Donald Trump camp cries ‘censorship’ after CNN refuses to run latest ad

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

The head of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign accused CNN of “censorship” on Tuesday afternoon after the broadcast network refused to run the group’s latest advertisement.

CNN said it would run the 30-second television spot, a celebration of Trump’s first 100 days in office, only if the campaign removed a section that featured the words “fake news” superimposed over several TV journalists, including Wolf Blitzer of CNN, and others from MSNBC, PBS, ABC and CBS.

CNN defended the decision in a statement on Twitter.

“The mainstream media is not fake news, and therefore the ad is false,” the network said. “Per our policy, it will be accepted only if that graphic is deleted.”

In response, Michael Glassner, the executive director of Trump’s campaign committee, called the decision “censorship pure and simple.”

“By rejecting our ad, CNN has proven that it supports censorship is biased and fears an opposing point of view,” Glassner said in a statement. “President Trump’s loyal supporters know the truth: The mainstream media mislead, misguide, deceive, and distract.”

In the advertisement, a narrator claims that “America has rarely seen such success,” before listing several purported achievements from Trump’s first 100 days in office.

“You wouldn’t know it from watching the news,” he says, before the words “fake news” are briefly displayed.

Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, said news organisations often set standards both in the advertisements they choose to air or publish and in what they cover.

“It’s totally within their rights to set ground rules with how they deal with this administration,” he said of CNN.

Pope also noted that the “fake news” allegation rings hollow given Trump’s frequent interviews with the very organisations he derides as “fake.”

“It’s telling here that this is in a political ad by the political campaign because it’s increasingly clear that this ‘fake news’ mantra is a political manoeuvre more than anything,” he said.

Copyright The New York Times