# Trump "punches" CNN **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361 "2017-07-02T15:51:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/141 "2017-07-06T23:31:05Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’d rate my level of concern at something less than what I feel about the “really awful, disrespectful, and dehumanizing statements about” Republicans (by Clinton, other liberals, even some Dopers here). As I’ve already tried to explain, I don’t see it as a “concept of violence against journalists”. It was a metaphor, I think. I don’t support violence (against journalists or most people really), and I see a _HUGE_ gulf between chuckling mildly at the CNN logo getting body-slammed vs actual violence against real people. > > ETA: but you’re probably right that chuckling mildly at Hulk Trump slamming Loki CNN around is a mild contributor to the coursening of language in our culture. I’m not perfect. No Democratic president or candidate that I’m aware of has used the language Trump has used about journalists against Republicans. Hell, neither Obama nor Clinton have described any Republicans the way Trump described Obama and Clinton! If you don’t think Trump has significantly lowered and coarsened the dicourse, far more so than any recent president, then that makes me sad. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/142 "2017-07-07T01:27:13Z")
No one wants the public to hate and mistrust the press more than the rich and the powerful. Say what you want about it and as imperfect as it is, the press is the only check on their power and influence. You take an independent press out of the equation and they can do whatever they want. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/143 "2017-07-07T01:29:33Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > There’s a growing body of evidence that CNN (and the Redditor himself) got it wrong and he wasn’t actually the source. Please share. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/144 "2017-07-07T01:34:58Z")
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=222&width=400&href=https://www.facebook.com/TheBlaze/videos/1521430884560913/ ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/145 "2017-07-07T01:51:13Z")
If all I wanted to do was look at Facebook links, I’d go to Facebook. Which I ain’t going to do. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/146 "2017-07-07T01:51:13Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > What happened to “the party of personal responsibility?” Why shouldn’t this guy take his lumps (providing he’s not actually a minor)? It’s almost like that claim is as much bullshit as, “character matters.” Oh well, you live, you learn, huh? Disproportionate response. This writer from Vox gets it exactly right I think: > **[CNN is being accused of blackmailing a pro-Trump Reddit user for posting...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/5/15922214/cnnblackmail-reddit-trump-wrestling)** > > The apparent threat would be extremely unethical. If all that would happen to this guy is that he’d “take his lumps”, that would be one thing. That’s not what would happen. he’d get death threats, constant harassment, and probably lose his job. CNN’s stance NOW is that they won’t release his name because he’s a private individual. That’s what they should have said in the first place. Threatening to expose him was out of bounds. As the Vox writer points out, would you want Fox threatening to publish the personal information of private citizens who posted videos making fun of Trump or who had written intemperate remarks that could make them look very bad? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/147 "2017-07-07T01:54:02Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The investigation was reasonable – the only thing that might have been unwise was the “we reserve the right to change our minds about publishing his name” stuff, which could reasonably be characterized as a threat, even if the redditor in question didn’t take it as such. It would have even been reasonable to publish his name, IMO. That the source of a silly thing the President repeats also said multiple racist and violence-advocating things, and the source’s name, can reasonably be characterized as news. “Someone is being racist on the internet” is not news. Especially since the story in question had nothing to do with race. They just found out that aside from screwing with a wrestling video, he also happened to be racist. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/148 "2017-07-07T07:47:43Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Please share. Well, for starters the White House says they didn’t get it from Reddit: [QUOTE=ABC] [The video of Donald Trump wrestling a man with a CNN logo superimposed on his head — tweeted out by Trump over the weekend — did not come from the website Reddit, the White House said on Monday. “The video was not pulled from Reddit,” a White House official told ABC News.]([Trump didn't obtain CNN wrestling video from Reddit, White House says - ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-trump-obtain-cnn-wrestling-video-reddit/story?id=48422665)) [/QUOTE] I can just imagine, right now, all the Dopers rolling their eyes and thinking to themselves “yeah, sure but the White House lies, we all know this. They’ve GOT to be lying about this, right?” After all, that’s basically the tact that CNN took in this article - [CNN: We still don’t know how Trump got that wrestling GIF](http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/politics/reddit-trump-cnn/index.html). Unfortunately, for CNN, as they are apt to do lately, they got some fundamental facts just plain wrong. Take, for example, that headline: “that wrestling GIF”. GIF? I don’t know how tech-savvy you might be, but if you are even a bit, you might recognize that GIF, aside from being the source of endless memes about the correct pronunciation, is a _graphic_ format. It actually stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It has a quirk that allows for some basic animation, and sharing animated GIFs has become quite popular across the Internet. It’s apparently a favorite pastime of our now-infamous-but-still-anonymous Redditor. You know who didn’t share a GIF though (at least about this)? President Trump. Take a look at [his famous tweet here](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680). It’s a _video_, not an animated GIF. It’s got sound attached, and a play and pause button. CNN is just plain wrong when they called it a GIF all these times: [QUOTE=CNN] … an anti-CNN GIF tweeted by President Donald Trump … Trump did not get the GIF from Reddit at all. … Trump didn’t get the GIF from Reddit … How Trump came to find out about – and then tweet – a GIF … No, he didn’t get that anti-CNN GIF from Reddit. … the CNN GIF … a GIF in a tweet sent by the president [/QUOTE] They’re probably not the only ones to make this mistake, and it’s probably not a big deal, except that it makes it immensely likely that /u/HanAssholeSolo is not the source of the video that Trump tweeted, because, AFAIK, /u/HanAssholeSolo didn’t post a _video_, he posted a _GIF_, albeit one quite similar to the video Trump tweeted out. BuzzFeed actually has some pretty decent analysis about the differences between /u/HanAssholeSolo’s animated GIF and Trump’s tweeted video [here](https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/how-a-random-gif-from-reddit-probably-ended-up-on-president). TL;DR = different lengths, aspect ratios, logos, colors, etc. Someone else made the video that Trump tweeted. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/149 "2017-07-07T09:16:59Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > “Someone is being racist on the internet” is not news. Especially since the story in question had nothing to do with race. They just found out that aside from screwing with a wrestling video, he also happened to be racist. Except that the President repeated it (or repeated a nearly identical video) – when the President says something, it’s news. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/150 "2017-07-07T12:54:06Z")
The video itself and how it came to be are news. The opinions of the original poster of the video are not. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/151 "2017-07-07T12:58:29Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The video itself and how it came to be are news. The opinions of the original poster of the video are not. If they were mundane and humdrum, perhaps. But when they advocate for mass murder and disgusting racism, then I think they are. Not big news, perhaps, but as an aside – as in “the source of the video in question has also made multiple controversial posts, including X, Y, and Z”. That’s interesting, in a mild way, and reasonable for a reporter to write about. Mildly interesting things can reasonably be included in news stories. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/152 "2017-07-07T13:25:19Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The video itself and how it came to be are news. The opinions of the original poster of the video are not. When Trump tweeted a picture of Clinton with a star of David, Fox News reported: > [@](#): > > The meme first appears to have hit the Internet on June 15, when it was posted by the Twitter user @FishBoneHead1. The account, which described itself as belonging to a comedian, regularly tweeted out anti-Clinton and right-leaning messages and images. > > The image also appeared on June 22, on /pol/, an active neo-Nazi Internet message board that features many anti-Semitic posts. > > It remains unclear where Trump’s campaign obtained the image. > **[Trump blames media for controversy over Clinton, star tweet](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-blames-media-for-controversy-over-clinton-star-tweet)** > > Donald Trump blasted the media on Monday, blaming it for creating a controversy over a tweet of Hillary Clinton that some critics claim was anti-Semitic. If CNN and Fox News both report on what internet personas create controversial memes, and look at the posting history of that user, then it is pretty clear to me that your opinion is without substance, let alone merit. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/153 "2017-07-07T13:27:50Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Well, for starters the White House says they didn’t get it from Reddit: > > I can just imagine, right now, all the Dopers rolling their eyes and thinking to themselves “yeah, sure but the White House lies, we all know this. They’ve GOT to be lying about this, right?” After all, that’s basically the tact that CNN took in this article - [CNN: We still don’t know how Trump got that wrestling GIF](http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/politics/reddit-trump-cnn/index.html). > > Unfortunately, for CNN, as they are apt to do lately, they got some fundamental facts just plain wrong. Take, for example, that headline: “that wrestling GIF”. GIF? I don’t know how tech-savvy you might be, but if you are even a bit, you might recognize that GIF, aside from being the source of endless memes about the correct pronunciation, is a _graphic_ format. It actually stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It has a quirk that allows for some basic animation, and sharing animated GIFs has become quite popular across the Internet. It’s apparently a favorite pastime of our now-infamous-but-still-anonymous Redditor. You know who didn’t share a GIF though (at least about this)? President Trump. Take a look at [his famous tweet here](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680). It’s a _video_, not an animated GIF. It’s got sound attached, and a play and pause button. CNN is just plain wrong when they called it a GIF all these times: > > They’re probably not the only ones to make this mistake, and it’s probably not a big deal, except that it makes it immensely likely that /u/HanAssholeSolo is not the source of the video that Trump tweeted, because, AFAIK, /u/HanAssholeSolo didn’t post a _video_, he posted a _GIF_, albeit one quite similar to the video Trump tweeted out. > > BuzzFeed actually has some pretty decent analysis about the differences between /u/HanAssholeSolo’s animated GIF and Trump’s tweeted video [here](https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/how-a-random-gif-from-reddit-probably-ended-up-on-president). TL;DR = different lengths, aspect ratios, logos, colors, etc. Someone else made the video that Trump tweeted. That’s your proof of the “growing body of evidence” that Trump didn’t get it from Reddit? Consider me fully underwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/154 "2017-07-07T13:33:45Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > The memes that I found funny were not “depictions of reporters being beaten up”. I’m a bit surprised that I have to explain such an elementary point to you. There were depictions of the CNN logo being beaten up, but the CNN logo != “reporters”. > > I think some people took the Trump wrestling thing as … I don’t know exactly … a call to violence / something. I interpreted as a “Trump slams CNN” thing, in a more metaphorical sense. And in that metaphorical sense, they were funny. If it had been a depiction of Trump beating up an actual, real person, that would have been considerably less funny. Do you understand the distinction and why your “depictions of _reporters_ being beaten up” line has fuck-all-of-nothing to do with the Trump-CNN-wrestling meme now? The CNN logo is a metaphor for reporters, is that a hard thing to grasp? And Having a metaphor for reporters being beaten up should not be funny or amusing, it should shock the sensibilities of anyone who actually believes in a free press. Videos (or Gifs) of reporters being beaten up, even metaphorically, should not make one chuckle. If you were chuckling at depictions of cartoon cats or dogs being beaten up, I would feel that you are callous towards animal rights, if you were chuckling at cartoon depictions of grandmothers being beaten up, I would feel that you are callous towards the rights of the elderly. So, when you find cartoon depictions of reporters being beaten up, then I find you to be indifferent as to the rights of the free press. Do you not see this (and by this, I do not mean just the retweeting of the video, but the entire campaign of insults and threats and dismissiveness towards the press) as an attempt by the administration to intimidate the press. To control and chill their speech? Is this really what you want, to have a press that is beholden to the administration? That’s what the administration wants. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/155 "2017-07-07T14:03:29Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > If you were chuckling at depictions of cartoon cats or dogs being beaten up, I would feel that you are callous towards animal rights You never once laughed at a Tom and Jerry cartoon? Come on. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/156 "2017-07-07T15:00:53Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > That’s your proof of the “growing body of evidence” that Trump didn’t get it from Reddit? Consider me fully underwhelmed. Are you not one of the tech-savvy ones then? It’s all Greek to you? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/157 "2017-07-07T15:04:22Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Well, for starters the White House says they didn’t get it from Reddit: > > I can just imagine, right now, all the Dopers rolling their eyes and thinking to themselves “yeah, sure but the White House lies, we all know this. They’ve GOT to be lying about this, right?” After all, that’s basically the tact that CNN took in this article - [CNN: We still don’t know how Trump got that wrestling GIF](http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/politics/reddit-trump-cnn/index.html). > > Unfortunately, for CNN, as they are apt to do lately, they got some fundamental facts just plain wrong. Take, for example, that headline: “that wrestling GIF”. GIF? I don’t know how tech-savvy you might be, but if you are even a bit, you might recognize that GIF, aside from being the source of endless memes about the correct pronunciation, is a _graphic_ format. It actually stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It has a quirk that allows for some basic animation, and sharing animated GIFs has become quite popular across the Internet. It’s apparently a favorite pastime of our now-infamous-but-still-anonymous Redditor. You know who didn’t share a GIF though (at least about this)? President Trump. Take a look at [his famous tweet here](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680). It’s a _video_, not an animated GIF. It’s got sound attached, and a play and pause button. CNN is just plain wrong when they called it a GIF all these times: > > They’re probably not the only ones to make this mistake, and it’s probably not a big deal, except that it makes it immensely likely that /u/HanAssholeSolo is not the source of the video that Trump tweeted, because, AFAIK, /u/HanAssholeSolo didn’t post a _video_, he posted a _GIF_, albeit one quite similar to the video Trump tweeted out. > > BuzzFeed actually has some pretty decent analysis about the differences between /u/HanAssholeSolo’s animated GIF and Trump’s tweeted video [here](https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/how-a-random-gif-from-reddit-probably-ended-up-on-president). TL;DR = different lengths, aspect ratios, logos, colors, etc. Someone else made the video that Trump tweeted. Wow, the fuckin’ lid has been blown off of this caper. ETA: And I fully support an OJ-like quest to find out who the real killer is, if not HanAssholeSolo. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/158 "2017-07-07T15:49:02Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > You never once laughed at a Tom and Jerry cartoon? Come on. Not really sure. If I did, I was like 5 or something. If the people laughing at depictions of reporters being beaten up are around 5, then I suppose that I can understand their amusement. Adults laughing at it are a different matter. And there is a difference between a cartoon mouse and a cartoon cat using cartoon hammers and such, and depictions of actual violence towards animals, even cartoon ones. And, in any case, such cartoons are [criticized](https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/negative-impacts-of-cartoons/) for their depictions of [violence](http://www.beingtheparent.com/negative-effects-of-watching-violent-cartoons-on-kids/), and blamed for desensitizing kids to violence(and is even blamed, though I do not know that I agree, on some of the [violence in the middle east.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/04/egypt-official-blames-tom-and-jerry-cartoons-for-mideast-violence/?utm_term=.926feabd8b94)), the same as the concern is that the depictions as retweeted by trump, and found to be am using amongst some in this thread, may desensitize people to violence on reporters, and certainly encourages a disrespect for the journalists in general. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/159 "2017-07-07T16:03:57Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Not really sure. If I did, I was like 5 or something. If the people laughing at depictions of reporters being beaten up are around 5, then I suppose that I can understand their amusement. Adults laughing at it are a different matter. Come on, man. Now you’ve lost me. I guess the millions of adults who laughed at Family Guy beating up on a chicken for 10 minutes were callous toward animal rights :rolleyes: There are several episodes where Peter and Lois fight each other. If I laughed at that, do I favor spousal abuse? :rolleyes: I mean, you realize that cartoons are not real life, right? Or are you of the opinion that only animal-hating, wife-beating childish adults watched and laughed at Family Guy? I think you’ve gone too far into over-thinking what a stupid GIF of Trump clotheslining a guy with a CNN logo as a face represents. It’s a stupid video clip, made for laughing. Not only that, but you keep increasing the amount of outrage you have by lambasting anyone who even watches cartoons beating up cartoons. And I’ve seen via my Facebook feed that others are finally getting into the CNN logo as a face punching and getting punched meme. Some of them are pretty funny! You should check them out. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361/160 "2017-07-07T17:37:40Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The video itself and how it came to be are news. The opinions of the original poster of the video are not. It is when A. The President of the United States has a pattern of B. retweeting and sharing works originally created by Nazis and racists. That makes the source and their views very much news. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-punches-cnn/790361.md?page=9)