CNN published an article about Donald Trump last week with a dishonest headline that was picked up around the world and has not been corrected by CNN.
The headline of the CNN article dated October 15, 2015, is “Donald Trump says Russia isn’t to blame for MH17, despite evidence“.
The headline is a blatant lie. Trump said repeatedly in interviews with MSNBC and CNN that Russia was ‘probably’ involved in the shoot down of MH17 but that it could not be absolutely proven.
CNN’s lie was repeated by sites that republished the CNN article including Ukrainian news site Kyiv Post, the Daily Beast, the leftist site Democratic Underground, the Jewish site Matzov.com and numerous news sites that syndicated CNN content including Baltimore’s WBAL-TV
The only outlet to independently echo CNN’s smear of Trump was Russian ally Iran via its Press TV with an article headlined, US should not blame Russia for crash of Malaysian airliner: Donald Trump.
The Hill got the headline correct for their article, Trump: Russia ‘probably’ behind downing of MH17.
CNN’s article was keyed on an interview Trump did on October 14 on MSNBC with NBC reporter Katy Tur in which Trump commented on MH17.
Trump’s statements to CNN’s questions about MH17 following up on the MSNBC interview are near verbatim repetitions of what he said on MSNBC that Russia was ‘probably’ behind the MH17 shootdown, but could not be proven 100 percent.
By leading with a headline that says Trump definitively said Russia was not to blame despite the evidence, CNN falsely smeared Trump as an ignoramus on the world stage.
Ironically, Trump opened the MSNBC interview speaking about how the American people know they are being lied to by the media.
Toward the end of the 13:13 interview Katy Tur brought up Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 and the report by Dutch authorities that blamed Russian backed Ukrainian separatists for shooting down the plane with a Russian missile.
Tur asked Trump if he would hold Putin and Russia accountable and would he apply sanctions against Russia.
Trump initially answered by saying the Russians deny they shot down the plane, we’ll probably never know who did, but that it was probably the Russians.
Trump’s exact words to MSNBC:
“Well, you know they say it wasn’t them, it may have been their weapon, but they didn’t use it, they didn’t fire it, they even said the other side fired it to blame them. I mean to be honest with you, you’ll probably never know for sure. It was probably Russia. It was probably people involved with, on the pro-Russia side. But I think we have to straighten our own problems out right now, Katy. We have some very big problems…”
Trump later repeated, “Probably was Russia.”
“”I think it is horrible. But they’re saying it wasn’t them. The other side says it is them. And we’re going to go through that arguing for probably for 50 years and nobody is ever going to know. Probably was Russia.”
The real controversy overlooked was Trump basically saying he would do nothing with Russia about MH17.
“It’s a long ways away. We have to get back to making America great again. We have to get back to rebuilding our country, our infrastructure, our schools, our roads our airports we have to do something we just can’t fight with everybody…”
“It’s terrible, but we really probably won’t know for sure. And you’ll probably never find out. There are only a few people that know. And you know one of them could be Putin, frankly, and we know one thing, he’s not going to be talking about it.”
Trumps words from the CNN article:
“”That’s a horrible thing that happened,” he said. “It’s disgusting and disgraceful but Putin and Russia say they didn’t do it, the other side said they did, no one really knows who did it, probably Putin knows who did it. Possibly it was Russia but they are totally denying it.”
…””They say it wasn’t them,” Trump said. “It may have been their weapon, but they didn’t use it, they didn’t fire it, they even said the other side fired it to blame them. I mean to be honest with you, you’ll probably never know for sure.””
“Trump later said the culprit was “probably” Russia and pro-Russian fighters, but he said the U.S. needs to focus on its own problems right now and not “get involved” in overseas conflicts, even one as “horrible” as this.
“”I think it is horrible,” Trump said of the incident. “But they’re saying it wasn’t them. The other side says it is them. And we’re going to go through that arguing for probably for 50 years and nobody is ever going to know. Probably was Russia.”
“Trump said regardless, it’s time to turn the page.
“”It’s a long ways away. We have to get back to making America great again,” he said. “It’s terrible, but we really probably won’t know for sure. And you’ll probably never find out. There are only a few people that know. And you know one of them could be (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, frankly, and we know one thing: He’s not going to be talking about it.””
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