The Trump Presidency - how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Hair

The main point continues to be that it was outrageous for the President to tweet the video, regardless of who created it. Is it outrageous that CNN is going after the kid? Yes. Is it the more important problem here? No.

Umm.... dude.... Now I generally do not defend the head Cheeto in charge but in this case him twitting a dumbass gif was just a dumb thing to do. A huge multinational corporation blackmailing a private citizen for creating online content is wayyyy worse.
 
This explains the situation better than I can...

This guy post stuff online. It finds its way up to Trump who tweets it on two different twitter accounts assuring that it would widely seen and discussed. News orgs cover it and investigate the user for other content he created which is of a prejudiced nature to say the least and its revealed CNN knows the guy. He freaks because he knows he will not be anonymous and have to take personal ownership of his work. He goes online to apologize and even calls CNN. They decide that this was done in good faith and withhold their right to publish the content creator's name. They assert that they will do so as long as the content creator credibly maintains the sincerity of his apology.

They are under no obligation to withhold his name. They chose to do so, unilaterally, in good faith. They are not offering him an anonymity deal in exchange for good behavior. It was their editorial choice to not reveal him because of his choice to apologize.

A threat is them saying "shut up or we will publish the name". A threat is not "we will withhold the name in good faith with what we find a sincere regret".
 
The only bit of mental gymnastics is your stretch to blackmail.

"Threats of public exposure of criminal prosecution"

1) No one ever said anything about criminal prosecution.
2) Technically, it was the President who first exposed him publicly by tweeting his video.

But let's say for a moment that I agreed with you about it being blackmail (I still don't). What would happen - CNN releases a story in which they say the wrestling video was created by John Doe, 15, from St. Louis...

...and so what?
 
1) Public exposure *OR* criminal prosecution.
2) The president just shared a tweet of something posted to reddit. CNN found out who the user actually was, and says, "Don't make fun of us again, or we'll expose your identity."

That's fucked up.
 
The Trump Presidency - how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Hair

The only bit of mental gymnastics is your stretch to blackmail.



1) No one ever said anything about criminal prosecution.
2) Technically, it was the President who first exposed him publicly by tweeting his video.

But let's say for a moment that I agreed with you about it being blackmail (I still don't). What would happen - CNN releases a story in which they say the wrestling video was created by John Doe, 15, from St. Louis...

...and so what?

Dude... are you like new to the internet? Like seriously? Do you honestly not think there would not be a ton of assholes sending the guy death threats and generally fucking with him? Even if out of sheer boredom.

And sure he seems like a piece of shit but still we are talking a multinational throwing their weight against a lowly internet troll. Had this been an oil or arms company you'd be all up in arms over it.
 
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First of all, it would help if, despite your desire to defend CNN and bash Trump, you wouldn't change the definition to suit you:

blackmail.jpg


Second of all, Trump did not expose him. If I post a picture of your avatar on reddit, is that the same as posting your name, address, etc?

Third of all, in an age when angry liberals try to murder republican politicians, I think it's pretty clear why the author of that meme wouldn't want to be exposed.

Fourth of all, CNN is walking a line dangerously close to violating 18 U.S. Code ? 241.

Please believe me when I say that was a typo - I didn't mean to type "of" instead of "or." And I did mean or.

And are you saying that it's only the angry liberals who are becoming violent? It's not coming from the other side too?


prizrak, I know what you are saying. I am not defending CNN here. My point remains that it was Trump who thrust this kid into the public eye. Had he not posted the tweet, the video wouldn't have caused such a splash and the kid would still be just another anonymous redditer.

CNN are wrong. Trump is wrong. The kid is an asshole.

But only one of those is the leader of the nation.
 
Doesn't Trump count as a multinational corporation? Plus add in the President.
 
Please believe me when I say that was a typo - I didn't mean to type "of" instead of "or." And I did mean or.

And are you saying that it's only the angry liberals who are becoming violent? It's not coming from the other side too?


prizrak, I know what you are saying. I am not defending CNN here. My point remains that it was Trump who thrust this kid into the public eye. Had he not posted the tweet, the video wouldn't have caused such a splash and the kid would still be just another anonymous redditer.

CNN are wrong. Trump is wrong. The kid is an asshole.

But only one of those is the leader of the nation.

There are degrees of wrong here though, Trump using some stupid ass gif is a meidum wrong, guy who made that gif is little wrong, CNN basically threatening to dox the guy is a lot wrong. CNN is the only party here that is actually being evil, the other two are just morons.

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Doesn't Trump count as a multinational corporation? Plus add in the President.

Last I checked he wasn't [striek]attacking[/strike] blackmailing a random schmuck on the internet... No matter your dislike for Drumpf, and believe me I have no love for the man child, in this particular case he is not the worst party.
 
Let's tack on something else to CNN/Trump:

New York Times said:
The day after the three resignations, Mr. Zucker phoned in from London to a companywide conference call, telling employees that the heightened scrutiny meant there could be no room for error.

?My job is to remind everyone that they need to stay focused doing their job,? Mr. Zucker said on Wednesday, brushing off any suggestion that he was rattled. He added: ?He?s trying to bully us, and we?re not going to let him intimidate us. You can?t lose your confidence and let that change the way you conduct yourselves.?

Mr. Trump?s allies argue that it is CNN?s conduct that is unbecoming. Starting on last year?s campaign trail, the president and his aides have accused the network of bias and arrogance, an offensive that heated up again in January after CNN reported on the existence of a secret dossier detailing a series of lurid accusations against Mr. Trump. The network?s reporters now routinely joust with Mr. Trump?s press aides, and Jim Acosta, a White House correspondent, recently denounced the administration?s use of off-camera briefings as an affront to American values.

White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary, a senior administration official said: a pending merger between CNN?s parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T. Mr. Trump?s Justice Department will decide whether to approve the merger, and while analysts say there is little to stop the deal from moving forward, the president?s animus toward CNN remains a wild card.

Mr. Zucker, who was ousted as chief executive of NBCUniversal after that company merged with Comcast, declined to comment on the pending deal, except to say that the merger had not affected his journalistic or management choices. ?It?s not something I think about,? he said, adding that he had not discussed the proposed acquisition by AT&T with Jeffrey Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner.
 
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