CNN’s centrist move has triggered a call to #BoycottCNN, as many are dissatisfied with what one user calls the “new corporate oligarchy.”
“Good morning and Happy Sunday to everyone who agrees that if CNN has consciously decided to push Republican positions, it’s time to #BoycottCNN,” one user tweeted. “I’m watching @MSNBC exclusively now.”
Some left-leaning CNN fans have changed their tide on the news organization after speculation that John Malone, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder and billionaire media mogul, might have been behind canceling Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources.”
Many pointed out Malone and his companies’ support of Trump might reflect CNN’s centrist move. In 2017, Liberty Media Corporation, an organization in which Malone is chairman of the board, contributed “personal and corporate contributions adding up to $1 million” for Trump’s inauguration, according to media watchdog group FAIR.
Malone denied the accusation in an email to The New York Times.
According to the Times, Malone said he had “nothing to do with” canceling Stelter’s show, saying that he wants “the ‘news’ portion of CNN to be more centrist, but [he is not] in control or directly involved.”
CNN did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
In his last episode of “Reliable Sources” aired Sunday morning, Stelter discussed Malone’s role in shifting the CNN’s politics with Insider’s Claire Atkinson.
“He’s a businessman; he’s looking at where the money is, where the audience is, and the viewership on the left is split between CNN and MSNBC and the viewership on the right is all at Fox News,” Atkinson said. “They have a bigger audience, lots of money, and perhaps he’s saying, ‘what if we shift a little bit this way, maybe we’ll get that too.’”
Similarly, many also criticized CNN’s Jake Tapper for not pushing back against lies about the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search in an interview with Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw on Sunday’s “State of the Union.”
After Crenshaw said that he hasn’t seen “any evidence that Trump was even give these documents back,” Tapper did not correct this unsubstantiated claim, despite CNN’s timeline on the probe that reported the DOJ served a subpoenaed at Mar-a-Lago in June.
“Jake Tapper must really want to keep his cushy gig to let Dan Crenshaw use the “I haven’t seen any evidence” lie on his show without pushing back even an ounce,” one user tweeted.
Check out more reactions to #BoycottCNN below: