When it rains it pours! Minutes ago, Howard Portnoy flagged CNN for putting words in Donald Trump’s mouth. It turns out that the cable network is an equal opportunity censor.
CNN edited the opening sentence of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s response to Saturday’s explosion in New York City, removing her use of the word “bombing” to describe the attack.
When Clinton came out to address the press on her campaign plane late Saturday, she opened her brief remarks by saying “I’ve been briefed about bombings in New York and New Jersey, and the attacks in Minnesota.”
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But when CNN aired Clinton’s response and posted it on Twitter, they removed Clinton’s first sentence, and instead began with the second, which emphasized her support for first responders.
At the time of Clinton’s response, some in the media, including CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond, were critical of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for allegedly jumping the gun by calling the attack a bombing before it was explicitly confirmed by authorities. In fact, Clinton’s first question from the press was on that exact topic, with a reporter asking what she thought about Trump “immediately” calling the attacks a bombing. Perhaps because she’d just use the word herself, Clinton punted on the question and avoided attacking Trump directly.
“Well, I think it’s important to know the facts about any incident like this,” Clinton said. “That’s why it’s critical to support the first responders, the investigators who are looking into it, trying to determine what did happen.”
While Clinton and Trump both had similar assumptions about Saturday’s blast, CNN’s Twitter post for Trump’s reaction emphasized his rush to call it a bomb, while its post for Clinton’s reaction emphasized her call to wait until “we actually know some facts.”
Hillary Clinton address the NYC explosion and says she will have more to say "when we actually know some facts" https://t.co/eWR5Drx1sd
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 18, 2016
This isn’t the first instance of CNN engaging in video editing that created in a misleading picture. During August riots in Milwaukee after the shooting death of Sylville Smith, the network aired portions of a speech by his sister Sherelle Smith and claimed she was calling for peace. But a fuller version of Smith’s remarks revealed she was encouraging inner-city rioters to riot in the suburbs rather than in their own communities.
This report, by Blake Neff, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
