The White House digital team went after CNN’s Oliver Darcy after he pointed out that President Joe Biden’s op-ed ran on Yahoo News.
“An infrastructure op-ed by Joe Biden just posted over at Yahoo,” Darcy, CNN’s senior media reporter, said Monday night on Twitter. He linked to the president’s op-ed, which praised his $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal.
An infrastructure op-ed by Joe Biden just posted over at Yahoo https://t.co/UoFlPDcyxj
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 28, 2021
White House Director of Digital Strategy, Rob Flaherty, responded to Darcy’s tweet and said that “more people go to Yahoo News than CNN and the New York Times combined.” Matt Dornic, the head of strategic communications at CNN, claimed that Flaherty’s statement was “false on several levels.” (RELATED: ‘Nobody Knows Who The Hell You Are:’ Trump Snaps At Yahoo! Reporter)
“Check your sources, Rob. This is false on several levels,” Dornic said. “CNN reached 135M people last month to Yahoo News’s 71M. More people go to ALL of Yahoo (search, email, homepage, finance, sports, entertainment & news combined) than CNN (but not NYT & CNN combined).”
Check your sources, Rob. This is false on several levels. CNN reached 135M people last month to Yahoo News’s 71M. More people go to ALL of Yahoo (search, email, homepage, finance, sports, entertainment & news combined) than CNN (but not NYT & CNN combined). pic.twitter.com/0L95ZQ7qyx
— Matt Dornic (@mdornic) June 29, 2021
Barron’s reporter Ben Walsh jumped in to defend Yahoo, saying that while some are making fun of the outlet, it “delivers a firehouse of traffic from real humans.”
“Yep,” White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield chimed in. “@POTUS wants to make sure real humans know what‘s in this deal and how it will help!”
???? Yep. @POTUS wants to make sure real humans know what‘s in this deal and how it will help! https://t.co/EpfeIIflt4
— Kate Bedingfield (@WHCommsDir) June 29, 2021