Trump Tweet Triggers Media: Wrestling CNN Logo a ‘Threat of Physical Violence’

trump-finger CNN Debate Mark J. TerrillAP
Mark J. Terrill/AP
Adam Shaw

As America’s “top” journalists melted down Sunday over President Donald Trump’s tweet of a video of him wrestling the CNN logo, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press took it a step further and called the tweet “a threat of physical violence against journalists” and said it “attacks the people.”

Trump, who has an extended feud with CNN over their biased coverage of his campaign and his presidency, tweeted a meme Sunday of his appearance on WWE’s Wrestlemania in 2007, in which he “beat up” WWE owner Vince McMahon. In the video Trump tweeted, the CNN logo was placed over McMahon’s head. The tweet was accompanied by the caption: #FraudNewsCNN and #FNN [Fake News Network].

While some journalists and commentators laughed off the tweet, other journalists went off the deep end and accused Trump of threatening journalists.

In this overreach, CNN led the way, saying Trump “encourages violence against reporters.”

Meanwhile, CNN media reporter Brian Stelter reached out to Twitter more than once, asking if it violated their terms of service (it did not).

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press — a non-profit that works to protect the First Amendment’s freedom of the press — chose to join those in the press engaging in hysterics and overreaction, releasing a statement saying Trump “glorified violence against members of the press.”

“We condemn the president’s threat of physical violence against journalists. This tweet is beneath the office of the presidency. Sadly, it is not beneath this president,” Executive Director Bruce Brown said in a statement.

“No one should be threatened with physical harm for doing their jobs. Journalists are your neighbors, they’re your friends. Journalists perform a critical function in our society, one the Founding Fathers felt was so necessary that they enshrined it first in the Bill of Rights.”

Brown then decided to go one step further and declare that by tweeting a harmless meme, Trump “attacks the people.”

“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy. The press are the people’s window into the halls of power, and most importantly, they are the people’s check on that power. When the president attacks the press, he attacks the people,” he said.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY.

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