FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2017 file photo, Anthony Scaramucci, a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, talks to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. CNN isn't commenting Monday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — For a president seemingly at perpetual war with "fake news," the resignation of three CNN journalists over a retracted story about a Donald Trump Russian connection is a gift from the political gods when the struggling effort to pass a health bill dominates the headlines. 
 
 The White House quickly took advantage Tuesday with blistering presidential tweets and a media scolding at the afternoon press briefing. Conservative provocateur James O'Keefe piled on by releasing a video with a CNN producer caught on camera talking about the network's Russia coverage being ratings-driven. 
 
 CNN late Monday accepted the resignations of journalists Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris over last week's web story about Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci's pre-inaugural meeting with the head of a Russian investment fund. The network retracted the story on Friday and apologized to Scaramucci. 
 
 Trump has been unhappy with CNN since he was a candidate, and has been particularly annoyed by its reporting on connections with Russia. The misstep on a relatively minor story — it was never mentioned on any of CNN's television networks — left some White House staff members jubilant, believing it handed them a new talking point to use as a cudgel against mainstream media organizations they feel are largely biased against them. 
 
 That happened quickly Tuesday when Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on a Breitbart News reporter for the first question of the White House briefing. It was about CNN. 
 
 She said the "constant barrage of fake news" at the president has frustrated Trump. She called stories about Russia and Trump "a hoax" that is distracting from other news. Sanders urged all Americans to watch a video posted by O'Keefe's Project Veritas featuring CNN producer John Bonifield — even though she couldn't vouch for its accuracy. 
 
 "If it is accurate, I think it's a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism," Sanders said. "I think that if we have gone to a place where the media can't be trusted to report the news, then that's a dangerous place for America. And I think if that is that place that certain outlets are going — particularly for the purpose of spiking ratings, and if that's coming directly from the top, I think that's even more scary." 
 
 She was interrupted by reporter Brian Karem of the Sentinel newspapers, who accused Sanders of inflaming anti-media sentiment. "Everyone in this room is only trying to do their job," he said. 
 
 Sanders ignored CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny's attempt to ask a question before ending her briefing. 
 
 After Sanders left the stage, she was criticized on Fox News Channel, where Trump-friendly views usually dominate. Wall Street Journal editor John Bussey told Fox's Shepard Smith that "the White House could actually learn from CNN's example" about being forthright when caught saying something untrue. 
 
 Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that "they caught Fake News CNN cold." He lumped ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post together in the same "fake news" category. He said that "CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!" 
 
 A spokeswoman for CNN chief Jeff Zucker didn't respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. CNN's public relations staff refuted Trump's notion that the network is hurting, saying it is completing the most-watched second quarter in its history. 
 
 The president was livid at CNN's story but also felt vindicated because it seemed to confirm his belief that the cable network was trying to undermine his presidency, according to one staffer who demanded anonymity to discuss private conversations. 
 
 The CNN issue enables the White House to change the subject for what has been a rough stretch for the presidency, with constant questions about the Russia probe and a vote on the Republican health care bill delayed. Aides also believe that highlighting media mistakes could be a useful way of questioning reporters' credibility and convincing supporters that Trump was the victim of a witch hunt. 
 
 Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted a link to the Bonifield video. Besides talking about ratings, the Atlanta-based producer in CNN's medical unit said the network has no "smoking gun" showing wrongdoing by Trump and that "the president is probably right to say, look, you are witch-hunting me." 
 
 CNN said in a statement that it is standing by Bonifield. "Diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong," CNN said. "We welcome it and embrace it." 
 
 O'Keefe told The Associated Press that Project Veritas got the video on Friday and that a portion, in an elevator, was recorded at CNN's headquarters. He said that Project Veritas plans to release another video involving another CNN employee, with the timing dependent on how CNN reacts to the Bonifield material. 
 
 O'Keefe and Project Veritas have a track record of aiding Republican causes, often by using hidden cameras and hiding identities, and Trump's nonprofit foundation has made two $10,000 donations to the organization. His sting operation led to the downfall of ACORN, a community organizing group that O'Keefe portrayed as engaging in criminal activity via hidden camera. 
 
 Before last November's election, Project Veritas released a series of heavily edited videos that included a Democratic activist appearing to brag about deploying troublemakers at Trump rallies. The fallout included the two people most prominently featured, Scott Foval and Robert Creamer, cutting ties with the Democratic National Committee. Creamer's firm recently sued Project Veritas alleging the sting violated federal wiretap law. 
 
 O'Keefe declined to discuss how the Bonifield video came about. O'Keefe said his efforts are journalistic and, since they include video, he contends that it is more believable than media stories based on anonymous sources. The retracted CNN story was heavily dependent upon one anonymous source. 
 
 One social media exchange about the CNN story indicated how feelings about the network were running strong among Trump supporters. 
 
 John Podhoretz, a conservative columnist for The New York Post and editor of Commentary magazine tweeted that "CNN published a bad story, pulled it, apologized. 3 journalists quit. That's impressive and decisive action. Yelling 'fake news' is unfair." 
 
 That drew a quick retort from Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity, an ardent Trump backer. "John wtf has happened to you?" Hannity wondered online. 
 
 Podhoretz declined to respond to Hannity online and denied an interview request. 
 
 ____ 
 
 Associated Press correspondents Julie Bykowicz and Jill Colvin in Washington, and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report. ||||| President Trump’s war with CNN took an even more personal turn on Tuesday after the White House used its press briefing to tout a hidden camera video calling the cable news network’s coverage of the Russia controversy “bullshit.” 
 
 The undercover video from conservative sting artist James O’Keefe showed a CNN producer questioning the network’s coverage and suggesting important stories had been buried to keep the focus on Trump and Russia. 
 
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 At Tuesday’s press briefing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders encouraged viewers to watch the O’Keefe video, calling it “a disgrace to all of media, all of journalism.” 
 
 She also took a dig at CNN President Jeff Zucker, saying the sensationalism and disregard for facts was “coming directly from the top.” 
 
 CNN is standing by the producer, John Bonifield, who covers health and medicine from the network’s headquarters in Atlanta. In a statement, the network said “diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong.” 
 
 “We welcome it and embrace it,” a spokesperson told The Hill. 
 
 A CNN source told The Hill that the tempest over the video will pass, saying it was recorded after an undercover conservative operative approached Bonifield claiming to have had a history of personal hardships and asking to be taken in to a mentoring program. 
 
 “It’s silly, it’s been spun up as something it’s not,” the CNN source said. “He’s a health unit producer in Atlanta. He has nothing to do with Washington politics or the investigative unit.” 
 
 The video appeared at a difficult moment for CNN, however, which was just forced to retract a story alleging that one of Trump’s associates had improper dealings with a Kremlin-backed bank. The episode led three of CNN’s reporters to resign and reinforced the notion among many conservatives that the network is hell-bent on taking Trump down. 
 
 On a Tuesday morning conference call with CNN officials, Zucker stressed that the network has to “play error-free ball” going forward, as all their mistakes will be magnified. 
 
 “He’s been saying it for months, it’s just unfortunate because there is no more room for mess-ups,” a second source at CNN told The Hill. 
 
 The feud between Trump and CNN, smoldering for years, had already intensified before the firings and O’Keefe video. 
 
 It pits against one another two men with a long history: Zucker was the head of NBC when Trump hosted his hit reality show “The Apprentice.” 
 
 Conservative media outlets such as Breitbart News are now agitating for Zucker’s removal, while Trump let the insults fly on Tuesday. 
 
 “Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories,” Trump tweeted. “Ratings way down!” 
 
 “CNN just posted it’s most-watched second quarter in history,” the network’s communications department shot back. “Those are the facts.” 
 
 According to Nielsen’s second quarter ratings, released on Tuesday, CNN is up 10 percent year-over-year in prime time and 25 percent overall. It is running third overall in the cable wars, behind Fox News but also MSNBC, the openly liberal outlet that has seen a dramatic 86 percent spike in prime-time ratings. 
 
 The new round of controversy has rekindled a briefly dormant cable news war between Fox News and CNN, with top talent from both outlets basking in the failings of the other. 
 
 Last week, CNN anchor John King likened Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” to “state TV.” 
 
 This week, Fox News anchors Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are flooding the airwaves with coverage of CNN’s controversies, returning the favor after CNN leaned into reporting of former Fox anchor Bill O’Reilly, who left the network amid a slew of sexual harassment allegations. 
 
 “Hey CNN, when will you fire Zucker?” Hannity tweeted. “He has destroyed the network with lies and VERY FAKE NEWS.” 
 
 CNN has been registering small acts of protest against the administration by focusing on Trump’s treatment of the press, with chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta leading the charge in demanding more on-camera briefings. 
 
 The network sent a courtroom sketch artist to do a rendering of White House press secretary Sean Spicer at an off-camera briefing last week. Spicer has repeatedly ignored questions from Acosta and chided him in a tense off-camera exchange on Monday. 
 
 “There’s no camera on, Jim,” Spicer said as Acosta shouted questions at him. 
 
 CNN has displayed chyrons at the bottom of the screen accusing the president of lying and is airing a television ad with footage of anchors lecturing White House officials and musing about Trump being impeached. Earlier this year, CNN refused to run a Trump campaign ad because it cast the mainstream media as “fake news.” 
 
 The network has absorbed withering criticism from the right for its relentless focus on Russia and overwhelmingly negative coverage of Trump. A Harvard study found that CNN’s coverage of Trump was negative 93 percent of the time over the course of his first 100 days in office. 
 
 CNN has also taken a hit from other controversies; it cut ties with comedian Kathy Griffin for taking a photo with a fake severed head meant to look like Trump. CNN also canceled a series with documentary maker Reza Aslan after he cursed at the president over Twitter. 
 
 CNN also recently had to walk back a report authored by its top network talent, including anchor Jake Tapper and political analyst Gloria Borger, stating that former FBI Director James Comey would refute Trump’s claims that he was not the target of an investigation. 
 
 In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey confirmed that he told Trump three times that he was not the target of an investigation. 
 
 “I think this is the day when the left rues ever coming up with the phrase ‘fake news,’ because now we have the evidence,” Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka said Tuesday on a Breitbart podcast. “We have the consequences of systematic generation of fake news happening at the epicenter of one of the places that was producing the most of it.” 
 
 The CNN source responded: “They’ve made it fairly clear they view this as a war. We view it as determination to seek truth and hold the powerful accountable regardless of how difficult they try to make it.” ||||| CNN, the network that has fared the absolute worst all year in terms of credibility problems, has had its own very fake news scandal reignited right before the end of the year by two of the worst perpetrators of fake news at CNN. 
 
 Lead Anchor Jake Tapper falsely alleged on Wednesday morning that Paul Nehlen is a “Breitbart favorite,” despite the fact that Breitbart News has cut all ties with Nehlen and removed his contributor page from the website after the challenger of House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s First Congressional District made a series of anti-Semitic and pro-white supremacist comments. These developments fit a larger pattern of very fake news from CNN after CNN spiked a fake story it had planned to print about Breitbart News last week and comes in a year where the network has seen top talent forced to resign amid getting caught printing inaccurate and unverified information. All of this comes as another CNN writer, Oliver Darcy, printed demonstrably inaccurate allegations against Breitbart News on Wednesday that were made with a reckless disregard for the truth — false statements that CNN has removed from an article after publication without notifying its readers of the fact it made an edit to the piece post-publication. 
 
 A series of actions by CNN operatives over the past week plus — culminating in a demonstrably false tweet about Breitbart News on Wednesday morning from Jake Tapper — have thrown the network into turmoil turning into the new year, rejuvenating a scandal that CNN had hoped was in its rear-view mirror. These actions by CNN’s various agents, the most prominent of which is Tapper but others network-wide have proven to be involved, cap off a horrendous year for CNN. 
 
 Tapper has previously been caught inflating his own background. This summer, as Breitbart News exposed, Tapper inflated his credentials with working class voters in Pennsylvania, acting as though he comes from a middle class background when he does not. As Breitbart News reported back then, Tapper claimed he came from the middle class — but he actually went to an elite expensive private high school and then was a legacy admission into Ivy League school Dartmouth. Tapper’s father went to Dartmouth before he did. 
 
 The beleaguered CNN anchor has had historic troubles in the rankings. While CNN brags about how he regularly outpaces MSNBC, Tapper has come under fire for bad ratings from ex-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. 
 
 Sean Hannity kicking serious butt in the ratings. Tapper on CNN as low as you can go. — Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) October 18, 2017 
 
 The notoriously thin-skinned Tapper fired back quickly: 
 
 "Low" would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it — humiliated in front of the world. Now THAT would be low. https://t.co/e2d6kOHL7F — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2017 
 
 But that has not alleviated the concerns about Tapper inside CNN, including with his quick-on-the-trigger Twitter account where he sometimes fires too fast and loose for the facts. Now, Tapper has been caught printing demonstrably false allegations against Breitbart News as part of a larger effort by CNN to engage in attacks on Breitbart News and its Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon. This latest example finds Tapper abandoning his appearance of neutrality and objectivity for an outright smear that is baseless in fact, something that seriously threatens the core of CNN’s business model at a time when the network cannot afford mistakes. 
 
 What’s more, another agent of CNN — a reporter who covers media for its online outlet — has now been caught printing a demonstrably inaccurate claim about Breitbart News and Bannon, something that was easily proved to be false and demonstrates that the network has operatives working with a reckless disregard for the truth. 
 
 It all started when Oliver Darcy, a CNN media reporter, last Friday reached out to Breitbart News saying that he had two sources telling him that Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and President Donald Trump’s successful general election campaign CEO, was somehow plotting his own presidential campaign in 2020 and that this reporter was telling people he was. The claim is demonstrably false and completely untrue — but in pushing the very fake news, Darcy inadvertently reopened a can of worms CNN had hoped it would close, re-igniting the network’s lack of transparency regarding the resignations of three senior journalists this past summer over very fake news the network printed. This summer, CNN printed a blatantly false story about the Russia scandal that it was forced to then retract in full, and the three journalists responsible for it — a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, and the head of CNN’s investigative unit — were forced to resign in disgrace from the network. 
 
 This all comes as Tapper, a lead anchor at the network, printed what were false allegations against Breitbart News on Wednesday morning via his Twitter account. Tapper tweeted that Paul Nehlen, a 2016 and 2018 candidate for Congress in the GOP primary against House Speaker Paul Ryan, is a “Breitbart favorite” while bashing Nehlen — rightfully so — for his public anti-Semitism. Nehlen, who ran against Ryan last cycle on the economic nationalist agenda of renegotiating trade deals, has recently publicly come out making several white supremacist comments — something he had not done before. Nehlen has announced his plans to run against Ryan again this cycle, and while Breitbart News did cover his race in depth in 2016 — something that was highlighted by everyone from now President Donald Trump via Twitter to CNN and many others — this news outlet has cut all ties with Nehlen after he made a number of clearly anti-Semitic and white nationalist comments via his Twitter account this past couple weeks. Breitbart News pulled down his contributor page earlier this week, and allies of Bannon have made clear publicly for more than a week that Bannon does not support Nehlen and cut ties as soon as he found out about these comments. 
 
 .@EsotericCD, Bannon had no idea and has cut the guy loose. I’ve spoken to Team Bannon about it and they were shocked and disgusted. As was I as I’ve previously backed Nehlen. Nehlen is now PNG on my show and I suspect many others. His comments were reprehensible. https://t.co/kdvSdQ3zwA — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 19, 2017 
 
 Bannon tossed you to the curb too. Have you put Steve on the shekels for hire list yet? — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) December 26, 2017 
 
 "Meanwhile, the Cardillo tweet remains the only (even second-hand) evidence that Breitbart is at all bothered by the explicit extremism of their chosen candidate."@Salon, stop lying and spreading #FakeNews. Bannon immediately cut support for Nehlen.https://t.co/ihHMBWEkb0 — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 27, 2017 
 
 Wrong. Bannon didn’t know; he does care; he sure as hell doesn’t think it’s a good thing. Did you speak with him before tweeting this nonsense? Spoiler alert: You didn’t. https://t.co/3iQaMdatNQ — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) December 19, 2017 
 
 CNN has since activated Darcy in an effort to cover up Tapper’s activity and fix the mistakes that his co-worker has made — a transparent bid to fix the serious mistake that one of CNN’s lead on-air personalities made and something that sets up yet another round of grueling scandal for CNN to deal with heading into the new year, even as the network had hoped it would leave its problems behind in 2017. A piece Darcy published on Wednesday, however, contained demonstrably false allegations against Breitbart News that CNN — after Breitbart News contacted its corporate communications leadership — stealthily removed from the article without notifying readers. The since-removed false allegations were published with a reckless disregard for the truth. 
 
 Darcy has brought the very fake news scandal – for which CNN has resisted all efforts for transparency, infuriating senior staff, including several high-profile on-air network talents – back to the forefront with his sloppy attacks on Breitbart News, forcing CNN executives to again deal with a serious credibility crisis storm they thought they had previously weathered. 
 
 Here’s how it all went down, from the beginning. 
 
 Darcy, last Friday, sent a press request to Breitbart News about the claims that Bannon was somehow plotting a presidential campaign. The request came from Darcy after a story in Vanity Fair magazine from Gabe Sherman claimed that Bannon was plotting a presidential campaign in 2020. 
 
 “‘I HAVE POWER’: IS STEVE BANNON RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT?” was the headline on Vanity Fair’s article. 
 
 “In October, Bannon called an adviser and said he would consider running for president if Trump doesn’t run for re-election in 2020. Which Bannon has told people is a realistic possibility,” Sherman wrote in the piece, citing anonymous sources. 
 
 But that, per sources close to Bannon who spoke to Newsweek right after the Vanity Fair piece, is not true. 
 
 “STEVE BANNON IS NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2020, ASSOCIATES OF TRUMP’S FORMER CHIEF STRATEGIST SAY,” Newsweek’s headline from Alex Nazaryan read. 
 
 The story quoted several people with actual intimate knowledge of Bannon’s plans, including an official spokesperson who denied the inaccurate report: “#FakeNews. Steve is 100% not running for President. He is not a politician.” 
 
 “NO,” a second Bannon associate told Nazaryan. “Steve 100% not running for President.” 
 
 A third Bannon ally said: “Chalk this up to fake news. Steve has repeatedly and very publicly said he believes that President Trump will win reelection in 2020 with even more votes than when he defeated Crooked Hillary Clinton in a landslide last year – in fact, Steve has said Trump will get more than 400 electoral votes.” 
 
 What Bannon is really doing, this source said, is “building and cultivating a movement designed to help President Trump enact his economic nationalist agenda.” 
 
 Publicly, Bannon has repeatedly undercut this narrative. In fact, at the Values Voter Summit in October, Bannon predicted that, not only will Trump run again for president in 2020 but, because of his massive success as president with economic nationalism, he will win with more than 400 electoral votes. 
 
 “President Trump’s not only going to finish this term, he’s going to win with 400 electoral votes in 2020,” Bannon said in his October address to the Values Voter Summit. 
 
 Interestingly, on Thursday of last week, even Darcy himself tweeted a statement from a Bannon spokesperson shooting down the very fake news. 
 
 Spokesperson for Bannon shoots down suggestion Bannon is mulling run for president: "#Fake News. Steve is 100% not running for President. He is not a politician. He is spending all his time building a grassroots organization to support the President.” — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) December 21, 2017 
 
 So when Darcy reached out to Breitbart News about the very fake news that had already been debunked, he knew it was very fake news by the fact that he tweeted about it himself on Thursday. This is the content of the email Darcy asked Breitbart News to respond to: “Matthew Boyle told people in recent weeks that Bannon was considering a future run for the Oval Office, per two people familiar with his comments.” 
 
 Since Darcy was seeking comment on something that he knew did not happen, we asked Darcy if he would agree to run a statement from me in full. He agreed, and so we sent him a statement that made it very clear that not only was the lie he was pushing more very fake news but that he would — if CNN has any ounce of belief in journalistic integrity — find himself in league with his former colleagues who were forced to resign earlier this year after they were caught printing similarly fake news. 
 
 “Just like when Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Harris were forced to resign from CNN after getting caught this year printing demonstrably untrue allegations, this is 100 percent very fake news from CNN,” I told Darcy. “If the network prints this inaccurate allegation and does not hold Oliver Darcy accountable for printing this fake news, it is proving again it does not believe in journalistic integrity or accuracy.” 
 
 What is interesting here is that, originally, Darcy had insisted to us that he had this story locked down — even though it was demonstrably very fake news — and was absolutely going to run it on Friday. But late Friday after he received our statement demonstrating it was very fake news, he changed his tune and was unclear about when or if it would run at all. As of press time here at Breitbart News nearly a full week later, Darcy has not run the piece — and sources inside CNN tell Breitbart News that there are serious deliberations among senior management about what they now understand to be a mistake, which is allowing Darcy to report things like this without oversight from senior management on Breitbart News. It appears at this time that Darcy’s plans were foiled, and the network’s leadership — per CNN sources — have spiked his very fake news plans. 
 
 CNN spokeswomen Lauren Pratapas and Emily Kuhn have not replied to in depth detailed requests for comment on why the network — with Oliver Darcy acting on its behalf — is again refusing transparency, openness, or accountability with regard to the forced resignations of Lichtblau, Frank, and Haris. They also refuse to answer whether Darcy will be held accountable for his actions — a clearly demonstrated effort to print something he knew to be false — in the same way Lichtblau, Frank, and Haris were — or if CNN is done altogether with journalistic integrity. They also are refusing as of this time to make network president Jeff Zucker available for comment on CNN’s practices and how it handles avoiding the printing of very fake news like the inaccuracies that Lichtblau, Frank, and Haris resigned over and the ones that Darcy was attempting to print on Friday. 
 
 The network’s lack of transparency on this entire debacle of what started with Frank, Lichtblau, and Haris and has now transcended to Darcy’s actions — a conscious decision by someone acting as an agent of CNN to re-ignite the scandal — among other serious mistakes network-wide, have earned CNN a public drubbing from all corners. 
 
 “From the beginning, CNN was reluctant to say what went wrong,” the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi wrote about the Russia story weeks later, something that remains true to this day. 
 
 “On Thursday, June 22, it published an article on its website, reporting that a Senate committee was investigating alleged ties between a Russian-government investment fund and people associated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” Farhi wrote, continuing: 
 
 The article said that federal investigators were looking into a January meeting between then-White House adviser Anthony Scaramucci and the fund’s director, a Russian national named Kirill Dmitriev. The story was based on information from an anonymous source. By late the next day, its reporting under fire, CNN took some extraordinary steps: It retracted the story and apologized to Scaramucci. In the article’s place, a brief editor’s note said that the story ‘did not meet CNN’s editorial standards’ and had been removed. It didn’t say that the story was wrong. On June 26, a Monday, the news organization did something even more remarkable: It asked for and accepted the resignations of the three journalists — one a Pulitzer Prize winner, another a Pulitzer finalist — who were principally responsible for reporting and editing the article. And then it said little else, declining to explain what had happened. 
 
 The network’s stunning lack of transparency has earned it serious rebukes from even the president of the United States, who has a penchant for bashing fake news but now, after this scandal has rocked CNN all year, has something to grip onto to back up his point. For an organization that claims it supports the truth, accuracy, honesty, and journalistic integrity — and continually beats up on Donald Trump with those claims — it has been surprisingly and shockingly silent about its own messy house when it comes to those very things. 
 
 But the CNN agents’ actions did not end there. After getting caught last week and abandoning prior plans to falsely attack Breitbart News, Tapper falsely attacked Breitbart News on Wednesday morning. After Nehlen tweeted that he was reading a book that blames Jews for anti-Semitism — something that is obviously inaccurate and entirely unacceptable — Tapper shot back with a criticism of Nehlen via Twitter. But in his criticism of Nehlen, Tapper falsely attacked Breitbart News by claiming Nehlen was a “Breitbart favorite.” 
 
 Book blaming Jews for anti-Semitism, written by the Neo-Nazi movement’s fave “academic,” being pushed by Breitbart favorite Paul Nehlen. https://t.co/TbGJRq1Bnj — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 27, 2017 
 
 Arthur Schwartz, an ally of Bannon’s and Breitbart News, tweeted back at Tapper that his comments were a “lie,” something Tapper quote-tweeted saying simply: “Bannon ally says Bannon has cut ties with Nehlen.” 
 
 Breitbart favorite? That’s a lie. Bannon cut all ties with him & tossed him to the curb. Is Linda Sarsour still one of the darlings of CNN? Asking for a friend. https://t.co/bMVfA5Jl5A — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) December 27, 2017 
 
 Bannon ally says Bannon has cut ties with Nehlen 👇 https://t.co/HwmohLva7y — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 27, 2017 
 
 But Tapper’s comments are demonstrably factually inaccurate, and he continues to refuse to withdraw his originally false statement. 
 
 .@jaketapper, this is a lie. Steve Bannon and his entire team immediately cut ties with Nehlen after the first tweet. You’re knowingly and unethically spreading #fakenews. You should retract and correct this tweet. https://t.co/Iltq6xROPy — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 27, 2017 
 
 But that is not all. A high-ranking editor at CNN then, per a senior official with the network, assigned Darcy to follow back up with Breitbart News about this whole debacle with Nehlen, and he sent a comment request to Breitbart News with a tweet from Joel Pollak — a senior editor-at-large for Breitbart News — in which he again confirmed that Breitbart News has cut ties with Nehlen. Darcy asked if Pollak’s tweet is the “official Breitbart editorial position,” as if Pollak’s comments and Breitbart News pulling down Nehlen’s contributor page, as well as all the other statements made weeks ago, were not enough to confirm what the news organization believes. When Darcy was informed — yet again — that Bannon and Breitbart News have cut ties with Nehlen, and that Bannon considers Nehlen “dead” to him, Darcy still did not consider that enough and kept pushing for more with further emails for comment to others at Breitbart News. 
 
 On Wednesday afternoon, Darcy published a piece online under this headline: “Bannon adviser: Ryan challenger Paul Nehlen is ‘dead to us’ after inflammatory tweets.” 
 
 The story contained no new information –e verything was previously public weeks ago — but it did contain a demonstrably false line that could have been avoided had Darcy done basic journalism and fact-checking. “But in the last 24 hours, Breitbart and Bannon, a former White House chief strategist, have moved to distance themselves from him,” Darcy wrote on Wednesday about Nehlen’s relationship with Breitbart News. 
 
 That statement is provably false. In fact, Schwartz — the Bannon adviser whose comments CNN based its entire Darcy story on Wednesday — had previously tweeted back on Dec. 19 that Bannon was done with Nehlen: 
 
 Wrong. Bannon didn’t know; he does care; he sure as hell doesn’t think it’s a good thing. Did you speak with him before tweeting this nonsense? Spoiler alert: You didn’t. https://t.co/3iQaMdatNQ — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) December 19, 2017 
 
 After CNN’s corporate communications team of Kuhn and Pratapas were contacted about Darcy’s reckless disregard for the truth in printing this inaccurate claim that Breitbart News and Bannon had distanced themselves from Nehlen just “in the last 24 hours,” the network removed the false statement from Darcy’s article. That section now reads: “But Breitbart and Bannon, a former White House chief strategist, have recently moved to distance themselves from him.” 
 
 More than an hour after the original publication of the article — and more than an hour after important alterations to remove this inaccurate information were made — CNN finally included a partially inaccurate “update” at the end of the piece. 
 
 “Update: This article has been updated to reflect information provided by Schwartz after it was published,” the CNN “update” reads. 
 
 But the “update” does not note that inaccurate information was pulled out of the article and that significant alterations were made. It also does not note that the “information provided by Schwartz” that forced the correction and alteration after publication was public, on Twitter, since Dec. 19. It similarly does not include the fact that the “update” came after Kuhn and Pratapas were informed of the fact that CNN and Darcy published inaccurate information with a reckless disregard for the truth — public statements available on Twitter would have debunked it. Kuhn and Pratapas have not replied to another request for comment late Wednesday when asked why this “update” is incomplete in all of those and other regards — and have not agreed to be transparent about a forthcoming investigation into CNN’s conduct on this matter. The fact that the network is covering this up, combined with everything else he and Tapper and others have done in recent weeks, severely threatens the network’s ability to move forward into 2018 while leaving its setbacks and mistakes behind in 2017. ||||| President Donald Trump has regularly complained about coverage he views as unfairly critical, labeling stories, reporters and entire outlets “fake news.” | Alex Brandon/AP Trump suggests challenging NBC's broadcast license The veiled threat opens a new front in the president's feud with the media. 
 
 President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that NBC’s broadcast license should be pulled as punishment for the network's reporting on his national security meetings, opening a new front in the president’s long-running battle with the press. 
 
 NBC News published a report Wednesday morning stating that Trump had surprised his national security advisers by proposing a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a July meeting. The meeting was what allegedly led Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to call Trump a “moron” — a comment that NBC first reported last week. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Trump lashed out at NBC, appearing to make a threat that is not even possible, given that the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t directly license networks. 
 
 “Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!” Trump wrote on Twitter, equating the two TV news outlets he has most often lashed out against. “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” 
 
 NBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FCC had no immediate comment. 
 
 "That was just fake news by NBC, which gives a lot of fake news lately," Trump said Wednesday during a brief interaction with the White House press pool ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write. And people should look into it." 
 
 Trump also insisted that he had never sought an increase in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, only that the arsenal be kept in "perfect condition, perfect shape." Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a statement released minutes after Trump's media availability ended, said "recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible." 
 
 "The press should speak more honestly. I mean, I've seen tremendously dishonest press. It's not even a question of distortion," Trump added. "And then they have their sources that don't exist, in my opinion, they don't exist. They make up the sources. There are no sources." 
 
 The president’s willingness to potentially challenge the broadcast licenses of a media outlet whose coverage he objects to marked an escalation in rhetoric for Trump. The president has regularly complained about coverage he views as unfairly critical, labeling stories, reporters and entire outlets “fake news.” 
 
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 As a candidate, Trump threatened to "open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money." He repeated that threat in a post to Twitter in March. He also floated the idea of canceling the long-held tradition of White House press briefings, which were moved mostly off-camera for weeks last summer. 
 
 It is the second time in as many weeks that Trump has attacked NBC News. The earlier attack came after the “moron” report, which also said Tillerson had been on the verge of quitting over the summer. 
 
 Tillerson has denied that he ever considered resigning, and a State Department spokeswoman later said the secretary doesn’t use language like “moron.” 
 
 Trump, meanwhile, said the network’s news division “is so knowingly inaccurate with their reporting” and had “low news and reporting standards.” 
 
 “NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Oct. 4. 
 
 It’s unclear exactly how Trump could directly challenge a media outlet’s broadcasting license, if he chose to follow through on his veiled threat. 
 
 The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues broadcast licenses to stations and oversees license holders. It does not license networks. NBC is owned by Comcast, which holds broadcast licenses for several stations. NBC also airs on affiliate stations owned by other companies. 
 
 Local residents or competitors can file a challenge to a station’s license renewal, but the basis for such a challenge is extremely limited — it must be a case where the station systematically violated the FCC’s rules or lacked the requisite “character” to hold the license. That is usually defined as a felony conviction, said Andrew Schwartzman, a communications lawyer with the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. 
 
 "It’s an empty threat. The last thing that NBC is going to worry about is whether its broadcast licenses are in jeopardy," Schwartzman said. 
 
 Schwartzman said the only time he could remember a large broadcaster losing its license was in the 1970s, after a New York station's management was convicted of bribery. The license renewal issue surfaced in 2012, when Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. was facing controversy over a phone-hacking scandal in Britain, but Fox’s U.S. television licenses were not revoked over the issue. 
 
 Although NBC is currently in Trump’s cross hairs, CNN has most often been the target of Trump's anger with the media. The president has sought to turn the network into something of a foil for him and his supporters, who have chanted "CNN sucks" at rallies. Trump has shared images viewed by some as encouraging violence against CNN, including a professional wrestling clip that shows the president attacking a man with a CNN logo superimposed over his head and a cartoon with a "Trump" train running over a man covered by a CNN logo. 
 
 The cable network's White House reporters have sparred often with White House press secretaries Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders during briefings, while the administration has, at times, refused to put its spokespeople and surrogates on CNN. 
 
 Trump has lobbed insults and threats at newspapers, too, most often targeting the "money losing" New York Times and The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, the owner of online retail giant Amazon. 
 
 "The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!” Trump wrote on Twitter in June. 
 
 The attack came one day after the Post reported that at least four Trump Organization golf properties had on display a fake Time magazine with Trump on the cover and flattering headlines about his reality TV show, "The Apprentice," which aired on NBC. 
 
 Jason Schwartz contributed to this report. ||||| President Donald Trump looks on as a White House aide takes away a microphone from CNN journalist Jim Acosta during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, in Washington.... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Donald Trump looks on as a White House aide takes away a microphone from CNN journalist Jim Acosta during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The White House has suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Donald Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. 
 
 They began sparring Wednesday after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, "That's enough!" and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of "placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern," calling it "absolutely unacceptable." 
 
 The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. "Pardon me, ma'am," he told her. 
 
 Acosta tweeted that Sanders' statement that he put his hands on the aide was "a lie." 
 
 CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acosta's press pass out of "retaliation for his challenging questions" Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acosta's actions. 
 
 "(Sanders) provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better," CNN said. "Jim Acosta has our full support." 
 
 Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. 
 
 The post-midterm election news conference marked a new low in the president's relationship with journalists. 
 
 "It's such a hostile media," Trump said after ordering reporter April Ryan of the American Urban Radio Networks to sit down when she tried to ask him a question. 
 
 The president complained that the media did not cover the humming economy and was responsible for much of the country's divided politics. He said, "I can do something fantastic, and they make it look not good." 
 
 His exchanges with CNN's Acosta and NBC News' Peter Alexander turned bitterly personal, unusual even for a forum where the nature of their jobs often put presidents and the press at odds. 
 
 "I came in here as a nice person wanting to answer questions, and I had people jumping out of their seats screaming questions at me," said Trump, who talked for nearly 90 minutes despite the run-ins with reporters. 
 
 Acosta asked Trump why the caravan of migrants was emphasized as an issue in the just-concluded midterm races, and he questioned Trump's reference to the caravan as an invasion. 
 
 "You should let me run the country," Trump said. "You run CNN and if you did it well, your ratings would be much better." 
 
 After Acosta asked about the investigation of Russia's involvement in the 2016 election, Trump tried to turn to Alexander, but Acosta continued to ask questions. 
 
 "CNN should be ashamed of itself having you work for them," the president said to Acosta. "You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN. The way you treat Sarah Sanders is horrible. The way you treat other people is horrible. You shouldn't treat people that way." 
 
 Alexander came to his colleague's defense. "I've traveled with him and watched him," Alexander said. "He's a diligent reporter who busts his butt like the rest of us." 
 
 "I'm not a big fan of yours, either," Trump replied. 
 
 "I understand," Alexander said, attempting to ask a question. Acosta stood back up and noted the explosive devices that were recently sent to CNN and some of the president's political opponents. 
 
 "Just sit down," Trump said. "When you report fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people." 
 
 CNN said Trump's attacks on the press have gone too far. 
 
 "They are not only dangerous, they are disturbingly un-American," CNN tweeted after the exchange. "While President Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it. A free press is vital to democracy, and we stand behind Jim Acosta and his fellow journalists everywhere." 
 
 In announcing Acosta's suspension, Sanders said, "The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it is an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this administration." 
 
 The White House Correspondents' Association released a statement Wednesday saying it "strongly objects to the Trump Administration's decision to use U.S. Secret Service security credentials as a tool to punish a reporter with whom it has a difficult relationship. Revoking access to the White House complex is a reaction out of line to the purported offense and is unacceptable." 
 
 The WHCA called on the White House to "immediately reverse this weak and misguided action." 
 
 During the news conference, Trump also turned on reporter Yamiche Alcindor of PBS' "NewsHour." She said that "on the campaign trail, you called yourself a nationalist. Some people saw that as emboldening white nationalists." Trump interrupted her, calling it a racist question. 
 
 Alcindor pressed on: "There are some people who say the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. What do you say to that?" 
 
 "What you said is so insulting to me," he said. "It's a very terrible thing you said to me." 
 
 Alcindor moved on to a different topic. Later, via Twitter, she said that she has interviewed white nationalists who say they are more excited by Trump than they have been about other presidents. "Even if President Trump doesn't intend it, some see him as directly appealing to the racists," she wrote. 
 
 Trump told Ryan, of American Urban Radio Networks, repeatedly to sit down when she attempted to ask Trump about accusations of voter suppression. He said she was rude for interrupting another reporter, though he did briefly answer one of Ryan's questions. 
 
 ___ 
 
 This story has been corrected to show the NBC News correspondent is named Peter Alexander, not Peter Garrett.
– President Trump's relationship with the media is very much front and center again, most notably after three CNN journalists resigned over a retracted story. Trump himself went after the network on Twitter—"What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!"—and a White House spokesperson on Tuesday pushed an anti-CNN video by right-wing provocateur James O'Keefe. Meanwhile, the president also is publicly feuding again with the New York Times. Here's the latest: CNN mess: The network yanked an online article alleging that Trump confidante Anthony Scaramucci had ties to a Russian investment firm, and the New York Times has more details on what happened and on how the network's respected "Triad" vetting system for sensitive stories failed. (Here is CNN's apology note, which does not specify what was incorrect.) Awful timing: It couldn't come at a worse time for CNN in the "fake news" wars, observes Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi. Despite Trump's suggestion to the contrary, Farhi writes that CNN is not looking at "big management changes." Interesting nugget: He notes that CNN investigations editor Lex Haris, one of the three to resign, was away at a conference when the story ran. O'Keefe video: In a press briefing, White House deputy press chief Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed an undercover video by O'Keefe showing a CNN producer seeming to question the network's Russia coverage, reports the Hill. "Whether it’s accurate or not I don’t know, but I would encourage everybody in this room, and frankly, everybody across the country to take a look at it." You can see it here. Another coming: O'Keefe tells the AP that another video involving a second CNN employee is coming. Meanwhile, CNN stood by John Bonfield, the producer in the first video: "Diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong, we welcome it and embrace it." Times feud: After the New York Times ran an article suggesting that Trump was not hands-on during the Senate's health bill talks, he tweeted that it was another "false story" about him. "They don't even call to verify the facts of a story," he complained. To which reporter Glenn Thrush responded, "Call your office, sir. @nytimes spoke to many, many, many members of your staff yesterday - & ran everything by your team." 'Nice smile': Trump's relationship with the media isn't all adversarial. While on a call with Ireland's new leader on Tuesday, Trump called over Irish RTE reporter Caitriona Perry and complimented her "nice smile." The BBC has video, and it notes that Trump critics are calling out the move as sexist.