A former CNN political commentator took aim at the network for a tweet saying that the Republican Party is “restricting voting rights,” which he said is the type of messaging that “discredits good journalists.”
“This is the kind of bad tweet that discredits good journalists and gives evidence that a thumb is on the scale,” Doug Heye, a Washington Post columnist and former CNN commentator, tweeted.
This is the kind of bad tweet that discredits good journalists and gives evidence that a thumb is on the scale. https://t.co/7XaRPRwLWR
— Doug Heye (@DougHeye) March 28, 2021
“I didn’t torch or slam anyone. I merely disagreed with the tweet, as I do often with a multitude of media outlets,” Heye said in a comment to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
His Twitter comment on Sunday was in response to a tweet by CNN Politics about Sen. Mitt Romney receiving the JFK Profile in Courage Award for being the only Republican senator to vote to convict former President Donald Trump during the impeachment trial in 2020.
“Mitt Romney receives the JFK ‘Profile in Courage’ award for being the lone Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial,” the tweet said.
It then added: “The award comes at a time when Romney is not holding the GOP accountable for restricting voting rights.”
The story linked in the tweet said, “Romney has largely fallen in line with his party, including raising concerns about the Democrats’ sweeping voting bill, S.1, which would expand access to early and mail-in voting and create an automatic voter registration for all eligible Americans among other provisions.”
The network’s comment on the GOP “restricting voting rights” sparked outrage among others on social media, with many echoing Heye.
What in the world is this absurd propaganda?
“Not holding the GOP accountable for restricting voting rights?”
How is this acceptable journalism? https://t.co/UNfYSQU3Zz
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 28, 2021
… is this a news article? https://t.co/HRuY2pZyEc
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) March 28, 2021
CNN calls itself a news outlet.
Not with this tweet, they’re not. https://t.co/BBe86G1tXl
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) March 28, 2021
Media just states GOP is restricting voting rights as fact in part of a larger claim against Romney. What a joke. https://t.co/r53WoaJJPl
— Rob Schmitt (@SchmittNYC) March 28, 2021
This isn’t the first time the network has come under fire from a former staffer, with an ex-producer saying last week that someone needs to “step in” and stop host Don Lemon’s “dangerous” rhetoric on guns.
“Someone at CNN needs to step in. This hyperbole isn’t just offensive, it’s actually dangerous,” former CNN producer Steve Krakauer tweeted last Wednesday.
His message was in response to a segment in which Lemon said people are at constant risk of being shot to death following the Boulder shooting.
“Every single one of us is just playing the odds at this point, the odds that in a country of 325 million souls that we won’t be the ones who get hit by the next bullets that start flying. We won’t be the one that gets that phone call about someone you love who did, that phone call that changes your life,” Lemon said.
This weekend, CNN was also slammed for a “dishonest” tweet that used the word “accident” to report on the killing of an Uber Eats driver during a carjacking by two teenage girls.
So dishonest of @cnn This man was murdered and you won’t “report” that because it’s not part of the leftist narrative you push. Disgraceful https://t.co/cLiiDeNJoz
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) March 28, 2021
Which “led to an accident?” Really bad headline CNN. These two girls KILLED the driver, a beloved 66 year old immigrant from Pakistan. Terrible. https://t.co/LOS9WWWrM5
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 28, 2021
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CNN did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
