Coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election
Further information: Media coverage of the 2016 United States presidential election
Occupy CNN protest
On April 3, 2016, hundreds of supporters of Bernie Sanders protested outside of CNN's Los Angeles bureau on Sunset Boulevard. Sanders supporters were protesting CNN's coverage of the 2016 United States presidential elections, specifically in regards to the lack of airtime Sanders had received. Known as Occupy CNN, protesters claimed that major media networks have intentionally blacked out Sanders' presidential campaign in favor of giving much more airtime to candidates such as Hillary Clinton.[7]
Donna Brazile and Roland Martin
In October 2016, WikiLeaks published emails from John Podesta which showed CNN contributor Donna Brazile passing the questions for a CNN-sponsored debate to the Clinton campaign.[8] In the email, Brazile discussed her concern about Clinton's ability to field a question regarding the death penalty. The following day Clinton would receive the question about the death penalty, verbatim, from an audience member at the CNN-hosted Town Hall event.[9] According to a CNNMoney investigation, debate moderator and CNN contributor Roland Martin (now with TV One) "did not deny sharing information with Brazile".[10] CNN severed ties with Brazile on October 14, 2016.[11][12]
WikiLeaks emails
Further information: 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak
During live coverage of the 2016 elections, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said that downloading the hacked and stolen Podesta emails from the WikiLeaks website was a violation of law and that only the media could legally do so. The statement drew criticism to the network for being false.[13][14][15]
Coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election
CNN Iowa Debate moderation
Further information: 2020 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses
During the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries debate moderated by CNN and the Des Moines Register on January 14, 2020, CNN faced controversy and criticism from media pundits and the public alike over what many saw as blatant bias for centrist candidates[citation needed] as well as a CNN article[16] some journalists believe to be a manufactured hit piece intended to depict Bernie Sanders as a misogynist[17][18] prior to the debate followed by a series of adversarial and loaded questions during the debate itself regarding the anonymously sourced story.[19] The debate moderation by CNN was described as "villainous and shameful" by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi[20] and Zach Carter at The Huffington Post said the debate moderation was "awful", writing "Again and again, CNN anchors substituted centrist talking points for questions―and then followed up predictable responses with further centrist talking points, rarely illuminating any substantive disagreements between the candidates or problems with their policy positions".[21] Jeet Heer, the national affairs correspondent at The Nation said "the big loser of the night was the network that hosted the event. CNN was so consistently aligned against Bernie Sanders that it compromised its claim to journalistic neutrality."[22] After the debate, the number one trending hashtag on Twitter was "#CNNisTrash".[23][24]
Trump administration coverage
Further information: Trump administration and news media and CNN v. Trump
On January 10, 2017, CNN reported on the existence of classified documents that said Russia had compromising personal and financial information about then President-elect Donald Trump. CNN did not publish the dossier, or any specific details of the dossier. Later that day, BuzzFeed published the entire 35-page dossier with a disclaimer that it was unverified and "includes some clear errors".[25][26][27] The dossier had been read widely by political and media figures in Washington, and had been sent to multiple other journalists who had declined to publish it as it was unsubstantiated.[25] At a press conference the following day, Trump referred to CNN as fake news and refused to take a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta.[28]
On February 24, 2017, CNN and other media organizations such as The New York Times were blocked from a White House press gaggle. The network responded in a statement: "Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don't like. We'll keep reporting regardless."[29]
On June 26, 2017, three network investigative journalists; Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Haris, resigned from CNN over a false story, later retracted, that connected Anthony Scaramucci to a $10 billion Russian investment fund. The network apologized to Scaramucci and stated that the online story did not meet their editorial standards.[30]
The Washington Post again fact-checked a CNN report regarding Trump on December 8, 2017: CNN ran a story that claimed two sources told the network that the Trump campaign received an email that gave Trump and his son Don, Jr., early access to WikiLeaks documents on September 4, 2016. CNN, however, had not obtained the supposed September 4 email. The sender was "Michael J. Erickson", who CNN was not able to contact. The Washington Post, however, did obtain the email, which showed that the email was actually sent on the day after the hacked documents were released by WikiLeaks on September 14, 2016.[31] CNN issued a correction of their story.[citation needed]
The network also imposed new rules on Russia–related stories being published to social, video, editorial, or MoneyStream without going through the chain of command within CNN.[32]
In January 2020, Don Lemon had a panel discussion on his show with Republican strategist Rick Wilson and The New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali, both of whom have spoken out against Trump. Lemon began laughing after Wilson joked, "Trump couldn't find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter 'U' and a picture of an actual physical crane next to it" and called Trump supporters "the credulous boomer rube demo."[33] Lemon continued to laugh as the two guests mocked Trump supporters using a southern accent saying things like "you elitists with your geography and your maps and your spelling" and "Your math and your readin'."[34] After Trump responded by calling Lemon "the dumbest man on television," Lemon defended himself saying "During an interview on Saturday night, one of my guests said something that made me laugh. And while in the moment I found that joke humorous, I didn't catch everything that was said. Just to make this perfectly clear, I was laughing at the joke and not at any group of people."[35]
