The president-elect was furious after BuzzFeed published a report claiming to show connections between Trump and Russia, using CNN’s earlier story
Donald Trump refused to answer a question from a CNN reporter during his press conference at Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday, as retribution for the CNN story that said he and Barack Obama had been presented with claims that Russia had compromising financial and personal information about the president-elect.
“Not you. Your organization is terrible,” said Trump, when CNN’s senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, tried to ask a question.
“Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question? Mr President-elect, since you’re attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance?” asked Acosta.
“I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news,” said the president-elect.
Trump was furious after BuzzFeed published an unverified and salacious 35-page report yesterday claiming to show connections between Trump and Russia, using CNN’s earlier story (which mentions the report without revealing its full contents or publishing it) as justification for publishing. BuzzFeed’s decision triggered a storm over media ethics.
Trump repeatedly criticized CNN and BuzzFeed throughout his press conference at Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday, calling BuzzFeed a “leftwing blog” and a “failing pile of garbage” for publishing the unverified report. CNN later said that its decision to publish “carefully sourced reporting” on unverified intelligence documents concerning Donald Trump was “vastly different than BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos”.
His attack on CNN can be viewed as somewhat ironic.
Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, was the head of NBC Entertainment when it launched The Apprentice, and the success of that and the subsequent spin-off The Celebrity Apprentice helped Zucker become head of NBC. Then, with Zucker as president, CNN gave Trump millions in free publicity thanks to its round-the-clock coverage of his presidential campaign.
Shortly after dodging the CNN question on Wednesday, a BBC reporter asked if Trump would reconsider his position as president if intelligence agencies found any truth in the report’s allegations.
“BBC, that’s another beauty,” said Trump, before adding: “There’s nothing they could come back with” and quickly moving along.
Trump’s treatment of reporters during the press conference drew criticism from free-speech activists.
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