#CNNBlackmail

Peter Hasson of The Daily Caller has excellent coverage of the CNN decision to take a turn as the Meme Police. They chose poorly.

‘Extremely Unethical’ — CNN Draws Backlash After Threatening To ID Reddit User Behind Trump’s WWE Video

CNN sparked a backlash Tuesday night after threatening to identify the Reddit user who claimed to have created a meme of Donald Trump body-slamming the CNN logo that the president later shared on Twitter.

CNN targeted Reddit user HanAssholeSolo because he took credit for the video and apparently had a history of making racist and anti-Semitic remarks online.

CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski opted not to identify the user “because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again.”

But Kaczynski then added that “CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change,” seemingly indicating that CNN would identify the user if he repeats his “ugly behavior” on social media. That sentence was widely interpreted as a threat. Kaczynski, who disputed that characterization, seemed especially upset that the Reddit user “was someone who shared an image of CNN reporters’ face with Stars of David next them.”

The DC samples the Twitter outrage. My two faves (so far!):

Jesse Kelly:

Maybe this #CNNBlackmail is a great Independence Day lesson about the danger of power and how little you should trust the powerful.

And

Tom Nichols:

Note to CNN: random guy making memes isn't the story, *the President using those memes* is. But this threat from you is now the story. smh

Well, yeah. Is CNN going to out the author of every offensive meme on the internet? That will certainly save them having to lay anyone off!

Or is it their plan to doxx anyone who annoys CNN? Bold!

In this Age of Trump every media company should have an inspirational motto. The WaPo has already staked out "Democracy Dies in Darkness" but CNN could take "Democracy Dies Without Doxxing".

PILING ON: Fox joins in. And if you watch one Twitter video today, make it this instant classic from Cernovich Media. Do make sure the sound is on for the bouncy tune.

Current scoreboard: Internet lots, CNN not much.

 

Comments

[henry]

Burn the witch!

[Buckeye]

Only guys guilty of stirring up violence against reporters in CNN themselves.

If I see @KFILE, going to be all I can do to resist kicking his ass:)

[henry]

Need this video turned into a CNN meme.

[Beasts of England]

Bwahahaha again!

https://mobile.twitter.com/ThisInformed/status/882593177303212033/video/1

[Buckeye]

CH, thanks for the book tip on "the Great Upheaval".

Ordered a copy for Mrs. Buckeye this morning.

Probably pouring gasoline on that fire:)

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Beasts,

That is a great one!

Stephn Molnyeuz makes the point that CNN thought they were going after one little person, when in fact they went after all of us.

Apparently they were being smug on air this morning, so there will likely be another wave of memes and efforts to go after them.

By the way, where's the ACLU's comment on this? (crickets)

[henry]

It is spreading beyond CNN.

[Stephanie Puppy Pincushion extraordinaire]

I most mightily repent, unconditionally and without reservation, for every unapproved idea I may have ever written, shared, spoken, thought, or communicated in any fashion whatsoever. In the holy name of St Hillary of Chappaqua, I hereby pledge to purge these heresies from the sum of human knowledge, and may the chakras of Blessed Albert the Warmth-Bringer eternally roast me if ever I transgress again. May Diversity and Tolerance follow me for all of my days, and may my Privilege ever be checked. In the name of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and MSNBC, amen. #CNNBlackmail

Michael Z. Williamson, Sarah A. Hoyt

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

https://twitter.com/PlaysTrumpCard/status/882573452825288704

Heh.

[Beasts of England]

They deserve everything coming their way, Miss Marple.

Moar popcorn!! :)

[sbwaters]

rse -- a personal comment at the end of the last thread about treating stitches.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

There is NO WAY that anyone can claim that politics is boring anymore! Nope!

Think I will wander over to The_Donald and see if they have any info on what 4chan is up to.

[lurkersusie]

End this experiment

New Army Training Tells Female Soldiers To ‘Accept’ Naked Men In Their Showers: https://t.co/a0ntswmZhY?amp=1

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Well, those Reddit guys are playing hardball. They are now going through the US criminal code:

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/html/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap13-sec241.htm

"Conspiracy against rights."

[henry]

Assange tweeted a part of that law cite Miss M.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

A comment from The_Donald site:

[–]Malformed1 1 point 4 minutes ago

The can of worms has been opened. We are all /u/HanAssholeSolo. It could have happened to any one of us, and still could. CNN has clearly delineated themselves from the interests of the People. They're willing to destroy private citizens simply to gain revenge.

Now the CNN memes will blog out the sun. They set forth something into motion that cannot be stopped. They have clearly marked themselves as the Enemy of the American People, just like Trump said they were.

Trump was right again, and he played CNN like a fucking FIDDLE.

[Stephanie Puppy Pincushion extraordinaire]

#Blackmail THIS is CNN.

[Stephanie Puppy Pincushion extraordinaire]

How skewed does CNN want the youth vote to be? Destroying CNN is now the in thing to do.

#Donald 2020

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

henry,

I saw that but didn't know if the conspiracy thing was highlighted.

There are 4 people in the panel on CNN discussing this this morning. They apparently were all smug and self-righteous. Seems to me that those people, by affirming CNN's action, are participating in the conspiracy to deny the Reddit guy his rights.

Boy, would I like to see Alisyn Camerata in court. That woman has annoyed me since she was on Fox, and I was very happy to see her leave. I find it hilarious that she now wears those Marie Harf "smart" glasses, because she is as dumb as a box of rocks.

[Captain Hate]

I'm very heartened by the positive reaction to The Great Upheaval recommendation. If any of you are disappointed by it, I'll accept all criticism.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

For your enjoyment, donald Trump Jr.'s Twitter feed. May I say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! He's giving them hell!

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr

[narciso.]

Its appears kazynski has some of the same hangup sas josh Marshall, and Kurt eichenwald loosely defined

https://mobile.twitter.com/JMichaelWaller/status/882497497247211521?p=v

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

http://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2017/07/05/and-poof-its-gone-cnns-chris-cuomo-deletes-tweet-on-reddit-users-identity/

[henry]

And James O'Keefe has more CNN video pending for later today.

[Account Deleted]

CNN circles drain in ever-tightening circumference.

Good riddance.

I agree: get CNN out of the airports.

Put on Judge Judy reruns.

[Stephanie Puppy Pincushion extraordinaire]

Media can't possibly get more irrational over Trump.

CNN: Hold my beer!

[rse]

ch-i just want to know if anyone bought it for less than me including tax and shipping.

$5.24

thanks sbw. I am the researcher in the family. Sometimes he looks to me for advice, but mostly he finds it annoying. Usually I wait to be asked, but am ready if asked. My husband and kids are far more comfortable with the "walking dictionary" than my siblings are. My mom learned to like it only in my middle age when it kept proving so useful.

[DebinGA]

NYT 10-15-16: "Andrew Kaczynski, the 26-year-old reporter who dug up evidence showing that Donald J. Trump had supported the invasion of Iraq before the war, was Google-chatting with Tim Miller, a Republican operative who was the communications director for the Jeb Bush presidential campaign. This was last July, when Mr. Kaczynski was still at BuzzFeed. ...In the conversation, Mr. Miller said CNN could use someone like Mr. Kaczynski, especially given how difficult it was to fact-check the loose-lipped Republican nominee. ...“LOL,” Mr. Kaczynski replied. But the notion wasn’t so laughable after all. A month before the election, CNN hired Mr. Kaczynski and three of his colleagues, Kyle Blaine, Nathan McDermott and Christopher Massie.
... On Oct. 4, he went to work at CNN."

I bet Tim Miller was also among those pushing the dodgy dossier.

[Beasts of England]

lol, Steph!!

[Dave (in MA)]

Trump should tweet a fake Time Magazine cover with a pic of him beating up a CNN head.

What's the over/under on when Kaczynski comes out and says "he broke me"?

[DebinGA]

After the Scalise et al shooting, Republicans should be very wary of appearing at open air events where security cannot be guaranteed imo. There's no expectation they volunteer to be sitting ducks.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/07/04/poland-prepares-to-welcome-u-s-president-donald-trump/#more-135311

Beautiful video put out by Poland welcoming the President.

[jimmyk]

Steph, I may have missed it, but what's the update on your daughter?

Barbara, sorry to hear about your niece, but sounds like they caught it early, which is great.

[Momto2]

Looks like the EU has their own version of Pelosi.

https://twitter.com/V_of_Europe/status/882316147210760192

[pagar, a bacon, ham and sausage supporter]

Jim Hoft is on it.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/07/worse-reported-cnn-may-committed-federal-felony-threatening-reddit-user/#disqus_thread

[henry]

Wall Street Journal @WSJ
3m

Duke Energy went from 7% use of gas and renewables to 32% in about a decade

"gas and renewables" aka, they switched to gas because fracking brought the price down and renewables gets the credit so the left will leave them alone.

[lurkersusie]

Lol,

https://mobile.twitter.com/ErezSemaria/status/882591184874557440/photo/1

[glasater]

Man Tran,

I've lost your email address & phone #.

Mine is still the same if you have it in you address book.

[lurkersusie]

jon gabriel @exjon

"We've got Trump right where we want him!" ~ @CNN

https://mobile.twitter.com/exjon/status/882581310744674307/photo/1

[Dave (in MA)]

Heh.

[Momto2]

David Burge‏ @iowahawkblog 19m19 minutes ago

If we're going to ban comedy videos based on how they might hypothetically encourage violence, we should probably start with the 3 Stooges

[DebinGA]

Roadrunner and Wily E Coyote gotta go.

[narciso]

Ah the one with the collaborationist relative and who failed upwards from a spy scandal when he was prime minister.

[Clarice Feldman]

https://twitter.com/President1Trump/status/882599203519770625/photo/1
Gitmobama

[narciso]

He never took ethics at st. John's apparently, it does,seem they are going down the cliff of buzzardfeed just on an acne rocket cycle.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

narciso,

Lots of lefties are trying to say that this isn't suppression of free speech because it isn't the government.

I do think that the parallel to this is the Klan in the 1950's and 60's, intimidating to suppress free speech and voting rights.

[DebinGA]

What's the result when Trump-hating CNN must report the Trumps going to Poland and Germany, but they attempt to minimize the trip and them as much as possible?

[rse]

https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/event/real-love-the-art-of-mindful-connection/

How can one have a 'secular approach to Buddhist teachings" except of course if these are also required k-12 classroom practices?

Frequently now required under PE 'wellbeing' standards.

[Threadkiller]

The Meme Police?

Pretty funny TM.

If I had time I'd do a rewrite of the Cheap Trick lyrics.

https://youtu.be/MjMCaw4qzjg

[narciso]

CNN as with msnbc ABC CBS is a syzgy, we can't tell where the deep state, Cameron
Sciutto, Rhodes price begin and the other ends

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Hi Barbara,
Do you happen to know if her sentinel node was involved or clear?

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Ted Cruz‏Verified account @tedcruz 12m12 minutes ago

Ted Cruz Retweeted DailyCaller Politics

(1/2) Troubling. I assume CNN's lawyers are examining GA § 16-8-16 Theft by extortion. If CNN constructively obtained the gif-maker's IP...

(2/2) it's a GA crime if they threatened to "Disseminate any information tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule...."

[DebinGA]

A directive seems to have come from Prog Central to show as little of Trump's beautiful wife and daughter as possible. Only pic I've seen of the Trumps leaving the White House together to board AF1 today is AP's.

[Ralph L]

Makes you wonder if A K has done this before, and it didn't hit the fan.

[rse]

thank goodness for the brits. http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/style/825034/melania-trump-donald-poland

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

It of course wasn't suppression of free speech as the commies say, although they have made the same claim in reverse thousands of times.
But it is a gigantic informational and entertainment corporation attacking and bullying a private citizen for no apparent reason other than him making fun of them through information and entertainment.
If there was a legal issue involved one would assume they'd have a lawyer contact the guy not some a-hole reporter.

And of course anarcho-syndicalist Ben who just hates him some hypocrisy c&ps a blurb defending gigantic bully CNN while a short time later wimpering that he is Spartacus HanAssholeSolo.
He is one third correct, which is better than his usual batting average.

[Captain Hate]

rse - Was that price for a new copy? If so where from?

[DebinGA]

Thanks for those Melania pics, rse.

[rse]

i never buy new if i can help it. That was a former library copy in good shape with no sales tax and included shipping.

from the new owner of whole foods, but I already heard from the lurker that he beat me from another site. He is very proud of himself.

[Dave (in MA)]

So of course Hugh Hewitt comes to Kaczynski's defense...

Hugh Hewitt‏Verified account @hughhewitt Known @KFILE a long time online. He dogs me often but fairly + isn't least bit on the dark side. Good reporter; just poorly phrased line.

[rse]

This is what I am reading at the moment in case anyone doubts how the UN intends to get those SDGs in place.

https://www.sdgfund.org/sites/default/files/business-and-un/SDGF_BFP_HKSCSRI_Business_and_SDGs-Web_Version.pdf

Hype it to Business as a chance to move away from our current volatile economic system and become a partner with governments and intl org's. No wonder we now have an omnipresent chamber of cronies.

[Momto2]

So we only know of this one incident but apparently, this jerk has been at CNN since October. Wondering what else he has done - who else he has threatened or bullied?

It appears to be his MO from former jobs and perhaps even WHY CNN hired him in the first place.

One example:

https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/882585601270272001

[maryrose]

CNN:
Hoisted on their own petard!
Steph:
How are daughter and almost here grand-daughter doing?
I like Jimmyk might have missed an update.

[-peter]

Pistolas required

[narciso.]

I liked Hugh mist because of the lileks segments and the first time I heard mark stein but Shirley.

[Dave (in MA)]

“because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again.”

I'm sure it was no more coerced than Otto Warmbier's confession for his crime against Kim Jong Chubby.

[Captain Hate]

Hewitt is getting roundly slattered for being such a clueless dunce.

[narciso.]

I referred in passing to the teen vogue snowflake who tucker rather aggresuvely scattered referring to the Bible as fake news, that's a the three lard hot take.

[Captain Hate]

Btw somebody at Bing has been tweaking their search software because when I try to find Jenna Jameson's Twitter feed it sends me to some pornish (Bing seems to default to parental advisory setting) sites even when I type in her Twitter ID. Fortunately my browser history has the right link but I thought it odd since she's outspokenly pro Trump that this would happen.

[Jane]

Has this been posted?

CNN Producer: Voters “Stupid as Sh*t”– American Pravda: CNN Part 3

http://projectveritas.com/video/cnn-producer-voters-stupid-as-sht-american-pravda-cnn-part-3/

[sbwaters]

My husband and kids are far more comfortable with the "walking dictionary" than my siblings are.

rse, my fam is equally astounded when I recall something oblique. I generally explain that I don’t know so much; I just pick it up on JOM.

[James D.]

Hewitt is getting roundly slattered for being such a clueless dunce.

Well, it IS a day ending in y.

[Jane]

I think that was the last one, altho I don't recall the beginning.

[Threadkiller]

Hugh Hewitt comes to Kaczynski's defense...

After-birthers, the both of them.

[narciso.]

Oh Carlos slim fell for the north Korean parody account, next from foreign correspondent 'prince Albert in a can'

Did the USSR conduct missile tests like the north Koreans do now back in the 50s and 60s

[narciso.]

Simon at the horde complain CNN MSNBC and Carlos slims like the three male models in the gasoline fight in zoolander.

[henry]

Jane, that is the last one. per reddit folks, there is a new Veritas vid today. Some guesses as to who is featured.

[narciso.]

Someone, the problem is the press reports this all with a straight face, like lesley Nielsen in airplane.

[Dave (in MA)]

I guess it's not really news in these gender-confused times any more, but here's an example of an old grey lady stepping on her crank.

https://twitter.com/HashtagGriswold/status/882621701028286464/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Face.mu.nu%2F

[narciso.]

Cirbyn is finding it hard to fool the proletariat

ttps://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/07/corbyn-labour-white-workers-deindustrial-north-britain-tories

Because they suspects they will he kulaks

[Jim Eagle]

OT: Interesting article on how the Transgender movement has infiltrated pediatric health and once again a left led agenda without any medical proof.

http://dailysignal.com/2017/07/03/im-pediatrician-transgender-ideology-infiltrated-field-produced-large-scale-child-abuse/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWWpReU5UVXhaRGt5TVROaSIsInQiOiJmSURjWmY1MCtmVStzUW1vaEtWUjdCZmUxTEpXT3dRVVpLQVpOaENoMGNxRXJrT1dyTUp3UHRcL3BReTBLNjBnOGZKWUtJTm1KVm1JeWxkVG1KRDZrd1wvUVczcENYN0c0V2JlMUh3WGFuNGJnSHoyeUVjZkRYeG5VS081enNXb0pKIn0%3D

The left and their "victimology" are truly evil.

[narciso.]

Yes it makes hiruptcy and ohlebotimy seem like reasonable professions by contrast.

I tell you this playing out like the 95 film with Julie and Johnny lee miller, one if the few times his played an. American.

[Dave (in MA)]

HH better gulp down an extra dose of his relief factor snake oil.

[sbwaters]

Was listening to Bartiromo (substitute?) in the car on the way to work this AM. One of her talking heads suggested Trump would have been better off to pursue the hard line with China he had proposed before election.

The pundit obviously didn’t recognize that had Trump done so, media pundits would have excoriated him for not “negotiating” with China.

Having established that China won’t rein in North Korea, Trump can now pursue pushing a line that strengthens Japan and South Korean defenses, much to China’s chagrin because China wants to be the only military power in the region.

Trump can pursue sanctions to the hilt. He can use the U.N. to either respond with sanctions or show Chinese/Russian unwillingness to do so.

--
The coffee clatch also wrongly dissed Trump’s visit to Poland -- a visit that tells Putin point blank that European defense, including energy independence from Russia, is on the chessboard. Putin knows, even if pundits don’t.

Trump won’t give in now to China/Russia calls today to bargain away the defense of South Korea and Japan. Trump doesn’t have to. He is free to ratchet up military defense and economic sanctions.

Well done, and nobody is pushing for war.

[RattlerGator]

Exactly, sbw. They (the Trump Administration) are playing their hand well.

[narciso.]

Think of them like the tattaglias

http://babalublog.com/2017/07/05/airbnb-rentals-in-cuba-may-be-business-fronts-for-the-castro-espin-family

[Captain Hate]

If we're being brutally honest we have to admit that all of us, with the exception of Maybee and perhaps others (AliceH?), stood by with nary a peep as DoT did to Ben/Dana what KFILE threatened to do to HanAssholeSolo.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Captain Hate,

I don't remember that but then I got here later than a lot of others.

My opinion on this is that I will simply SOB or hit KillFile. Any action taken must be left up to the owner of the site.

I would point out that when I got banned at the Ewok's site I never felt my free speech rights were violated. It was a crappy thing to do, but he owns the site.

[sbwaters]

If we're being brutally honest

CH, if you were brutally honest, you would include in your pattern-matching, what makes the two patterns distinctly different.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

sbw, RG,

Regardless of bias, I have really come to believe that most TV pundits are not strategic thinkers at all. This is an example of that.

I so miss Dennis Miller's program, because he would at least have guests with some depth of policy knowledge and critical thinking skills. Also old friends from the comedy circuit. Often in the same show, like the day he had on some pal of his and then interviewed Henrey Kissinger. (Even he thought that was a little bizarre.)

[Dave (in MA)]

Apples/oranges. HanAssholeSolo was not hacking his way onto CNN where he wasn't wanted, he was making fun of them elsewhere.

[Threadkiller]

If we're being brutally honest we have to admit that all of us, with the exception of Maybee and perhaps others (AliceH?), stood by with nary a peep as DoT did to Ben/Dana what KFILE threatened to do to HanAssholeSolo.

I was against it immediately. I made quite a few "fruit of the poisonous tree" comments at the time.

That kind of power wielding has always bothered me.

[narciso.]

A ransom of red chief situation:
https://www.weaselzippers.us/347175-kaepernick-skips-fourth-of-july-celebrations-travels-home-to-ghana-to-gain-true-independence/

[rse]

jimmy-it's govets' job to create markets.

https://muninetworks.org/content/broadband-planning-and-how-government-creates-markets-community-broadband-bits-podcast-260

[Janet the expert 🚬]

Will whoever made THIS GIF be hunted down & threatened by CNN?
CNN can use all its investigative personnel & resources to find & punish the Peanuts GIF maker.
#CNNBlackmail

[Threadkiller]

Danube was incapable of SOB, so he played the role of a god.

Even after god exposed who he thought Ben/Dana was, it didn't stop the "nuisance" from posting.

What if DoT got the wrong guy?

Maybe the circumstances are apples to oranges, but the intent of the blackmailer isn't.

#Control

[Captain Hate]

I would point out that when I got banned at the Ewok's site I never felt my free speech rights were violated. It was a crappy thing to do, but he owns the site.

He put you in the sidebar briefly and I called him out on it as a really lowlife thing to do, shortly after which he took it down. Yes he owns the site but that doesn't excuse bad behavior. For whatever reason he's been a lot better recently but I doubt that I'll ever not regard him with at least a tiny bit of skepticism.

sbw, what am I missing that makes it a distinctive difference? That it was all contained here and wasn't someone going off to nail someone with whom he had no previous interactions? I guess so, but I teed off on Maybee for flouncing off because of it and now am having a different perspective on why she did it

[rse]

"Thanks for throwing me that softball in a way because I did write a book about that. It's basically just a misunderstanding of how markets work. You can't have markets without government. So, asking government to get out of the way so business can do its job is kind of nonsensical. You can't actually have business without government. You can have property. They all depend of government, basically. Warren Zevon had the song, to have markets you need "lawyers, guns and money." You have a government that's involved in every step of the way. It's not only a referee for fair play, but it also lays out the playing field and decides what the goals are and where the lines are, and on and on and on. These are all public choices. We often miss what government is doing in the areas that it does it so well, we just don't think about it. Property rights, they actually work relatively well, most of the time, so we don't really think about the fact that these were all based on laws that say who owns what, how you own it, what happens when someone else says you own something. A lot of physical infrastructure that we depend on goes back to government and, again, we just don't tend to think about it when it works well."

From that link.

[sbwaters]

Well, let’s see.

I see at least one distinction between ridiculing CNN away from CNN and inserting oneself as noise inside “CNN”.

Persistently increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in limited bandwidth is anti-social.

[sbwaters]

Sorry, increasing the noise in the signal-to-noise ratio