I saw this on Twitter yesterday and I honestly ignored it because I thought it was satirical. It was not a satire. First of all, the Baby Fists administration and the Alt-Right people have been trying to make “fake news” happen for a while. There’s so much other bullsh-t that’s concerning, I haven’t even paid attention to their campaign. Basically, they cry “fake news!” whenever a journalist tries to call them on their bullsh-t. They cry “fake news” whenever an outlet truthfully reports how unhinged the administration is. Is this strategy offensive? Sure. It’s mostly offensive to me because it’s so juvenile. It’s the press-strategy equivalent of America’s Nazis putting their fingers in their ears and shrieking “LA LA LA CAN’T HEAR YOU FAKE NEWS.” But to CNN’s Chris Cuomo, hearing the words “fake news” is like a slap in the face. It’s like someone using the n-word. Seriously, that’s what he said yesterday:
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo issued an apology Thursday afternoon after he equated the term “fake news” to the N-word on a radio show Thursday morning. Cuomo made the comparison during an appearance on Michael Smerconish’s SiriusXM POTUS show in reference to an early morning tweet sent by Donald Trump.
“I see being called ‘fake news’ as the equivalent of the N-word for journalists, the equivalent of calling an Italian any of the ugly words that people have for that ethnicity,” he said. “That’s what ‘fake news’ is to a journalist. It is an ugly insult, and you better be right if you’re going to charge a journalist with lying on purpose. And the president was not right here, and he was not been right in the past.”
I don’t want to mock this, really. Like, I thought to myself #JournalistLivesMatter, but journalists’ lives DO matter, it’s just that there shouldn’t be a comparison drawn between “fake news” and racist epithets. “Fake news” isn’t a slur, it’s just a moronic strategy being used by a temperamental idiot. Anyway, Cuomo apologized on Twitter:
I was wrong. Calling a journalist fake -nothing compared to the pain of a racial slur. I should not have said it. I apologize https://t.co/TJGUgWz9Q2
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) February 9, 2017
I want to thank you for calling me out for equating fake with other slurs. Wasn't my intention to diminish but just saying it was too much. https://t.co/WxDSiQ90i3
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) February 9, 2017
He tweeted about it for a while and he seemed legitimately sorry. So… we don’t have to cancel him, right? And I don’t have to pretend to care about him? Because honestly, I barely consider him a journalist anyway. Now, Jake Tapper? He’s a journalist.
Jake Tapper calling out Kellyanne Conway left and right. More of this, please!pic.twitter.com/ITchuq2u5B
— Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) February 7, 2017
Photos courtesy of WENN.
You are so damn smart! And not just smart alecky either 😉
I believe his apology was genuine but really, Chris Cuomo is to journalism what Jane Seymour’s “Open Heart” necklace is to fine jewelry.
I can’t with this guy. He brought his special brand of John Tesh reporting to Paris (after the tragedy) and it was awful and embarrassing to watch.
OH and I almost forgot he was in the field covering one of the airline crashes and handling all of the victims items, holding them up to the camera and saying drama-filled “things.”
I find him inappropriate and unprofessional but he’s not the devil. Let’s stay focused on who and what really is evil these days …
I see what he’s saying. When you call someone a racial slur, you’re diminishing their humanity; when you call a journalist or anything put out by a particular outlet “fake news,” you’re diminishing their credentials and credibility. The comparison was inartful, but apt in other ways.
i dont think so. Because there are actual fake news and people spreading them. The N Word is never ok because it takes away the humanity and you are human no matter what. But a journalist can spread fake news. so its not the same thing.
a journalist can lose credibility, a human can never lose their humanity.
in that sense it does not matter that Trump is using the word wrong. the word liar isnt a slur and most people hate to be called that but there are lies and liars. that someone might call a person telling the truth a liar is not the same thing as using the N word.
I agree with QueenB. I think his apology was genuine though, but he was rightly called out on what it did. Questions about your professional integrity should never be allowed to be equated with racial slurs or the N word, no matter the intention. It’s not the same in any way.
Agreed. And this “fake news” narrative has become so pervasive that it already is doing serious damage to real journalism. I can imagine the rage and frustration that serious journalists are feeling.
He seems genuinely remorseful at the comparison so I have no ongoing beef with him. Not that I really followed him or his work anyway. But still, the press has gotta stick together if they want to beat Trump, Bannon et al at their batsh^t games.
It is frightening to try to stop the presses. Look at what Putin did to journalists who disagreed with him. So happy the judges had the balls to stand up to him. He is fixated on his own agenda and refuses to have anyone disagree with him. Can’t wait for his walls to come tumbling down.
Definitely not a an apt analogy. It’s more analogous to comparing a Michelin starred chef to McDonald’s. The fake news thing is an attempt to diminish the fourth estate and make people think most journalists aren’t good at their jobs. It’s nothing like a racial epithet.
Chosen profession being insulted < What you were born as being insulted. Pump the brakes on that, please.
I get where he was going w/this. I like CC as he is earnest about his profession. AND Tapper is my new crush!
I forgive him. He knows what he did was wrong. He’s not equivocating.
He and his colleagues are fed up with Joffrey trying to take away the Freedom of the Press. It is unprecedented for a President of the US to go on twitter and scream this fake news shit and have his asshat press secretary at his very first press conference say “no questions.” In addition, he is naming names, CNN is fake, NBC is very very bad. This is a madman speaking….and he sends his beotch Kellyanne to the very very good Fox news to tell us to buy his daughter’s crap. This is happening and it is in his own effen words very, very bad.
His apology sounds appropriate and genuine.
Yes. Apology accepted. And I don’t think people should be defending him by agreeing with what he said. That’s offensive and worse than the original offense because at this point Chris himself has owned it and apologized and it’s been explained why it was a poorly reasoned comparison. And yet people are still co-signing it.
This is why POC can never let their guard down. It’s effing exhausting. SMH
Totally disagree that Chris C. isn’t a real journalist. I think he’s one of the best on CNN, along with Tapper. I watch him most mornings, and he’s been hard-hitting, intelligent and doesn’t let people like Kellyanne C. off the hook easily. I believe his apology is genuine.
Agree 100%. I love CC and watch CNN’s New Day just for him. He dislikes the current administration, and isn’t afraid to say it.
Agree. I’m always felt meh about CC, apart from noting how handsome he is (especially compared to his brother the governor of NY). But I’ve started following him on Twitter and he is the real deal–passionate and engaged about journalism and facts, things that are absolutely under attack by the current regime.
Cuomo is an idiot.
As for Jake Tapper, he is currently one of my favorite person on Twitter. He’s not even trying to hide how much he detests at the BS happening with Trump.
The least likeable of all on CNN … Chris Cuomo. I like Smerconish and a few others are pretty decent.
Really bitch?
Lol, white men are so desperate to feel/act victimized now a days.
It was worded badly. As a former journalist, I see where he’s coming from. As someone above mentioned, it’s diminishing your training and accomplishments, so hurtful in a different way. In my newly, mostly red home, when I mention i used to be a newspaper reporter (what should be a wholly respectable profession) some people act like I just admitted to eating babies for breakfast. And it’s hurtful to see that kind of ignorance aimed at what is truly a craft based on ethics and education. However, very poor wording; I’m surprised he didn’t know better.
Cuomo is one of the good ones imo trying to sort out fact from fiction. I don’t blame him for getting frustrated when the term “fake news” is used repeatedly by Trump and his cohorts to sow distrust of legitimate reporting. Reporters have died to bring people the news.
These are particularly tough exhaustive times for media in search of truth when BS is the new language of the day thanks to p*ssygrabbing conman Trump.
Apparently, every time he or his staff lies or crosses ethical boundaries his supporters love him more and don’t care. I say if you don’t repect truth and/or the justice system, you are a hater of democracy and America. Trump supporter’s really should care when Trump seems to want to transform America into a Russian style of governing.
It must be so frustrating to hear people accusing CNN as “fake news” when Fox News is caught lying the most. People only want to believe what they want to be true. I always hear Trump and his supporters saying CNN is the worst and only reports fake BS news. I believe his apology
🙄🙄🙄🙄
I think what he said was unequivocally wrong. I do not support it at all, and he shouldn’t have said it.
Is it ok, though, if I say that the absolute rage and frustration that I sense behind his words probably led him to exaggerate and he hopefully didn’t really mean it? I mean, I don’t want to make an excuse for him, but oh my GOD I can relate to how frustrating expressing distain for this administration is. You can’t call them out on anything, you can’t bring facts to an alternative fact fight… I feel like every day is a day spent swimming uphill through molasses wearing concrete weights around my ankles while people on the shore are screaming at me that it’s not really molasses and in fact I’m not even really swimming and why I am such a snowflake? Until I want to say ANYTHING, scream back even louder, if it will just make them shut up!!! OMG TRUMP SUPPORTERS PLEASE JUST SHUT UPPPPPPPPPP!!! I want them all to crawl back under the ignorant backwater rocks they crawled out from under and get out of my face already. Which sometimes leads me to say really ignorant things, like calling them all ignorant backwater hicks… so I mean, I kinda get it?
I dunno. If he hadn’t apologized immediately, I would probably have stronger angry feelings about it. But he did apologize, and it wasn’t an “alternative apology” where he was only sorry IF he offended anyone. I think this is something we are going to need to be aware of, just the fact that anyone who is resisting this fascist, and anyone who still enjoys and believes in facts and reality, are going to be increasingly frustrated and exhausted as this continues. There may even be outbursts; I yelled at my own father the other day that supporting Trump is like saying he would rather I die a painful horrible and completely avoidable death rather than have access to a basic healthcare procedure like abortion. I mean, I don’t think my Dad really does want that for me, but arguing against the stubborn dedication to ignorance is frickin’ exhausting me. Hopefully he chooses his words more carefully in the future, but can we please find a way to encourage journalists to call out Trump et al on their bullsh*t while still holding them accountable?
I want to go back to the original timeline now please… I don’t know how this new one is even happening but it’s killing my soul. Please send Pacey.
Totally agree with you