It’s as hilarious as it is serious – but CNN has all but absolutely proven itself to be the propaganda arm of the Democratic National Committee.
A cursory Internet search of “CNN Fake News” reveals a treasure trove of clear attempts by the channel to falsify, fake, and stage news stories that they have completely invented off the tops of their heads. So here are a few highlights from this parade of cheap lies.
#1: Staged Election Outrage
The first, and possibly the funniest CNN screw-up occurred just after the election result was announced. In it, a reporter interviewed a man we were supposed to believe was an outraged Clinton supporter.
The reporter approached the man, and asked him how he felt about the result. The enraged Clinton supporter began to rant lividly about the fact that Clinton had won the popular vote and claiming that democracy had been stolen from the people. He called for violent resistance to the Trump administration.
All the while he was clearly overacting, throwing his arms up and down and indicating his emotions like an amateur thespian. But the story came apart when the street reporter called back to anchor Don Lemon.
Lemon immediately said that the man had been a camera operator who was part of a CNN project in South Africa. Lemon, apparently, did not know about the ruse. The street reporter became visibly embarrassed and they cut the segment off.
#2: Fake Reporting Locations
The second big screw-up from CNN took place when two female reporters, who were meant to be located in opposite parts of the country, were caught on camera reporting from the same parking lot on events surrounding the 2016 election.
Both women were sitting outside with only slightly different backgrounds. Then a car passed behind one reporter, and then the same car passed behind the other reporter. And it happened at least seven times.
First, it was a car, then it was a truck, then another car, and then a bus and so on. The vehicles would pass behind one reporter, then a second or two later the same vehicle would pass behind the other reporter.
Not only did the CNN employees give their reports from the same parking lot while pretending to be in different places, but they apparently pointed their cameras in almost the same exact direction. You can just imagine them laughing over their cheap trick which fell apart gloriously.
#3: Gulf War Charade
Finally, the crown jewel of CNN’s fake news crusade comes from the Iraq war during the late 1980s.
A reporter named Charles Jaco is standing in front of a plastic palm tree and a plywood building pretending to report on the events of the first Gulf War. He holds up fake scud missile parts, and goes on and on about the lights in the sky while phony sound effects are played in the background.
The full video, which was leaked to the Internet years ago, includes clips of Jaco joking about the ruse. It shows the camera panning to the support area of the set where plywood structures and a bunch of studio equipment is standing.
It’s worth noting again this event occurred during the 1980s – when CNN ran the 24-hour news cycle uncontested. Viewers were far less savvy than they are now. But when you watch the clip, it seems quite obvious that the background is a cheap television set.
The palm fronds in the report don’t move naturally as they are blowing in a fake breeze, and the crew’s inability to turn the camera even slightly without filming undisguised parts of the studio all stand out like sore thumbs to the eye of today’s more experienced viewers.
But what stands out the most is that Jaco makes immature jokes as soon as he thinks the camera is off. He makes crazily animated silly faces and mocks himself pretending to act amazed at the scud missiles which are not really even there. You can hear some of the camera crew laughing with him. Then at one point, he and another fake reporter are cued to don gas masks suddenly after a flash of light from a phony explosion. But the other reporter doesn’t even have a gas mask, and Jaco removes his quickly.
After the events of the 2016 election, few have much doubt in the mendacity of the mainstream news media, especially CNN. But it’s instructive and amusing to occasionally review their most obvious lies.
~ Liberty Planet
