Fake news, which has been defined by Cambridge Dictionary as false news stories that are spread on the internet or other media to influence political views, has been a hot topic for a little more than the past year.
Among those now being accused of spreading it is CNN, the prominent 24-hour cable news channel, which has been in hot water in recent years for some stories that have later turned out to be false.
In mid-October of 2016, amidst the presidential election, CNN's Chris Cuomo found himself in a tough spot after claiming that only the media could legally view leaked emails from Hillary Clinton.
“Remember, it's illegal to possess WikiLeaks Clinton emails, but it's different for the media,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo’s reporting was found to be completely false by fact-checkers and viewers who questioned Cuomo’s awkward wording.
This segment has become one of CNN’s many disguised attempts at getting more viewers to tune into the news station by injecting a false sense of fear.
CNN’s desire for more viewers has sometimes distorted the need for accurate reporting.
A couple of months before Clinton's email disaster, CNN also reported inaccurate information favoring Democratic views in an attempt to gain more viewers.
In an article regarding James Comey, the former FBI director CNN reporters Jake Tapper, Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau and Brian Rokus, claimed that Comey was going to contradict Trump’s claim that he was not under FBI investigation and even headlined the article, “Comey expected to refute Trump.”
It turns out that during Comey’s Senate Testimony, CNN’s misleading headline was far from the truth. Comey did not dispute the fact that Trump was under FBI investigation.
CNN later apologized and took the article down, but not before the news station’s reputation dropped even further, as other sites bashed CNN’s incorrect headline and reporting.
Major news sites such as CNN should value getting the right news out to the public rather than generating revenue through sensationalism. Success should be a byproduct of good reporting.
By releasing inaccurate stories, news organizations lose their own credibility as well as hurt the reputations of other reporters.
CNN must take responsibility for ensuring that their stories are provably true. In a precarious time for the freedom of press in America, CNN needs to redouble its efforts to be accurate and fair.
According to AdWeek, CNN leads all other news sites in digital views, and ranks second in cable news in the U.S.. In short, it is one of the most influential news organizations in the world.
CNN’s impact comes with a responsibility, and recently the company has fallen well below the standard of objective journalism.
CNN’s leverage on national opinions means that they cannot pass rumors without consequence. It needs to do better or risk providing Trump and his supporters with ample evidence that CNN’s news truly is fake news.
