CNN called out for falsely reporting Polish first lady snubbed Trump — this time by unlikely ally

By Howard Portnoy
CNN called out for falsely reporting Polish first lady snubbed Trump — this time by unlikely ally
Image: MSNBC video screen grab

The “most busted name in news” is at it again, this time joined by a number of its fellow purveyors of falsehood. The target of the attacks is once again Donald Trump. And this time the claim — promoted not only by CNN but by The Washington Post, New York’s Daily News, and others — is that Agata Kornhauser-Duda, the wife of Polish president Andrzej Duda, snubbed Trump when he extended his hand for a handshake.

Here, thanks to the Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams, is a video of the shot heard round the world. Like Trump’s now-infamous body-slamming video, this one is formatted as a GIF, meaning that the clip loops back on itself several times:

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In fairness, it does appear that Mrs. Duda rejects Trump’s outreached hand. It turns out that wasn’t the case. A more complete video, provided surprisingly by MSNBC (which chose evidently not to play this hole), shows the two first ladies shaking hands, after which Kornhauser-Duda turns back to the president and shakes his hand. Here is a video still capturing that exchange:

Image: MSNBC video screen grab

If there was awkwardness in the meeting, it wasn’t initiated by President Trump. Certainly, there was no slight. But that’s not how the mainstream media packaged the story. Here’s CNN’s Chris Cillizza:

The Daily News was more pointed in its tweet, which includes a screengrab of the video and the triumphal declaration “First Lady of Poland snubs President Trump’s attempted handshake.”

Some enemies of the president went for the bon mot. Here’s Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page:

Other sites, including CNBC and Mediaite, weighed in with similar messages. None verbalized the underlying narrative, which might be encapsulated as “See how much the current U.S. president is reviled around the world?”

Since the video went viral, several fair and balanced sources have exposed the lie for what it was. None, however, could top the tweet posted by an eyewitness to the proceedings. It was none other than President Duda himself:

Hey, who knows? This presidential tweeting thing may catch on!

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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