CNN's chief Jeff Zucker did not order his producers and reporters to squash any reporting on violence in Chicago as a way to protect Democrats from criticism, contrary to a story that's trending on social media. In fact, Zucker is not calling the shots at CNN for a while since he recently began a two-month medical leave to deal with a health issue.
If Zucker's replacement and issued such a "blackout" order, then CNN writers Jay Croft and Deanna Hackney did not get the memo. Their story titled "In 14 hours on Sunday in Chicago, 44 people were shot, including 5 who died, police say" published on August 5, 2018 -- two days after the alleged blackout began.
This "fake news" story originated from an article published on August 4, 2018 titled "CNN Boss Orders 'Blackout' Over Chicago Unrest; Warns "It Will Hurt Democrats"" (archived here) which opened:
CNN boss Jeff Zucker has ordered a complete blackout on the unrest in Chicago, warning staffers that coverage could harm Democrats in the upcoming midterms.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
CNN Boss Orders 'Blackout' Over Chicago Unrest; Warns "It Will Hurt Democrats"
CNN boss Jeff Zucker has ordered a complete blackout on the unrest in Chicago, warning staffers that coverage could harm Democrats in the upcoming midterms.
YourNewsWire has published several hoaxes and fake news articles in the past so anything they write or publish should be taken with a large grain of salt. Their Facebook page "The People's Voice" recently lost its verification checkmark according to a report from MMFA.
The Terms of Use of the site also make it clear they don't really stand behind the accuracy of any of their reporting:
THE PEOPLE'S VOICE, INC. AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE.
The site was profiled in the Hollywood reporter where it was described as:
Your News Wire, a 3-year-old website of murky facts and slippery spin, is published by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway -- a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016 -- out of an apartment in L.A.'s historic El Royale.
RationalWiki described it as:
YourNewsWire (styled as YourNewsWire.com[1]) is an Los Angeles-based clickbait fake news website known for disseminating conspiracy theories and misleading information, contrary to its claimed motto ("News. Truth. Unfiltered").[1]
A while ago we also reported that YourNewsWire had rebranded itself as NewsPunch by changing its domain name in an apparent effort to evade filtering/blocking. It appears the site has changed back to it's old name in the mean time but you can still see the NewsPunch name in the contact email address in the footer.
We wrote about yournewswire.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Obama Did NOT Say "I Fully Support Seizure Of White Farmers' Land In South Africa"
- Fake News: Whistleblower Who Exposed Clinton's Ties To NXIVM LIKELY NOT Missing, Feared Dead
- Fake News: Peter Strzok's Wife, Who Is SEC Director, Could NOT Have Blocked All FBI Investigations Into Clintons
- Fake News: UK Government Did NOT Sell 10,000 Children To Child Traffickers
- Fake News: Merkel Did NOT Ban Media Reporting Migrant Beheaded 1-Year-Old Girl In Germany
