CNN was blasted after Anderson Cooper on Wednesday “exclusively” released hot-mic audio of a tense post-debate exchange between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Cooper claimed his show was the “first to obtain the audio,” but many online pointed out the absurdity of the revelation given the network hosted the debate.
Has anyone added the Curb Your Enthusiasm music to this yet? Have at it, Internet! pic.twitter.com/3ALMnNJynr
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 16, 2020
Ahead of the audio release, Cooper and CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny discussed the “extraordinary moment” between Sanders and Warren, and talked up how the network “obtained” its own audio.
“My colleagues here at CNN spent the day looking through backup audio. It was not recorded from the primary audio system. It was a backup, separate system, and they found it late today. We listened to it, we matched it with the video, so that’s how we’re able to reveal this moment,” Zeleny laid out.
Elizabeth Warren accused Bernie Sanders of calling her a liar on stage after Tuesday's debate. Here's the tense moment. https://t.co/cL3ppFmtxw pic.twitter.com/F5wFMmy8FX
— CNN (@CNN) January 16, 2020
Fox News also highlighted the convenient timing of the “breaking news,” which landed just after House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s signing of the Articles of Impeachment, and before MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s interview with former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.
Many on Twitter slammed CNN for its 24-hour delay of the audio release:
Are we supposed to believe it took CNN nearly 24 hours to discover it had this audio? https://t.co/x6hSUWCO1D
— Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) January 16, 2020
Gotta hand it to them – this is some of the greatest media gatekeeping in my lifetime. It's too bad we're all way, way worse for it.
— Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) January 16, 2020
CNN just trashed the Parnas news cycle on MSNBC ROFL
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 16, 2020
Anderson Cooper says CNN “obtained” the audio recorded by CNN microphones on the CNN debate stage lol
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 16, 2020
My only question is……why is it such a big deal that they have the audio?? It was their debate? They ran the mics? It’d have been a massive chewing out if they had cut them entirely early!!
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) January 16, 2020
I love their "CNN did an inventory of the audio equipment that was used and found two backup recordings" line, as if this was like, diving deep into the archives, using a forensic scan to discover long lost data that was believed to have been deleted
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) January 16, 2020
You mean the audio CNN "obtained"…from CNN microphones…at a CNN debate…after the news festered for 24 hours…despicable
— Dogs Part Two (@DogsPartTwo) January 16, 2020
@CNN obtained the audio from their own reality show/debate or whatever lol.
— andy (@HeckYeahMan) January 16, 2020
Obtained from the CNN editors’ editing room? 🙄
— EmmaPeach (@BluRidge4Bernie) January 16, 2020
During the exchange, Warren went up to Sanders and refused to shake his hand while she angrily asked him why he called her a liar on national TV.
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