CNNBlackmail trends on Twitter after 'news' network threatens to expose identity of Trump wrestling gif creator

Inspires thousands of copycats

, --July 6, 2017

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All CNN had to do was let it go. If they'd just roasted President Trump for posting goofy memes on Twitter, when he should probably be dealing with bigger issues, they would have been fine. They would have scored a nice little point, made the President look juvenile, and they could have moved on having briefly claimed some moral high ground. Probably because liberals are incapable of walking away from even the slightest insult without over-reacting, that's not what they did. After ignoring the fact that they employed Kathy "beaheading photo" Griffin until a few weeks ago, CNN tried to pretend that this jokey gif was either a legitimate threat of violence or something that would inspire crazies to kill journalists.
Think about the logic behind that. They ignored the fact that real violence has a tendency to be perpetrated by the very Bernie bros who've been wound up by years of mainstream media stories about social justice and inequality. They ignored the far, far, far more egregious behavior of one of their own former employees. They ignored the fact that (unlike the Griffin photo) this is obviously a joke, based on a fake sport, that features an animated logo as it's punchline. Instead, they launched a barrage of phony outrage at the idea that this was some sort of attack. ...And things got worse from there. Apparently the crack "journalists" at CNN did some digging and figured out that the animated meme was created by a poster on Reddit. They contacted him, and scored an apology. So far, he's only been identified by his Twitter handle "HanA**holeSolo."
After admitting that he had been posting a whole bunch of obnoxious material - some of it racist and anti-semetic - in order to get a rise out of anti-Trump folks, "HanA**holeSolo" issued this mea culpa:
"The meme was created purely as satire, it was not meant to be a call to violence against CNN or any other news affiliation," he wrote. "I had no idea anyone would take it and put sound to it and then have it put up on the President's Twitter feed. It was a prank, nothing more. What the President's feed showed was not the original post that was posted here, but loaded up somewhere else and sound added to it then sent out on Twitter. I thought it was the original post that was made and that is why I took credit for it. I have the highest respect for the journalist community and they put their lives on the line every day with the jobs that they do in reporting the news."
Once again, all CNN had to do was stop there. They could have asked why the President was reposting an internet troll's memes on his Twitter feed. They could have pondered why the President was spending time digging through Reddit for jokes written by his possibly anti-Semitic fans, and they could have placed legitimate pressure on the administration to answer. Again, they didn't do that. What they did do was threaten the meme-creator:
CNN is not publishing “HanA**holeSolo’s” name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed 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. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.
CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change. It's that last little bit that ended up inspiring the hashtag "#CNNBlackmail." For hours, it was the #1 globally trending subject on Twitter, and it's still #2 as I write this. The story has completely blown up in CNN's face and has, as you might expect, inspired the creation of thousands of similar CNN-bashing memes.
Even Congressman Scott Taylor (R-VA) decided to metion that CNN had sailed past "the line."
Congratulations, CNN. Once again, your ego has helped you snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. You've over-hyped a non-story, ignored your own past actions, embarrassed yourself, and inspired your detractors. Sounds like a pretty standard business day at America's pre-eminent "news" network. But, hey, you've got another O'Keefe video headed your way later today. So, at least you've got that to look forward to.

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Robert Laurie——

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