CNN adds ‘fact check’ screen captions to live Trump speech, now what about Hillary?

Want more hot BPR News stories? Sign up for our morning blast HERE

CNN apparently feels it needs to add captions at the bottom of the screen to fact check GOP front runner Donald Trump as he gives speeches, now. The cable news network recently added a screen caption correcting Trump as he gave a speech where he mentioned Japan.

The screen caption–called a chyron in the TV industry–appeared underneath Trump on June 2 as the real estate mogul was heard insisting he never said Japan should be allowed to assemble its own nuclear arsenal for protection against China.

As Trump was saying he never said Japan should have nukes, the CNN chyron added “(HE DID)” to its caption.

And indeed, Trump actually has said Japan should get its own nuclear arsenal. In fact, he’s said it at least twice. As Mediaite reports, Trump said it twice in an interview with Anderson Cooper.

But whether Trump said it or not, it is quite unusual for CNN to add fact checking to its chyrons. After all, are we going to se notes like “(SHE DID)” when CNN is reporting that HIllary is insisting she never said she didn’t send classified information over her illegal private email server?

Or what if Hillary says she never said she was “under sniper fire” when she visited Bosnia? If she denies she said this back in 2008, will CNN add “(SHE DID)” to its screen caption?

Of course, many in the media immediately attacked Trump for saying Japan should get its own nukes by pointing out that to date Japan is the only nation on earth that has ever had a nuke used against it in war, so it is a particularly touchy issue to raise.

Still, Trump isn’t alone in the thought that it is high time Japan took full responsibility for its own defense again. A recent piece at WorldPolicy.org, for instance, discusses how Japan needs to step up its military presence in the face of increasing Chinese militarism.

Even as far back as 2004 then Secretary of State Colin Powell was heard urging Japan to enlarge its military in order to “play a full role on the world state and become a participating member of the Security Council…”

The stumbling block for enlarging Japan’s military, though, is its own, post WWII constitution. Japan’s Article Nine is a provision that limits its own military capabilities.

The article reads:

ARTICLE 9. (1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Certainly Japan has rather broadly interpreted this provision in the past, but it is certainly a limit on a full nuclear arsenal, nonetheless. This limitation would have to be confronted for Japan to fully develop its military presence in the Pacific Theater.

In any case, some on social media were happy to see CNN fact checking Trump as he spoke:

Others had a different reaction:

Sign up for our morning blast HERE

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles