Man arrested after threatening to shoot and kill ‘fake news’ CNN employees

Trump’s attacks on the free press don’t undermine democracy and help the spread of misinformation; they can also potentially be deadly. According to a local CBS affiliate, a Michigan man was arrested after making numerous threats to shoot and kill CNN employees, saying they worked for a “fake news” organization.

An investigation was launched by the FBI after the unidentified man made threatening phone calls to CNN about a week ago.

“Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down,” the man told a CNN employee, according to WGCL-TV.

“I’m smarter than you. More powerful than you,” the man reportedly said in another call. “I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours.”

“I am coming to Georgia right now to go to the CNN headquarters to f*cking gun every single last one of you,” he said.

The FBI was able to trace the calls and ultimately made an arrest.

For the most part, slandering CNN with the term “fake news” was made popular by President Trump and later became popular with his supporters. CNN has led the way in much of the adversarial reporting on the Trump White House. The network was among the winners in Trump’s “Fake News Awards” gimmick from last week.

Trump also made headlines when he tweeted an edited GIF of him wrestling a man with the CNN logo superimposed on on his face. Another meme tweeted out by Trump showed an image of him with what appeared to the CNN logo in a splatter of blood on the sole of his shoe.

As The Hill points out, many have warned that Trump’s characterizations of the media could lead to actual acts of violence against journalists and news figures. No kidding.

Featured image via Shutterstock

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.