On Thursday, CNN ran a chyron highlighting Donald Trump’s dishonesty about his own policy recommendations on Japanese nuclear weapons. Trump said on Wednesday that he never said Japan should have nuclear weapons. Here was CNN’s chyron, as they played tape of that exchange:
Some pretty great chyron action here from CNN… (via @LeonHWolf) https://t.co/mUuUn0xkc6 pic.twitter.com/po1OAbKX0L
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) June 2, 2016
Now, CNN is right. Trump said of Japan in April, “North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.” Chris Wallace of Fox News asked, “With nukes?” Trump answered, “including with nukes, yes, including with nukes.” He said the same thing to Anderson Cooper in March.
Then, on Wednesday, Trump said that Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy critique “was such lies about my foreign policy, that they said I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break.”
So, CNN was right.
Here’s the problem. They only fact-check Republicans. Every time the media is now honest, it just demonstrates how dishonest it is.
As David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon points out:
Sorry CNN, but this wasn’t a “clash,” this was Trump supporters being assaulted pic.twitter.com/rLWxzGwEZW
— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) June 3, 2016
Or this from Twitter’s Johnny Dollar:
Strange, this CNN chyron doesn’t say (SHE DID) pic.twitter.com/aBImvRPPFp
— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) June 3, 2016
Why didn’t CNN run a chyron under President Obama whenever he said that if you liked your doctor you could keep your doctor? Or when he said that he never drew a red line in Syria? Or when he told another one of his thousands of outright lies?
For the same reason that Candy Crowley only attempted to fact-check (falsely) Mitt Romney in debate with Obama: leftists gonna left. This means that even when the left correctly fact-checks somebody on the right, nobody pays attention: we assume they’re lying because sometimes they are – and they’re always lying by omission when it comes to the left.
So, here’s the proper CNN chyron: “CNN Fact-Checks Trump (But Never Democrats).”