Steele Dossier 

CNN’s coverage of the 2016 Steele Dossier was really a string of controversies that can be summarized in a few quick points. 

CNN covered the document, which was opposition research financed by the DNC and the Clinton Campaign, as if it were a legal document coming from a commission put together by the federal government. 

CNN failed to do the basic “eyeball” test on the document which alleged, among other things, that Trump has paid prostitutes to urinate on him while he was in a bed that former President Obama had slept in. Any reasonable individual can see details like this and conclude that the document is slanderous and not factual. 

CNN also suppressed the story as well as follow stories that showed that the document had dubious origins as a piece of opposition research.