SATIRE (unless it isn't)
THE HOAX FILES · 14
"Firing Squad" Was Their Edit
The quote was ugly enough. The edit added a firing squad anyway.
CNN
Trump made an ugly war-hawk hypothetical. The headline machine turned it into an execution order.
As printed on the graphic:
Trump Called for Liz Cheney to Be Executed Hoax
What they sold
October 31, 2024, Glendale, Arizona. CNN headline the next day: "Trump says 'war hawk' Liz Cheney should be fired upon in escalation of violent rhetoric against his opponents." The Harris campaign and a lot of outlets boiled it down to: Trump called for Cheney to face a firing squad.
What the record shows
The words, as fact-checkers transcribed them: "She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her," followed by a line about guns being trained on her face. In context, Trump was arguing that Cheney pushes wars she would never fight herself. Snopes: "Despite Violent Rhetoric, Trump Didn't Threaten To Have Liz Cheney Shot." PolitiFact ran the full context too.
FNN's position: the rhetoric was vivid, violent and fair to criticize. But "called for her execution" describes a statement that wasn't made. The real quote was bad enough. They upgraded it anyway, five days before an election.
The damage
FNN analysis: when the context is right there in the transcript and you leave it out, voters notice, especially the ones who watched the clip. Then they stop listening to you about the rhetoric that actually is dangerous. Gallup's 2024 trust reading, taken just before that election, was 31%. It fell to 28% the next year.
Closer
Bad quote, worse headline. You don't need to juice the clip. Play the whole thing.