In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.
It’s hard to remember a week when one news network had so many viral moments for all the wrong reasons. But CNN, once seen as the gold standard of cable news, just had a stretch for the ages.
The slow-moving trainwreck began on Sunday in a social media post on X following the attempted terrorist attack in New York City that involved two ISIS-inspired teenagers armed with improvised explosive devices. One of the suspects who yelled “Allah Akbar!” threw a lit IED into a crowd of protesters, but fortunately, it didn’t detonate. Both were arrested. But here’s how the self-described “most trusted name in news” framed the attack:
“Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather,” the CNN post said. “But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs.”
Could CNN look any more sympathetic to these radical homicidal maniacs?
Following intense mockery online from all sides of the political spectrum, CNN deleted the post and apologized.
“A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted.”
But things only got worse. Much worse.
Enter CNN anchor Abby Phillip on Monday night, who then claimed that Mamdani was the target of ISIS sympathizers.
It’s important to note that the bombs were thrown outside of the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion. But he and his wife weren’t home at the time. And by following basic logic, the last person ISIS-inspired terrorists are going to target is Zohran Mamdani, considering that he has repeatedly sworn that Israel is an “apartheid state” that carried out “genocide” in its war with Hamas, and also considering that Mamdani has vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the moment he sets foot in New York.
“Two Republicans say Muslims don’t belong here after an attempted terror attack against New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, says nothing, really, to condemn those comments,” Phillip told viewers.
Later in the show, panelist Ana Navarro echoed Phillip’s contention that Mamdani was a target as a result of Islamophobia. “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” she said in reading Rep. Andy Ogles’s (R-TN) post on X. “Supposedly some of these comments are as a result of the attempt against Mayor Mamdani in New York, who was raised Muslim, was he not?”
Phillip did not correct Navarro. But after more extreme backlash on social media, the host was back on the air to correct the record:
“I incorrectly said that the bombs that were thrown by ISIS-inspired suspects in New York over the weekend were directed at Mayor Mamdani. They were not. I failed to catch and correct that mistake in real time, and I take full responsibility for that,” she said.
The apology comes not long after Phillip joined disgraced former MSNBC host Joy Reid’s podcast to lecture conservatives about what it means to be fact-driven journalists.
“Conservatives are living in a completely different information world than liberals, and breaking that down needs to be done, because when you don’t ever even hear the facts, it’s hard to even know that you’re wrong,” Phillip claimed.
“And that happens a lot. I mean, half my job sometimes is knowing what the latest conspiracy is so that if it comes up, I’m ready to address it because it happens a lot where people don’t even know that what they’re saying or what they’ve seen and believe is not true,” she added.
As Fox’s Greg Gutfeld pointed out at the time in a reaction to Phillip’s lecture on The Five, “Abby Phillip talking to Joy Reid about truth is like talking to Brian Stelter about salad. It doesn’t match.”
As for Navarro, she hasn’t apologized for making the same claim as Phillip did.
Wednesday was no better for CNN after longtime political analyst Paul Begala attempted to accuse Secretary of War Pete Hegseth of purchasing millions of dollars in expensive food on the taxpayers’ dime, including steak and lobster.
“[Hegseth] has spent $15 million in one month for ribeye steak, $6.9 million for lobster tail, $225 million for furniture. He spent more in the month of September than most countries on Earth spent in their defense!” Begala exclaimed. “All for himself! Lobster tails? While our troops are eating MREs? Lobster tails?”
“Do you believe the secretary of defense is personally eating all the lobster? It’s for the troops!” conservative Scott Jennings (correctly) fired back.
“Oh, really? The troops are getting lobster?” Begala shot back.
“Frequently in theater! Troops who are going to war. You know that!” Jennings retorted.
“They’re not getting lobster, you are so full of it!” Begala maintained.
Well, it turns out that several videos have since been posted by U.S. troops being served steak and lobster before going off to war with Iran.
Anti-Trump columnist David French also called out Begala.
“When I was in Iraq serving at a very remote [forward operating base] not far from the Iranian border, we had steak and crab legs almost every Sunday. It was the military’s version of a thank-you meal, and it was very appreciated,” noted French. “There are lots of things to be outraged at, but feeding our deployed troops well is not one of them.”
And yes, the hits just kept on coming on Thursday, this time courtesy of Jake Tapper after a Lebanon-born man, a naturalized citizen, named Ayman Mohamad Ghazali drove into a Michigan synagogue that was hosting more than 100 children at the time. He died in the attack, and no one in the building was injured.
“To be crystal clear, we do not know the motivations of the attacker; this would-be mass murderer of Jews. We don’t know their political views,” Tapper said on air.
Wait, what? We don’t know the motivation of the attacker or his political views?
Paramount Skydance and CEO David Ellison will soon take over CNN. There’s an excellent chance that Bari Weiss, who runs CBS News and is attempting to bring the network back to the middle, will be put in charge of editorial at CNN.
The change cannot come soon enough for the gang that can’t shoot straight. Its ratings are horrific, finishing in distant third place behind Fox News while failing to draw 500,000 viewers on average.
That’s fewer than 10,000 viewers per U.S. state for a network in more than 90 million homes in the country.
IN FOCUS: GOOD LUCK, MULLAHS. WE DON’T KNOW TRUMP’S PLAN EITHER
Change must happen. For integrity reasons. For business and profit reasons.
The gold standard of cable news has turned to rust. And a hard 180-degree turn away from what it has become is the only cure.
