CNN Airs Segment on Trump’s Soda Habit While NYC Terror Attack Unfolded

Police block a street by Port Authority Bus Terminal near New York’s Times Square follow
AP Photo/Andres Kudacki
Katherine Rodriguez

CNN aired a segment on President Donald Trump’s soda consumption while New York City grappled with an attempted terrorist attack Monday morning.

The attack caused massive chaos near a New York City subway passageway near the Port Authority Bus Terminal during rush hour Monday morning.

While multiple outlets reported that a man allegedly detonated a pipe bomb in a subway corridor around 8:45 a.m., CNN broadcast a segment with the chyron, “NYT Report: Trump drinks a dozen diet cokes per day.”

Viewers quickly noticed and took the network to task for not reporting on the incident.

“More than an hour after the pipe-bomb story broke, CNN was busy with Trump’s Diet Coke,” crisis communication expert Yossi Gestetner tweeted, noting that the only mention of the incident was a tiny news ticker at the bottom of the screen saying, “New York police responding.”

Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor also mocked CNN’s coverage, mentioning one of the network’s recent ad campaigns featuring an apple to fight against its reputation for “fake news.”

“U.S. News was talking about the bombing at 7:54. Nearly an hour later, CNN is whining about Donald Trump drinks Diet Cokes and watches too much TV instead of reporting about terrorism in New York City,” Gainor told Fox News. “CNN might tell you what it’s giving you is an apple, but if it is, it’s rotten.”

Even though other outlets rushed to report on the suspected attacker after he had been identified as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah and other aspects of the attack, CNN continued to air additional segments about Trump’s Diet Coke habit.

CNN aired another segment related to Trump’s Diet Coke consumption and his health around 3:59 p.m. EST, focusing on what can happen to the human body if someone drinks dozens of Diet Cokes in one day.

This is not the first time the network has devoted airtime to such “hard-hitting” news.

CNN broadcast a two-minute segment in November about how the inside of a dog’s ear looks like Trump’s face.

The network also aired a similar “scoop” in May about how Trump got two scoops of ice cream at a dinner while his guests only got one.

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