CNN Denies Any "Connection" Between Its Retracted False Report on a Probe into Trump Associate Anthony Scaramucci and Their Also-False Report that James Comey Would Deny Trump's Claim That He Was Told Three Times He Wasn't Under Investigation

Why deny a connection? Well, for one thing, CNN relies almost exclusively on leaks from anonymous sources now, so we have no way of knowing if the #FakeNews source for the retracted Scaramucci piece is also the same #FakeNews source for the wildly-wrong "Comey will refute Trump" #FakeNews.

And also, as Eric Wemple points out in the National Laughingstock:

In advance of former FBI Director James Comey's Senate testimony, CNN used four bylines -- Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper and Brian Rokus -- to report that Comey would contradict Trump's claims that the fired FBI chief had told him that he wasn't a target of an investigation. Instead, the opposite turned out to be the case: Comey confirmed those claims of Trump. The story piled poor editorial judgment on top of faulty reporting, in that there was little merit in predicting Comey’s testimony a day or two before he gave it.

John Sexton notes:

It's worth noting that, despite CNN's claim the current screwup was not connected to the prior one, Eric Lichtblau's name appeared on both pieces.

Lichtbau was one of the three CNN personnel who "resigned" in the wake of the Scaramucci humiliation.

How bad is it? This bad: Even Redstate is slamming CNN for it.

The people getting the ax should tell you just how bad the story was. These are not nameless interns or low level writers. These are major names.

I hate seeing people get fired but CNN has deteriorated to the point where there is literally no lie they will not tell if they think in will damage the Trump administration and get clicks.

"streiff" makes a point I make a lot, and I'm glad that someone else is trying to embarrass "conservative" fans of Jake Tapper into noting that Tapper is a serial offender, instead of giving him a pass because he pays attention to their silly asses on Twitter (PS, he's using you, and he talks to anyone with more than 1000 followers if it can advance his career, and he's on Twitter like always for crying out loud) and because he appears on their Electric God Box, I mean, television, which is apparently enough to give some conservative men Celebrity Crushes:

Note that one of the bylines in the story cited above belongs to one of the guys fired over the Scaramucci story and another is Jake Tapper who, for reasons that escapes me, has reduced a lot of alleged conservatives to a fanboi status that borders on homoeroticism.

Well, I couldn't embarrass them, but wow, that little stinger just might.

Guys: Stop giving Jake Tapper taint-paints while he pees on your belly. It may be a kind of love, but it's a bad kind of love.

posted by Ace at 12:16 PM

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