CNN’s new president, Chris Licht, reportedly advised his staff not to refer to former President Donald Trump’s election claims as the “big lie.”
As Mediaite reported, during a Tuesday conference call, Licht was asked about what he thinks of the “big lie.”
Licht replied saying he preferred the staff not use the term.
The outlet noted Licht told them it was a preference, not a mandate.
He encouraged producers to use “Trump election lie” or “election lies.”
A source told Mediaite Licht said using the term “the big lie” adopts branding used by the Democratic Party.
He suggested it then weakens the network’s objectivity.
A CNN insider told Mediaite, “It’s worrisome that we’re being told how to talk about one of the worst things that ever happened to American democracy.”
They added, “We have to call lies, lies, whether they’re small lies or big lies. Is there any lie bigger than that lie?”
In May 2021, CNN published an article explaining what the “big lie” really means and where the term came from.
“It comes from Adolf Hitler, actually. In Mein Kampf, he accused Jews of spreading lies about how the German army performed in World War I,” CNN wrote.
Additionally, the outlet mentioned comments made by historian Timothy Snyder, author of “On Tyranny,” in the wake of the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“The idea that Mr. Biden didn’t win the election is a big lie,” he told CNN’s Brian Stelter.
Snyder continued, “It’s a big lie because you have to disbelieve all kinds of evidence to believe in it. It’s a big lie because you have to believe in a huge conspiracy in order to believe it. And it’s a big lie because, if you believe it, it demands you take radical action. So this is one way we have really moved forwards towards authoritarianism and away from democracy. It’s coming to a peak right now.”
The former president used the term in a statement issued by his PAC on May 3, 2021, as CNN noted.
“The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE! ” he said.
