CNN’s president claims his network’s credibility is “higher than ever,” calling it a “mistake” for the new US administration to be at odds with the news media. His statements come amid a fake news controversy on Donald Trump’s ties to the Russian government.
CNN’s president claims his network’s credibility is “higher than ever,” calling it a “mistake” for the new US administration to be at odds with the news media. His statements come amid a fake news controversy on Donald Trump’s ties to the Russian government.
“I think our credibility is higher than ever, and our viewership is higher than ever, and our reporting is as strong as ever,” Jeff Zucker said in an interview with Gabriel Sherman at New York Magazine, published on Wednesday.
His comment comes at a time when CNN’s credibility is actually under scrutiny. CNN appeared at the center of a fake news controversy, having reported on an unverified memo that suggested that the Russian government is blackmailing President-elect Trump with compromising personal and financial information about him and that he has deep ties with the Russian government.
In a press-conference that followed shortly afterwards, Trump slammed CNN as “disgraceful” and also called Buzzfeed, another news network that published a report on the controversial memos, as “a failing pile of garbage.” The leader-in-waiting then refused to take a question from a CNN reporter during his first press conference since July.
“Be quiet. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news,” Trump said .
Trump later said that intelligence insiders confirmed to him that the much-hyped dossier, alleging that Moscow has compromising evidence on him, was a fake.
Moreover, the rift between the incoming US president and the network started long before this latest episode – Trump repeatedly called out CNN along with other major US news outlets for biased reporting on him in the run-up to November’s presidential election. Information released by WikiLeaks ahead of the elections also showed the network consistently attempting to help Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign.