CNN’s Brianna Keilar did an entire segment complaining about Fox News opinion host’s “creative” chyrons in the age of President Joe Biden, completely oblivious to her own network’s use of opinionated chyrons from straight news shows under former President Donald Trump.
The chyrons disliked by Keilar involved Fox News opinion hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham implying Biden is senile. Keilar was also incensed that the network called on its medical contributor to discuss Biden’s health despite not actually examining him. Another apparently offensive chyron asked, “Who is pulling the strings in the Biden [White House]?”
“See the question mark there? That’s really just a fig leaf for a conspiracy theory,” Keiler sneered.
Keiler’s “Roll the Tape” segment then devolved into a litany of complaints about the topics Fox News opinion hosts cover, like wokeness and cancel culture. Very few examples came from Fox’s actual news programs, but the bigger issue is CNN’s moral grandstanding following the network’s own opinionated coverage throughout the Trump era.
Abigail Marone, press secretary to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), tweeted out numerous images from CNN’s allegedly straight-news programs with editorialized chyrons.
“Breaking News: Angry Trump turns briefing into propaganda session,” read one CNN chyron. “Trump says he’s been tough on Russia. Nah,” read another.
There are more:
Defiant Trump stokes racial divisions and defends harsh response to protests.
Trump melts down in angry response to reports he ignored virus warnings.
Trump says ‘we saved a lot of lives’ by killing [Qasem] Soleimani but offers no evidence.
Trump uses task force briefing to try and rewrite history on coronavirus response
CNN: Trump’s anger over raid surpasses previous tantrums.
Marone also pointed out that CNN’s Brian Stelter, who tweeted out Keiler’s segment regarding the Fox News chyrons, covered Trump the way CNN now complains about Fox covering Biden. Granted, despite Stelter’s show being called “Reliable Sources,” it is best considered an opinion program, went so far as to question Trump’s mental status with the chyron, “How to cover concerns about Trump’s well-being.”
I could go on for days… pic.twitter.com/yZ0LU7i91D
— Abigail Marone (@abigailmarone) April 19, 2021
Matt Wolking, communications director for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, also pointed out CNN’s infamously biased headline from the Trump era, “Trump’s executive privilege: 2 scoops of ice cream.”
These are just a few examples from four years of CNN’s Trump coverage. Beyond the chyrons, CNN played up allegations that Trump was mentally ill, insisted he somehow embarrassed himself feeding koi in Japan, and fell for hoax after hoax after hoax regarding the administration’s alleged collusion was Russia to steal the 2016 election. As Glenn Greenwald pointed out in his January 20, 2019 column noting the “10 Worst, Most Embarrassing U.S. Media Failures on the Trump-Russia Story,” CNN was one of the worst offenders. At one point, CNN was forced to retract a story and force out the three reporters who wrote it. CNN was also behind one of the worst hoax stories – claiming that Donald Trump, Jr. received an email with links to Wikileaks documents before they were published. In reality, Trump, Jr. received the email after the documents were published.