The words “fake” and “CNN” often go and in hand, and this time it was to great comedic effect. During its last New Year’s Eve production, the network was hilariously tricked by Twitter trolls who gamed the system into displaying “fake and vulgar” tweets.
Using the hashtag #CNNNYE, anonymous accounts slid into the CNN chyron for all to see. As Louder with Crowder noted, most networks might fire someone after letting this happen, but considering it’s the same organization that employed the likes of Brian Stelter and other people like this, letting a few inappropriate tweets sneak in is almost not newsworthy.
Amazingly, the entire thing was recorded and lives on in the internet. It’ll be hard to top entering 2023. In the video, the recorder said, “These are all fake tweets. Ben Dover. Now, look at the next one–CNN is throwing up fake Twitter names–Mike Oxlong. This is CNN. You would think they would have someone screening this sh*t. Who’s this one? Anita Blackman. What the f*ck?”
Digging into the raucous evening was the Daily Beast, which recapped the evening. In all, it found that seven different Twitter accounts, all seemingly created just for this moment, were responsible for the live, laugh-out-loud moment.
According to it, there were seven Twitter accounts that all follow one another and few other accounts, then bombarded Twitter with #CNNNYE to get noticed by CNN. Those accounts were Anita Dump, Ben Dover, Dixie Normus, Harry Cox, Hugh Jass, Mike Oxlong and Seymour Butts.
Despite being beyond hilarious, the incident was a small blip for CNN, which has been struggling for years now. Even the New Year’s Eve broadcast with the fake names had worse issues, as the network was embarrassed by Don Lemon getting visibly drunk during the live broadcast.
The only remaining question to be asked is why anyone tunes into CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast and how they can stomach the network at all. Between the options of celebrating with friends, going to bed early, or watching any other channel if the television is on, it’s an eternal mystery as to what brings any audience to the corporate media outlet.
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At this point, skeptical viewers might even have to question their truthful reporting of when the new year actually begins. If we do tune in, it’ll only be for more gaffes like what we’ve come to expect. Promise us a few more fake tweets and boozy hosts, and the equation changes. Watch the hilarious incident here:
Ever since Trump made CNN public enemy number 1, mocking it and poking it has been a highly entertaining exercise made all the funnier by CNN’s holding itself in far too high esteem and taking thing so seriously, even as former anchors like Don Lemon got drunk while it unwittingly broadcast tweets from accounts like “Ben Dover” and “Mike Oxlong.”
Featured image credit: embedded Twitter Video