Donald Trump doesn't have much to delight in these days other than the misfortune of others, which is why he was positively gleeful over news that three CNN journalists resigned Monday for publishing a story last weekend that wasn't properly sourced.
It's worth noting that Trump actually got at least some facts right—for once. CNN did retract the story, which reported that hedge-fund manager and Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci was being investigated by Congress for his links to a Russian investment fund. Though CNN never said the article was factually inaccurate, it was still cause for Trump revelry. He retweeted a giant red spoof logo in which "CNN" had been changed to "FNN" with the tagline "Fake News Network."
Now that "they caught CNN cold," Trump wrote, "what about NBC, CBS & ABC? What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost?"
The resignations were prompted by CNN itself.
An internal investigation by CNN management found that some standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published, people briefed on the results of the investigation said. [...]
Friday night, once it was determined that editorial processes were not followed, CNN deleted the story from CNN.com. Soon thereafter, the story was officially retracted and replaced with an editor's note.
The piece "did not meet CNN's editorial standards and has been retracted," the note said. "Links to the story have been disabled."
It’s true that CNN was contacted by Buzzfeed after the outlet deleted the story. But CNN conducted an internal review, found the story didn't meet its "standards," and then took disciplinary action.
Of course, "standards" mean nothing to Trump. Can you even imagine an internal review of White House "statements," including Trump tweets, of course. Is this true? Is this even a defensible claim? Does this contradict promises Trump made on the campaign trail. Is this an out and out lie? Does this meet our internal "standards?"
Of course you can't imagine that! Trump is an empty shell—he has no internal standards and consequently, neither does his White House.
