Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:46 pm
There are reports that the live feed cables from MSNBC and CNN were tampered with today during a Donald Trump event. The CNN cable was cut between the live truck and the fiber box, and was “shredded” according to a Washington Post reporter.
The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi tweeted:
Cable folks say MSNBC and CNN feed from Christie-Trump event was disrupted by "signal" issue. Fox News apparently had no trouble.
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) February 26, 2016
More: Appears someone tampered with MSNBC and CNN cable runs.
CNN cable between truck and fiber box was cut, cable shredded, I'm told.— Paul Farhi (@farhip) February 26, 2016
As you can see in the video below the CNN feed gets fuzzy and then goes out:
Live feed cables are thick and usually not only taped down to the ground with gaffers tape but also covered with raceway covers in areas where people might walk, so that cutting them accidentally is not really feasible. It would probably take a branch lopper or hedge trimmer to actually cut the cables.
In an update, Farhi reports CNN is remaining silent but MSNBC (who should be rewarded with much love from a President Trump for all of their free advertisement and can be fairly thought to be avoiding burning bridges with Trump) is claiming it was a “glitch”. But it wasn’t their cable that was cut, either. It was CNN’s cable that was reported as cut, and MSNBC’s was “tampered” with.
Update: No real update. CNN silent on how its cable was cut at Trump-Christie event today. MSNBC citing "technical glitch," not cable cut.
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) February 26, 2016
We don’t know who is responsible for this yet, but the Trump supporters have shown an ongoing contempt for the media, including calling a reporter a “bitch” to her face and flipping off the camera operators at events as Trump rails on about how awful the press is.
Just today our thin-skinned Republican front-runner swore that he would make it easier to sue the press if they were mean to him while he’s in the White House.
Trump has made hating the press a convenient part of his brand- it keeps his supporters in a cult like bubble where they don’t believe anything negative written about their leader. Trump has praised the way Putin handles the press, which was an earlier indicator that he would not be tolerating the free press were he to become president. No, Trump would rather have a propaganda outlet of his very own to fawn over his greatness.
The cutting of cables might seem like a petty, small thing. But it is actually an act of criminal aggression against the free press that is part of a larger and very disturbing pattern.
As pointed out today by Annalisa Merrelli in a piece titled “Donald Trump is not a joke: A warning to Americans from an Italian who survived Berlusconi”, Donald Trump is no joke.
Donald Trump is currently leading the Republican field by 18 points nationally according to a new online Meet the Press poll.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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