Huckabee Literally Compares CNN's Work to Farts After Odious Jerusalem Comment
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee isn’t exactly known for excretory humor, so when someone gives the Baptist minister occasion to use it, you have to assume they went pretty far over the line.
And whenever I think of going over the line — at least when it comes to the mainstream media — I think of CNN.
Yes, that’s right, the old “Clinton News Network” jokes are now recyclable well into the 21st century, when what was once Ted Turner’s baby has now become the official network of #TheResistance.
And it’s not just Trump they’ll attack. It’s literally anyone and everyone associated with him.
Take the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, for example. This is the tweet CNN sent about it, which also functioned as the headline to its story on the move from Tel Aviv.
US set to break with tradition and open embassy in Jerusalem https://t.co/y46xSSizCm pic.twitter.com/zC0pYxzgSC
— CNN (@CNN) May 14, 2018
“The Trump administration is set to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem Monday, formally breaking from decades of established American policy and international practice in a move that U.S. officials say will create greater regional stability,” CNN reported in its story, published Sunday.
“Critics say the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital could make a region already struggling with four ongoing conflicts all the more combustible. And they argue it marks the end of the U.S. role as an ‘honest broker’ in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.”
“In the long run, we’re convinced that this decision creates an opportunity and a platform to proceed with a peace process on the basis of realities rather than fantasies,” David Friedman, U.S. ambassador to Israel, told CNN. “We’re fairly optimistic that this decision will ultimately create greater stability rather than less.”
One of the fun little games I like to play on stories like these from news outlets typically unfavorable to conservatives (CNN, NPR, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe — the list goes on) is to see just how far into the story information that probably should have been in the very first paragraph is placed.
In this case, it’s the ninth paragraph, and it’s given woefully short shrift in a story that goes well over 1,000 words: “In 1995, Congress passed a law requiring America to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but every president since then has declined to make the move, citing national security interests.”
Yes, that’s right — the move has been required by law for 23 years, but every president until now, citing “safety concerns,” has decided to ignore the Jerusalem Embassy Act.
Trump didn’t. And thus, he “broke with tradition” by following the law, according to CNN.
That’s what set off Huckabee.
Breaking wind from CNN! Do these guys even know difference between LAW and tradition? By LAW, our embassy is supposed to be in Jerusalem, the rightful capital of Israel. It's that @realDonaldTrump had the guts to follow that law. I'm in Israel for event, wonder if CNN will be? https://t.co/Wmc04FN8TI
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) May 14, 2018
“Breaking wind from CNN!” Huckabee tweeted Sunday night.
“Do these guys even know difference between LAW and tradition? By LAW, our embassy is supposed to be in Jerusalem, the rightful capital of Israel. It’s that (President Trump) had the guts to follow that law. I’m in Israel for event, wonder if CNN will be?”
Now, granted, breaking wind is a low-level function of excretory system humor, but it still is one, and it seems like CNN has even moved a Baptist minister to use that kind of humor.
However, Huckabee’s right. This isn’t a matter of tradition, it’s a matter of law. CNN’s headline was meant to give a dangerously false impression regarding the facts of the story. This was hardly an opinion piece, either — it was straight news, yet they spent eight paragraphs bemoaning how Trump was destabilizing the Middle East by following the law before they got to a tossed-off desultory mention that it was, in fact, a law in the first place.
That’s breaking wind — and the facts — indeed.
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