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CNN Warns It May Expose An Anonymous Critic If He Ever Again Publishes Bad Content (theintercept.com)
New submitter evolutionary writes: CNN appears to be giving veiled threats at a Reddit user who posted critical comments about the media giant. After an apology was given by the Reddit user (possibly under fear upon discovering CNN had his identity), CNN stated: "CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change." The story stems around Trump's July 2nd tweet, which includes a video showing him wrestle and takedown someone with a photoshopped CNN logo on their head. The video was accompanied by the hashtags #FraudNewsCNN and #FNN. CNN reportedly tracked down the Reddit user who claimed credit for the tweet and announced they would not publicize the user's identity since they issued a lengthy public apology, promised not to repeat the behavior, and claimed status as a private citizen. However, as The Intercept reports, "the network explicitly threatened that it could change its mind about withholding the user's real name if this behavior changes in the future: 'CNN is not publishing HanA**holeSolo's name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same. CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.'"
What the fuck?
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
Wow did CNN mess up. And that Cuomo guy truly screwed the pooch* You would think that growing up in a political family, with a Governor for a father and a brother that he wouldn't step in it so badly.
:)
What a colossal failure on the part of CNN.
* Yeah. The first time I ever used that expression.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
What are you talking about. He made a f**king animated gif. And CNN is threatening him? WTF?
You think that if it was reversed - if the CNN wrestler was beating up on Trump - that CNN would go after him? The optics for CNN are f**king awful.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
I don't think that if this CNN GIF was the only thing this troll had done, he'd be terribly worried about it. From the CNN article:
"HanA**holeSolo's" other posts on Reddit, some of which included racist and anti-Semitic imagery
The troll doesn't want his racist trolling to come back to haunt him. CNN cut him some slack this time. You say they could have done this in a much better way - care to elaborate? As I pointed out above, I only see two other options - publish his name, or not publish and don't give him a warning, which seems disingenuous since the threat is implicit once they have your information.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for trolls who suddenly find they are not as anonymous as they thought they were.
Freedom of speech does not imply freedom from consequences.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
You don't think it's news that the POTUS is tweeting (remade) GIFs which just happen to be made by a troll who also, purely coincidentally, puts out racist and anti-semitic posts?
It's the fact that Trump uses this type of material which makes it news. The fact is that once they had tracked this guy down the did not DOX him, but the fact is also that they could, and that fact doesn't change because they say it out loud or not.
And another view is that CNN pursued a mater of public interest (the video) discovered the originator, investigated their history and found out they routinely posted anti-Semitic and racist posts, discovered who that person was and contacted them for comment. Even 1 year ago they would have published his name without a second thought (just like Fox News or any other publication).
The guy then contacted CNN and convinced them to withhold his name, they did so but noted that if he continued to be a story of interest due to his postings that they wouldn't withold his name again. There is nothing untoward about that, would you have felt better if they just named him without a second thought like they and everyone else would have even a year ago?
I'm just happy we made some progress and they didn't name him straight away. Personally I'm torn about this, I believe people who post stuff like that should be outed to their family and friends so that the people they associate with can know what that person really thinks. But at the same time I don't think people should lose jobs over stuff posted on the internet and I don't believe anyone needs to be national news for views like that.
It's funny how when the bully's get bullied back, they suddenly don't like it.
This isn't bullying it is blackmail which in many countries is an actual crime. Had CNN just revealed his name as part of a news story you could classify that as bullying (mess with us and suffer the consequences). Where they crossed the line, and arguably committed a crime, is when they threatened to do this unless he continues to do what they want.
The claim that making a gif of a CNN logo being wrestled is the same thing as threatening violence against the media is such a stupid statement I'm not even sure where to start.
Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
CNN has no privacy agreement or obligation to keep this person's ID private. Inasmuch as this person has caused a media event thanks to their creative editing, they have made themselves into a newsworthy subject and thus CNN Is well within norms of journalism to reveal who it is.
For that matter, so is any other part of the media. If any of them also have the identity, then there is ground to attempt to interview them as part of a news story.
TL;DR version: this person has no expectation of privacy thanks to a news event they helped create. If you want privacy, don't do shit like this or at least be better at hiding who the fuck you are.
Sig for hire.