Donald Trump’s Wednesday claim that the Atlanta-based news outlet is “fake news.”
“CNN’s decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different than BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos,” spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas told The Daily Caller in a statement. “The Trump team knows this.”
Donald Trump (Getty Images)
The statement accused the Trump team of “using BuzzFeed’s decision to deflect from CNN’s reporting, which has been matched by the other major news organizations.”
“We are fully confident in our reporting. It represents the core of what the First Amendment protects, informing the people of the inner workings of their government; in this case, briefing materials prepared for President Obama and President-elect Trump last week.”
“We made it clear that we were not publishing any of the details of the 35-page document because we have not corroborated the report’s allegations,” the statement continued. “Given that members of the Trump transition team have so vocally criticized our reporting, we encourage them to identify, specifically, what they believe to be inaccurate.”
Earlier on Wednesday, President-elect Trump entered into a verbal spat with CNN’s Jim Acosta at a press conference.
WATCH:
Acosta opened the exchange by shouting at Trump, “since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question?”
“No, not you,” Trump responded, but Acosta didn’t throw in the towel.
“You’re attacking our news organization,” he persisted, prompting Trump to state, “your news organization is terrible.”
Acosta continued to pester Trump until the president-elect pointed at him and stated, “don’t be rude. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.”
Donald Trump clashes with CNN’s Jim Acosta (CNN)
It should be noted that this isn’t the first time CNN has — what some would consider — manufactured news stories involving Trump and the 2016 election.
Following the release of hacked emails published by WikiLeaks, CNN told viewers that it was actually illegal to view, let alone download, documents stemming from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta’s email account. (RELATED: CNN Makes A False Claim, Rest Of The Press Picks It Up)
“Remember, it’s illegal to possess these stolen documents,” CNN host Chris Cuomo told his audience back in October. “It’s different for the media, so everything you’re learning about this, you’re learning from us.” (VIDEO: CNN Host Claims It’s Illegal To For Public To View WikiLeaks Emails)
WikiLeaks also revealed that former CNN political correspondent Donna Brazile improperly leaked debate questions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign ahead of CNN’s Democratic primary debate. (RELATED: Hill’s Shills — ‘Journalists’ Exposed As Being In Clinton’s Corner)