The economy may be booming under President Donald Trump, but CNN certainly isn’t sharing in the gains.
To paraphrase The Clash, CNN fought the President – and the President won. The war started during Trump’s first press conference as the President-elect, in which he torched CNN’s Jim Acosta, famously pointing at him and declaring “you are fake news.” Later, as President, he downgraded his designation of CNN to “very fake news.”
After that, CNN’s penchant for embarrassing mistakes increased exponentially. A number of CNN producers and commentators were captured on video referring to their ongoing “investigation” into Trump’s non-existent connection to the Russian government as “bulls**t” and a “huge nothingburger.” Before they could recover from that footage, they further embarrassed themselves by going nuts over Trump tweeting out a GIF showing him body-slamming a man (WWE founder Vince McMahon) with a CNN logo superimposed over his head. They tracked down the Reddit user responsible for creating the image, and threatened to reveal his identity, which didn’t go over well with anyone.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for their image, would you believe CNN actually contracted an al-Qaeda propagandist to assist with their reporting? I can’t say I find it surprising, though what I do find surprising is that they thought they could get away with trying to cover up their tracks on this one, rather than acknowledging their mistake.
According to Salon, the news outlet hired al-Qaeda media correspondent Bilal Abdul Kareem to help CNN host Clarissa Ward as she navigated the treacherous towns and villages while filming Undercover in Syria.
In the documentary, Ward visits areas of eastern Syria currently under the control of al-Nusra, a group claiming to be the official representative of al-Qaeda in the region. According to Saudi Arabian news outlets, Abdul Kareem officially joined the terror network in 2012; years before the CNN documentary.
Speaking with reporters on June 16, Kareem vented his frustrations over the production, saying he was intentionally omitted from the film’s credits over his alleged connections with al-Nusra.
“This Undercover in Syria, you can Google it. It won the prestigious Peabody Award, and it won the prestigious Overseas Press Club Award, which are basically the highest awards in journalism for international reporting,” said Kareem. “Now, [CNN] barely mentioned my name. I’m telling you, somehow CNN must have forgotten that I was the one that filmed it, I guess they forgot that.”
Abul Kareem denies any connection with the terror organization, saying on social media, “I am not, nor have I ever been, nor do I need to be a part of al-Qaeda. I don’t have any need for that.”
Syrian rebels tell a different story, saying Kareem is the man behind a series of YouTube videos promoting al-Nusra and other terror organizations operating in Syria.
H/T Sean Hannity
How was it possible for CNN to not at least know that there was a controversy surrounding Kareem’s allegiances to al-Qaeda? The man is on the United States’ “kill list” after all.
CNN may be in trouble, but they certainly aren’t in as much trouble as Kareem.
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