Trump tells people to boycott CNN parent AT&T to force more positive coverage of his administration
- President Donald Trump, shortly after touching down in the UK Monday, complained that the only widely-available US news network is CNN.
- Trump said that CNN was being too negative, and told consumers to boycott its parent company, AT&T, as "they would be forced to make big changes at CNN."
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President Donald Trump, in a tweet Monday morning, encouraged customers of ATT to boycott the company to force it to make editorial changes at the CNN news network, which it owns.
The president wrote as he was preparing to meet Queen Elizabeth II on a state visit to the UK.
He said that after landing, the only US news network he could find to watch was CNN, which he found too negative in its coverage of the US.
"When the World watches @CNN, it gets a false picture of USA," he wrote. He suggested that a boycott could prompt "big changes" in CNN's output.
"Just arrived in the United Kingdom. The only problem is that @CNN is the primary source of news available from the U.S. After watching it for a short while, I turned it off. All negative & so much Fake News, very bad for U.S. Big ratings drop. Why doesn't owner @ATT do something?" tweeted the president.
"I believe that if people stoped using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway. It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News! Why wouldn't they act. When the World watches @CNN, it gets a false picture of USA. Sad!"
CNN is owned by Time Warner, which was acquired by AT&T in June 2018.
If the president was hoping to tune into Fox News, his preference of cable news channel, in the UK he would be disappointed.
21st Century Fox in 2017 announced it would stopping broadcasting Fox News in the UK because it got such low viewing figures.
The president has not let up with his twitter tirades on the state visit, attacking London mayor Sadiq Khan as a "stone cold loser" as Air Force One entered UK airspace on Monday after Khan compared him to fascist dictators.