On Tuesday night, CNN’s “NewsNight” offered viewers a glimpse into how modern media narratives are spun.
It happened just before a commercial break.
“NewsNight” host Abby Phillip told her audience, “Two Republicans say Muslims don’t belong here after an attempted terror attack against New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the House Speaker Mike Johnson says nothing really to condemn those comments. Another special guest is going to be with us at the table when we come back.”
CNN’s Abby Phillip claims that the attempted NYC bombing was “an attempted terror attack against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.”
The suspects were two Muslim terrorists who pledged allegiance to ISIS and were targeting anti-Islam protesters. pic.twitter.com/xtGIirLPb3
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 11, 2026
That framing — that the mayor of the country’s biggest city was attacked — might be alarming if it were true.
But according to law enforcement accounts, Mamdani was probably the least likely target.
Police say two ISIS-inspired suspects — Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19 — threw homemade bombs at protesters outside Gracie Mansion.
Those protesters were attending a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” rally.
They were exercising their First Amendment rights, which the left constantly reminds us people are allowed to do.
During clashes between the protesters and counter-protesters, the suspects allegedly coordinated to throw improvised explosive devices toward the anti-Islam protesters.
The devices didn’t go off, and no one was injured, thankfully.
Police are investigating the incident as ISIS-inspired attempted terrorism.
So, in plain English, the bombs were seemingly thrown at the protesters and not at the mayor. Yet Phillip described the incident to viewers as “an attempted terror attack against New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani.”
This is the same network that had already muddied the waters earlier on this.
CNN initially reported the story in a now-deleted X post that read, “Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home. Here’s what we know so far.”
Later, the network deleted the post.
BREAKING: CNN has deleted their INSANE post designed to make ISIS-inspired terrorists look like sympathetic people.
Screen shots live forever though. https://t.co/wnVSdem71R pic.twitter.com/dPWnA4p80D
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 10, 2026
CNN wrote on X, “A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted.”
CNN’s position got worse when a community note needled the sinking network.
It said the posts exemplified “minimized framing,” a technique that downplays an event’s severity through selective language.
A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted.
— CNN (@CNN) March 10, 2026
This is CNN, after all.
When political violence affects progressives, these people frame it as a national emergency. But when conservatives are the target, the language shifts to imply they had it coming, or to memory-hole the event entirely.
The narrative suddenly becomes blurry, and the focus shifts away from the actual victims, as it did here.
It should be the bare minimum to report the facts — in this case, that two Muslims allegedly tried to bomb a peaceful protest that opposed Islamism.
The bar at CNN used to be low. Now it is buried somewhere underneath the basement.
When a network deletes its own reporting and then repeats the same distorted framing on air, the problem is pervasive.
CNN is rotten to the core.
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