In reaction to the May ratings report showing MSNBC as number one in weeknight prime-time viewership in the prized 25-to-54 age demographic, CNN sent out a spokeswoman to separate itself from the competition. CNN should be viewed as "the one nonpartisan cable news network," presumably unlike MSNBC, and certainly unlike Fox News.
This statement was issued after CNN personality Kathy Griffin did a stunt holding up a replica of President Trump's bloody severed head. It's doubly shameless that it also came after CNN host Reza Aslan raged at the president on Twitter, calling him "this piece of s---." CNN responded to the Griffin horror by canceling her annual New Year's Eve appearance. Aslan, on the other hand, didn't seem to bother that much; CNN lamely sent out a flack saying, "Reza Aslan is not a CNN employee" -- as if this were to mean anything.
Aslan "apologized" by insisting "that's not like me" to respond in such a "derogatory fashion." That is untrue. The Twitchy site and other Twitter searchers quickly found a long list of examples of Raunchy Reza. He called Trump a "POS" -- how polite to abbreviate it -- on May 17 in response to a Huffington Post article, saying, "This is precisely the bull---- that led a record 81% of WHITE evangelicals to vote for a greedy lecherous racist pathological lying POS." On May 9, he called Trump a "lying conniving scumbag narcissistic sociopath piece of s--- fake president."
Who is Reza Aslan? Go to CNN's website. You'll learn he hosts "Believer With Reza Aslan," a "spiritual adventure series." You'll be told Aslan is a "renowned author and religious scholar." What you won't be told is that Aslan is a Muslim leftist activist who wrote an insulting book about Jesus Christ called "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth." He recently gave a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania titled "Fear Inc.: Confronting Islamophobia in America." What you also don't see is how vile this "religious scholar" can be on social media.
He reviewed President Trump's first trip abroad, saying, "But on the plus side he didn't s--- himself in public."
After Greg Gianforte won a House seat after allegedly assaulting a liberal reporter, Aslan mocked Vice President Mike Pence's congratulatory tweet by saying, "And Jesus said, 'if someone tries to ask you a question, beat the s--- out of them.'"
He responded to a Happy Mother's Day tweet by House Speaker Paul Ryan that said, "Happy #MothersDay to my mom & all moms who do whatever it takes," by screeching, "Except of course Syrian moms fleeing war, famine, and genocide with their starving children. F--- those moms."
While responding to a tweet by author and Barack Obama critic Dinesh D'Souza, he fired off: "Hey Dinesh. I'll say this as politely as I can: Go f--- yourself, you adulterous piece of sh-- felon."
That was similar to a tweet he issued imagining what Gold Star Father Khizr Khan's wife would say to Trump if they were to speak after he criticized her at the Democratic National Convention. "She'd probably tell you to go f--- yourself," he said.
He really doesn't like conservative Republicans. He said in August 2012: "Just to be clear I was indeed wishing someone would rape congressman Todd Akin. I'd hate to be misunderstood."
After uncorking these vicious and profane tirades, CNN cannot plausibly keep this man on the payroll and say it's "the one nonpartisan cable news network," or a haven for civilized discourse.
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