CNN is being accused of censorship by supporters of President Trump for its refusal to air an ad praising Trump's accomplishments because it contains a "fake news" accusation. The ad is actually for Trump's 2020 presidential campaign -- in a highly unusual move, he became a declared 2020 candidate on January 19th, the day before he was inaugurated as president. It lists a series of actions from Trump's first 100 days, and says that America, quote, "has rarely seen such success," which it charges the news media doesn't report.
The ad says, "You wouldn't know it from watching the news. America is winning, and President Trump is making America great again." The faces of NBC's Andrea Mitchell, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, ABC's George Stephanopoulos and CBS' Scott Pelley are shown onscreen with the phrase "fake news" over them.
The ad is airing on Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network, but CNN said it wouldn't air the ad because its request to remove what it called a "false graphic" had been refused by the campaign. CNN tweeted: "The mainstream media is not fake news, and therefore the ad is false and per policy will be accepted only if that graphic is deleted." The executive director of Trump's campaign, Michael Glassner, said, "CNN is trying to silence our voice and censor our free speech" because it doesn't fit the network's narrative.