During President-elect, Donald Trump's press conference yesterday, he took aim at CNN, calling them a 'fake news' as he publicly shutdown the senior reporter.
Donald Trump
U.S President-elect, Donald Trump, publicly shutdown a CNN senior reporter at his latest press conference at Trump Towers in New York City, United States on Wednesday.
During the conference, Trump criticised the way CNN news organisation had "built up" a story regarding the release of an unverified dossier by Buzzfeed that Russia allegedly has compromising information on the president-elect.
He called CNN "terrible and fake" news organisation and refused repeated requests from a respected reporter.
With Trump looking to call on other reporters, Jim Acosta yelled out, “Since you are attacking us, can you give us a question?”
“Not you. Your organization is terrible!,” Trump said.
Acosta pressed on, “You are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?” Trump countered by telling him “don’t be rude.”
“I’m not going to give you a question,” Trump responded. “I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news!”
He added: "Some of the media outlets we are dealing with are fake news ... All I can ask for are honest reporters."
As those on stage by Trump clapped, Acosta retorted, “Now, Mr. President-elect, that’s not appropriate!”
CNN has issued a statement in response to Trump's criticism, stating: "CNN's decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different than Buzzfeed's decision to publish unsubstantiated memos. The Trump team knows this.
"They are using Buzzfeed's decision to deflect from CNN's reporting, which has been matched by the other major news organisations.
"We are fully confident in our reporting. It represents the core of what the First Amendment protects, informing the people of the inner workings of their government; in this case, briefing materials prepared for President Obama and President-elect Trump last week.
"We made it clear that we were not publishing any of the details of the 35-page document because we have not corroborated the report's allegations.
"Given that members of the Trump transition team have so vocally criticised our reporting, we encourage them to identify, specifically, what they believe to be inaccurate."