Known as Occupy CNN, protesters claimed that major media networks have intentionally blacked out Sanders' presidential campaign in favor of giving much more airtime to candidates such as Hillary Clinton.
[7] In October 2016, WikiLeaks published emails from John Podesta which showed CNN contributor Donna Brazile passing the questions for a CNN-sponsored debate to the Clinton campaign.
[13] During live coverage of the 2016 elections, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said that downloading the hacked and stolen Podesta emails from the WikiLeaks website was a violation of law and that only the media could legally do so.
"[29] On June 26, 2017, three network investigative journalists; Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Haris, resigned from CNN over a false story, later retracted, that connected Anthony Scaramucci to a $10 billion Russian investment fund.
[33] In January 2020, Don Lemon had a panel discussion on his show with Republican strategist Rick Wilson and The New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali, both of whom have spoken out against Trump.
"[41] Michael Fanone, a former Washington, D.C. police officer involved with the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, wrote in Rolling Stone, "CNN Is Hosting a Town Hall for a Guy Who Tried to Get Me Killed.
[44] In 1998, CNN, in partnership with sister Time magazine, ran a report that during the Vietnam War the U.S. Armed Forces used sarin gas against a group of North Vietnamese soldiers during Operation Tailwind in 1970 in Laos.
[48] CNN was criticized for using a photograph of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher with disgraced BBC presenter Jimmy Savile four times during coverage of her death on April 8, 2013.
The Venezuelan foreign minister, Delcy Rodriguez, denied the government's involvement when questioned by the reporters during the Seventy-first session of the United Nations General Assembly, and accused the network of performing what she described as an "imperialistic media operation" against Venezuela for airing the year-long fraud investigation.
Hua also emphasized that the current pressing issue was to step up international cooperation in countering human trafficking, and find ways to avoid similar tragedies from happening again.
[71] The order from the channel's top brass, according to dissenting staffers, was that all actions Israel takes in the war, with their high casualty toll on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, should be explained as a consequence of the October 7 attack, thus justifying them.
[71] "Every action by Israel – dropping massive bombs that wipe out entire streets, its obliteration of whole families – the coverage ends up massaged to create a ‘they had it coming’ narrative," said one staffer, quoted by The Guardian.
[72][71] Early in the conflict, CNN reporter Sara Sidner was among the first to spread to a global audience the false rumor, created by Israeli sources, that dozens of babies and toddlers had been beheaded in Hamas's attack on southern Israel.
The man identified himself as civilian Adel Ghurbal and claimed to have not seen sunlight for three months, however the story came under immediate suspicion as he was perceived to be "fairly well-groomed and physically healthy for someone who had supposedly been tortured in solitary confinement".
[84] Comedian Jon Stewart criticized Zucker's comments after calling CNN's coverage of the Washington Navy Yard shooting "breathless wrongness", claiming that, "The lesson they take from this is – it doesn't matter how much they betray our trust.
[86] Gollust also resigned upon the conclusion of the review later that month, after parent company WarnerMedia released a memo stating that she was one of three top figures that had "violated its official journalism standards and practices".
[87] During the 2015 Baltimore riots, CNN Newsroom host Brooke Baldwin suggested that veterans were responsible for the unrest, saying soldiers who become police officers "are coming back from war, they don't know the communities, and they're ready to do battle".
[89][90][91] On the April 9, 2008 broadcast of CNN's The Situation Room, asked to comment on the United States' relationship with China, Jack Cafferty responded: "I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years".
On the April 14, 2008 broadcast of CNN's Situation Room, Jack Cafferty clarified his remarks: "Last week, during a discussion of the controversy surrounding China's hosting of the Olympic Games, I said that the Chinese are basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they have been for the last 50 years.
[101] She was instantly criticized for making fun of a woman who was being physically abused by a man she did not know, as well as for being a hypocrite after recently calling for ESPN to suspend Stephen A. Smith after comments he made about women during the Ray Rice controversy.
[105] In a June 2015 episode of WTF with Marc Maron, then-President Barack Obama used the racial slur "nigger" while discussing racism in the United States, particularly in the wake of the then-recent Charleston church shooting in South Carolina.
[107] Lemon's actions received widespread mockery on social media, and spawned a meme wherein the content of the sign was edited to display various phrases or images, alongside a chyron that read "Does This Offend You?
[111] CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht stated during the same meeting that he was "disappointed" by Lemon's comments, describing them as "upsetting, unacceptable and unfair to his co-hosts, and ultimately a huge distraction to the great work of this organization.
[118][119] His willingness to raise the "birther" issue repeatedly[120] even though CNN itself considered it a "discredited rumor",[121] led The Washington Post's TV critic to remark that this "explains their upcoming documentary: 'The World: Flat.
Candy Crowley, Poppy Harlow and Paul Callan were criticized for being sympathetic towards the two convicted rapists in the Steubenville High School rape case and for placing very little focus on the victim on March 17, 2013.
[147] On the morning of May 7, 2013, CNN interrupted coverage of the Jodi Arias murder trial with an update of the release of three young women from Cleveland, Ohio who were kidnapped by Ariel Castro between 2002 and 2004.
In response, CNN stated that they would not reveal his name, as he was "[a] private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his 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.
[156] Meanwhile, Madison Malone Kircher of New York magazine opined that CNN could have avoided the internet vigilantism if the network had simply published his identity, as is common in similar situations, criticizing their decision to "protect" the user.
[162][163] On the night of August 26, 2020, CNN displayed a video caption during a news report showing a building engulfed in flames during the Kenosha unrest that read "Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests After Police Shooting".
Human rights group Freedom Forward criticized the agreement between the Emirates and CNN, and urged for the media house to be transparent about their relationship with the Arab nation, both on the financial and contractual terms.