This past weekend a fan of President Trump took an old video of Trump participating in fake television wrestling, put CNN’s logo in place of the person Trump was pretending to fight and made a gif out of it. Trump then retweeted the gif, to the media’s dismay. Predictably, journalists took to Twitter to spin this flippant tweet as a violent threat against all journalists. CNN journalists took it the worst of course, but went overboard with the hyperbolic predictions of whatever significance a silly gif could have.
#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017
CNN contributor Sally Kohn added this insanely inaccurate pinned tweet:
Both sides have a problem with hateful crazies.
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) July 2, 2017
The difference is the left denounces theirs.
The right elects theirs president.
While Kohn and regular contributor Paul Begala said the tweet was license for Trump’s followers to commit violence against journalists:
How long until the headline reads: "GOP leaders notably silent as Trump shoots someone on 5th Avenue"? https://t.co/TjV01THlPn
— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) July 2, 2017
On @CNN at 3pm ET discussing how the President of the United States apparently wants to kick me and my fellow journalists in the head.
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) July 2, 2017
And apparently even CNN hosts believed it. Anchor Brooke Baldwin:
This scares me. Mr. President, please STOP. https://t.co/dga7ZAayYo
— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) July 2, 2017
CNN’s “Republican” analyst Ana Navarro:
America, stand against this. Trump is going to end up getting a media person killed w/this incitement to violence. Maybe then, he'll stop. https://t.co/IGM0fThtt5
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) July 2, 2017
Others in the media also overreacted on Twitter. Such as David Frum from the Atlantic:
Trump has brilliantly changed the subject from “Is he a Russian intelligence asset” to “Is he a dangerously violent lunatic?"
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 2, 2017
Mother Jones’ David Corn:
The president of the United States, instead of dealing with health care, ISIS, or the economy today, is tweeting out revenge porn.
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 2, 2017
Greg Sargent, Washington Post:
On CNN bodyslam:
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 3, 2017
Trump is declaring power to say what reality is, and giving his voters a stake in that power:https://t.co/AjAxmuOh7t pic.twitter.com/kZZpAB8Y02
NBC’s Kasie Hunt:
We just talked about this on #MeetThePress -- imagine any journalist's face where that logo is https://t.co/PrbOmVnOpn
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) July 2, 2017
