In a few Monday tweets,
President Trump suggested the U.S. should start its own global TV news network to compete with the CNN.
“While CNN doesn’t do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of
the U.S., they have very little competition,” said a Trump tweet. “Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair ... and false way.”
He added: “Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!”
The U.S.
is already in this kind of news business in part. Voice of America is a U.S. government funded TV/radio broadcast group established in 1942. Part of the VOA charter is that “news will be
accurate, objective, and comprehensive.. [And that] the VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of
significant American thought and institutions.”
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Trump has long complained about CNN, targeting the network -- and other news networks -- as distributing “fake news” when it
airs information he dislikes.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration took away the press pass -- the so-called “hard pass” -- of CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta.
This came after a heated exchange with Trump through a number of questions by Acosta during a recent press conference.
A few days later a federal judge granted CNN's request for a court order
temporarily reinstating Acosta's White House press pass.