BREAKING: 3 Journalists Out At CNN After Trump/Russia Fake News Falls Apart
Three fake news journalists are reportedly resigning from CNN following the network’s embarrassingly dubious claim that a senior ally of President Donald Trump was under investigation for ties to a Russian investment bank.
According to an article by CNN’s Brian Stelter, those leaving are “Thomas Frank, who wrote the story in question; Eric Lichtblau, an editor in the unit; and Lex Haris, who oversaw the unit.”
“In the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignations of the employees involved in the story’s publication,” Stelter quotes a CNN spokesman as stating.
Stelter adds that “an internal investigation by CNN management found that some standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published.”
“Te story,” he continues, “which reported that Congress was investigating a ‘Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials,’ cited a single anonymous source.”
“These types of stories are typically reviewed by several departments within CNN — including fact-checkers, journalism standards experts and lawyers — before publication.”
Stelter adds that, during a Monday afternoon meeting, journalists in the investigative unit were told “the retraction did not mean the facts of the story were necessarily wrong. Rather it meant that ‘the story wasn’t solid enough to publish as-is,’ one of the people briefed on the investigation said.”
As reported previously, a leaked internal CNN memo suggests that the media giant is facing further restrictions on its reporters concerning all Russia-related content.
This controversy comes following another embarrassing anonymous source-related gaffe in CNN’s coverage of the Trump/Russia non-story.
Earlier this month, CNN was forced to correct a story quoting an anonymous source as stating that former FBI Director James Comey would use his House Intelligence Committee testimony to deny claims he told President Trump he was not under investigation.
Comey, of course, did the exact opposite.
Today’s resignations also come following two high-profile firings of CNN staff directly linked to their hatred of President Donald Trump.
On June 9, CNN presenter Reza Aslan was fired from the network over a tweet in which he called President Donald Trump a “piece of sh*t” and an embarrassment to America.
Prior to that, Kathy Griffin was fired for holding up a severed head resembling the President’s.