Oh come on, Dana Bash

| 2:32 pm EST February 28, 2021
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Earlier this weekend, CNN host Jake Tapper posted a tweet implying that because President Biden didn’t somehow make Mohammed bin Salman immediately fall through a trap door, it meant that Biden had let MBS get away with the Khashoggi murder. It felt like a bizarre attempt at falsely scandalizing Biden for the sake of TV ratings.

Now Tapper’s CNN colleague Dana Bash is doing something similar. She put this chyron on the screen today while she was interviewing Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

The chyron leaves out the part where Senate Republicans unanimously refused to work with Biden in anything approaching a reasonable manner, and falsely implies that Biden simply decided to cut them out of the picture.

What is going on here? It seems CNN has collectively decided this weekend that, due to its ongoing falling ratings, it must find a way to gin up phony scandals and controversy about the Biden administration. Was there a memo involved, or did multiple CNN hosts each decide to hit the panic button of their own accord?

In any case, it’s not a good look for CNN. Making up phony scandals is not the same thing as “holding Biden accountable.” Blaming Biden for Republican obstructionism is not “being unbiased.” CNN’s antics this weekend have been borderline tabloid level nonsense. Considering the massive negative feedback that Bash and Tapper are receiving on social media, the stunt appears to be backfiring.