The undying ouroboros of nonsense that is the Donald Trump campaign has outdone itself again.
On Tuesday, Trump’s campaign committee sent out a press release ripping CNN for declining to air its commercial celebrating the president’s first 100 days in office. The all-caps headline: “FAKE NEWS STATION REFUSES TO RUN AD HIGHLIGHTING THE PRESIDENT’S FIRST 100 DAYS.”
“It is absolutely shameful to see the media blocking the positive message that President Trump is trying to share with the country,” committee executive director Michael Glassner said in the statement. “It’s clear that CNN is trying to silence our voice and censor our free speech because it doesn’t fit their narrative.”
Let’s leave aside for a moment the Orwellian claim that a news network’s refusal to air propaganda somehow makes it “fake news.” Let’s even look past the utterly upside-down notion that a private-sector company could possibly “censor” the “free speech” of the president of the United States. Let’s simply ask what possible reason CNN might have to reject an ad whose ostensible purpose is to celebrate Trump’s first 100 days. Does CNN hate positivity? Is it anti–making-America-great-again?
Perhaps! But as Politico’s Hadas Gold reports, the ad actually isn’t just about Trump’s greatness. It’s also about, well …
In the ad, a narrator says of Trump’s efforts: “You wouldn’t know it from watching the news.” Images of anchors like Wolf Blitzer, Rachel Maddow and Andrea Mitchell play under the banner “FAKE NEWS,” a favorite moniker Trump uses to describe media coverage he does not like.
Here’s CNN’s explanation:
In summary: Trump is now calling CNN “fake news” on the grounds that CNN declined to air pro-Trump propaganda calling CNN fake news. Say what you will about his politics, you have to hand it to the president: He’s making tautologies great again.
