Over the past few weeks, I’ve progressed far enough in my recovery from PTSD to be able to occasionally watch news again. Recently, I watched coverage of President Trump’s inauguration, and also of the tragic plane crash in Washington D.C., on Fox News. As heartbreaking as the latter topic has been, it is a positive development for me personally that I am once again (to some extent, at least) able to keep up to date with the happenings in the world.
Unfortunately, while in a public place, I had the misfortune of passing by a TV that was tuned to CNN. And it was immediately apparent that I haven’t progressed far enough in my recovery to be able to watch CNN. Perhaps I never will. I was only able to watch for a few moments before becoming so disgusted that I had to walk away, but what I saw and heard was absolutely infuriating.
“Trump baselessly blames Democrats, DEI for plane crash,” read the headline at the bottom of the screen. It’s disgraceful that CNN would choose to include the word “baselessly” in this headline. Whether or not the blame is baseless, is a value judgment. It is a matter of opinion. Some people think Trump was correct to blame Democrats and DEI for the crash, while some people think he was incorrect. By claiming that Trump was “baselessly” blaming Democrats and DEI, CNN is clearly expressing the latter opinion. But news outlets are not supposed to state opinions. They are supposed to state only facts. For CNN to express a negative opinion of Trump in its headline is despicable. The headline should read, “Trump blames Democrats, DEI for plane crash.” There’s no reason whatsoever to put the word “baselessly” in this headline.
Next, a commentator contrasted Trump’s response to the plane crash with the ways that previous presidents handled various tragedies. As images of the wreckage of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building were shown on the screen, the commentator characterized Timothy McVeigh as a “right-wing terrorist.” Seemingly unaware of the irony of his words, the commentator proceeded to lecture viewers about how Bill Clinton “brought the country together” in the wake of the bombing, rather than reacting with blame and division as Trump (allegedly) did with the plane crash.
This is ironic because mentioning McVeigh’s ideology is the antithesis of bringing the country together. Like the use of the word “baselessly” in their headline, there is absolutely no reason for CNN to mention McVeigh’s ideology. Yet this commentator went out of his way to do so. This serves no purpose other than to insult and criticize right-wing people in their entirety by implying that they, as a group, are somehow associated with terrorism and/or more likely to commit terrorist acts than people of other ideologies. The commentator should have simply characterized McVeigh as a terrorist. Like with the use of the word “baselessly,” CNN’s decision to mention McVeigh’s ideology is despicable. It is also partisan and divisive, which is hypocritical given that those are the exact qualities that the commentator criticizes Trump for displaying.
CNN is supposed to be a news station. But instead, it has become a platform for stuck-up, condescending, and self-righteous people to insult those who are different from themselves. The behavior that I witnessed in the few seconds that I watched CNN – before my disgust forced me to walk away from the TV – was nasty, cruel, pompous, judgmental, mean-spirited, and unprofessional. CNN has no right to be regarded as a legitimate news outlet until this disgraceful behavior permanently comes to an end.
