Tennessee Lawmaker Introduces Bill Labeling CNN, Washington Post as ‘Fake News’

Tennessee State Rep. Micah Van Huss (R) on Wednesday proposed legislation in the state’s General Assembly which would recognize CNN and the Washington Post as “fake news.”

The filed bill brands CNN and the Post as both “fake news” and “part of the media wing of the Democratic Party.” The text also accuses the corporate media outlets of  “denigrating our citizens and implying that they are weak-minded followers instead of people exercising their rights that our veterans paid for with their blood” — an apparent reference to a recent CNN segment, in which anchor Don Lemon and guests Rick Wilson and Wajahat Ali laughed and mocked Trump supporters as illiterate “credulous rubes.”

In a Facebook post, Van Huss wrote that he filed the bill on behalf of voters who are “tired of fake news” and Republicans who refuse to confront it.

Read the full text of the resolution here.

CNN has promulgated numerous demonstrably false reports and conspiracy-theory punditry in the Trump era, sparking ire from President Trump and his supporters.

In December 2017, CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju falsely reported that WikiLeaks emailed Donald Trump Jr. access to information nearly two weeks before the organization released it to the public.

CNN reported in June 2017 that fired White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci was under federal investigation for meeting with a Russian banker prior to President Trump’s inauguration. CNN eventually apologized for its false story after Scaramucci vehemently denied its contents. CNN Executive editor Lex Haris, editor Eric Lichtblau, and journalist Thomas Frank resigned over the article.

In August 2018, CNN also reported that President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was prepared to tell then-special counsel Robert Mueller that the president had advance knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting between his son, Donald Trump Jr. and a Russia lawyer, and others. Cohen’s spokesperson, Lanny Davis, later told CNN had “mixed up” its facts and denied claims that his client possessed any advance details of the gathering.