'Fake News': Kayleigh McEnany Rips Into CNN's Anderson Cooper After False Claim About Husband
People have often said that the only two certain things in life are death and taxes.
But 2020 has offered a couple more certainties.
Those are that the establishment media is going to report unsubstantiated rumors about President Donald Trump’s closest staffers as facts, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is going to shred them for it.
McEnany has proved to be perhaps the most effective press secretary in recent memory.
Her tongue is as sharp as her mind, and both have to be, as she faces a daily gauntlet of hostile reporters, most of whom have little-to-no interest in reporting the truth.
The establishment media is collectively driven to push stories, no matter their veracity, that mislead people.
One such story, which was pushed by veteran CNN host Anderson Cooper this week, was that McEnany’s husband sat in on a media briefing on Wednesday sans-mask and unprofessionally cheered her on.
Cooper, on his program, slammed McEnany, telling his audience, “As she left the briefing room, a voice was heard to say, ‘You crushed it, Kayleigh.’”
Cooper, citing a media pool report from earlier in the day, went on to claim the voice was that of McEnany’s husband, Sean Gilmartin.
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“He’d been there the entire time in the cramped space, by the way, not wearing a mask,” Cooper complained.
The voice, however, was not that of McEnany’s husband, and CNN, by every definition, had reported fake news — which is perhaps what CNN does best.
But McEnany wasn’t about to let the false reporting slide, not even hours later.
McEnany shared a clip of Cooper’s fake news report on her Twitter Wednesday evening.
FAKE NEWS from @CNN that is disproven by the official White House Pool Report written by a reporter.
WATCH @andersoncooper FALSELY claim my husband cheered for me at the White House Press Briefing & read the pool report below noting it was actually a reporter cheering! pic.twitter.com/MmpAIBxT7S
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) December 3, 2020
“FAKE NEWS from @CNN that is disproven by the official White House Pool Report written by a reporter,” she wrote.
“WATCH @andersoncooper FALSELY claim my husband cheered for me at the White House Press Briefing & read the pool report below noting it was actually a reporter cheering!”
McEnany also shared a screen shot of the same pool report cited by Cooper, which clearly stated Gilmartin did not shout anything.
The report attributed the yelling to a nearby “reporter with First Class Fatherhood.”
Pool Report ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3m9Iiil2Vh
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) December 3, 2020
The post left CNN and Cooper with egg on their faces, so a retraction was quickly issued.
Within an hour and a half of McEnany’s tweet, Cooper himself apologized on Twitter.
On 360 tonight we said Kayleigh McEnany’s husband cheered her on during today’s press briefing. The report was based on a pool report from inside the room. That pool report was later corrected, noting it was not Kayleigh’s husband who cheered her on. Our apologies for the error.
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) December 3, 2020
“On 360 tonight we said Kayleigh McEnany’s husband cheered her on during today’s press briefing. The report was based on a pool report from inside the room. That pool report was later corrected, noting it was not Kayleigh’s husband who cheered her on. Our apologies for the error,” he wrote.
But as McEnany pointed out, retractions rarely ever gain the same momentum as the false reports which lead to them.
That has proven true throughout the history of erroneous reporting.
“Correcting false reporting on Twitter after perpetuating an inaccurate story on prime time TV does little. @andersoncooper had 6+ hours to read the new pool report, but ran with a false story instead,” she wrote.
“This is ‘journalism’ today: Lie first. Apologize after,” she concluded.
Correcting false reporting on Twitter after perpetuating an inaccurate story on prime time TV does little.@andersoncooper had 6+ hours to read the new pool report, but ran with a false story instead.
This is “journalism” today:
Lie first. Apologize after.
cc: @AC360 @CNN ⬇️ https://t.co/S2szS3AfoW
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) December 3, 2020
Indeed, McEnany is correct.
It’s arguably not above those at CNN to falsely report a story, only to be more than happy to later quietly issue a social media retraction.
It’s doubtless that fewer people saw the retraction than the false reporting.
But getting a retraction from CNN is a good start to holding the far-left network accountable for the damage it’s done to truth and accuracy in reporting in recent years.
Those at the network who portray themselves as journalists are an embarrassment to their profession.
No amount of Twitter retractions are capable of righting the wrongs with CNN’s coverage in recent years.
But if anyone can get CNN to admit a mistake, it’s McEnany.
The saga is yet another example of how McEnany has shined since taking over as press secretary earlier this year.
The young woman regularly walks into a lion’s den of paid activists and liars and handles herself gracefully, while being ready at all times to correct the record.
Armed with confidence, faith, and facts, she consistently leaves the establishment media’s hack reporters speechless and disgraced.
Not even Cooper, a veteran purveyor of sensationalism and fake news for CNN, is a match for McEnany.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
