After hiding in a bunker since early Wednesday, President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Thursday evening concerning the election he seems to be losing to the Democratic candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden.
As soon as the address was announced, it was clear Trump would use the occasion to lie.
And Trump used the occasion to lie repeatedly. Now, this is normally the place in the piece where we at Media Matters would take a good amount of time to compile the claims and juxtapose them with independent fact checks, pointing out how exactly how he lied. But I don't have to do that this time, because CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta made the point for me.
So by the standards of CNN's own White House reporter and its fact-checker, Trump was lying repeatedly about the election.
Nevertheless, CNN aired Trump's presser in full live, from 6:46 p.m. to 7:03 p.m., even as multiple other networks reportedly broke away (save Fox and Fox Business). Here's MSNBC cutting away.
I made this point earlier this year, when Trump was lying about the pandemic that has now killed over 230,000 Americans. This isn't about CNN's own reporters or its anchors who have done and undoubtedly will continue to do an excellent job. It's about the network's standard to privilege Trump's lies before only later correcting the record.
The very republic is now in the balance. Cover Trump's statements all you want. But as a news network, it's your job to inform viewers of the truth -- and not just let a politician use your airway to lie, even if he is the president.
