What do you mean you are fact checking Trump on this?

[Edwcraig]

CNN is legitimizing the most obviously absurd, cruel, inflammatory Trump propaganda by saying they are fact checking it.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/04/politics/donald-trump-fact-check-children-gender-affirming-surgery/index.html

if Trump says there will be no oxygen if Harris is elected would they fact check it? Goebbels says that by stating the big lie over and over again, the publishing of the lie by the media will give it legitimacy to the point that people will start doubting even what they know is the truth.

CNN pay attention here. Immediately call a lie a lie and pursue the liar demanding to know why the liar is lying. That is the only story here. Buck up.

[Lonestarblue]

1. But how can they be Fox Light if they call his lies out!

[frogstar0]

2. At least they are addressing it. And labeling it false.

I think this is well done by CNN. Yes the statement is absurd and should be called out on the spot. But doing a full write up, with input from medical personnel is worthwhile. I get the worry about giving it to much oxygen.

[gab13by13]

4. If someone calls a pig a cow should that be addressed, investigated?

Laughter and mockery would be a better response. Addressing nonsense gives it credibility.

[malaise]

9. THIS

What CNN should have said
This is absolute rubbish - nothing to fact check here

[malaise]

3. It's beyond ridiculous

First it’s children not childs
This shit simply does not happen - children go to school and go home evert day.
There is nothing to fact check - it is made up shit.

[Raven123]

5. I have no problem with CNN's approach to this.

[3Hotdogs]

6. Remember, a close election is good for media bottom lines.

[SouthBayDem]

7. But if they don't, who will?

Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away.

[Edwcraig]

8. Don't ignore it. Call it what it is. A lie. Pursue the liar as the story, not giving oxygen to the lie by fact check.

[central scrutinizer]

10. It's not just a lie

It’s so ridiculous that the question should be about TSF’s mental state. He’s deranged.

[BattleRow]

11. Since when is whitewashing

considered fact checking?

All the whitewash in the universe can't conceal the malignant stench emanating from his verbal diarrhea.

[Silent Type]

12. CNN's factcheck seems straightforward and to the point, trump lied.

From article in OP:

"Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. There is no evidence that US schools have sent children into gender-affirming surgeries without their parents knowing or performed gender-affirming surgeries on site; Trump’s own presidential campaign could not provide a single example of this ever happening. Even in states where gender-affirming surgery is legal for people under age 18, parental consent is required before a minor can undergo such a procedure.

“Of course everything in this statement is false,” Dr. Meredithe McNamara, an adolescent medicine physician at the Yale School of Medicine, said in a Monday email. “Of course surgery of any kind happens in a qualified medical center and not in a school. Of course parents are the medical decision-makers for their kids, especially when it comes to gender-affirming care.”

[Cirsium]

16. intentional lying

He is intentionally lying or he is seriously deranged. That is the story to pursue.

"Fact checking" that nonsense implies that there is some question about the veracity of the claim. It also suggests that CNN is practicing serious journalism. "Look at us fact checking and everything." It is also a form of "both siderism." Trump says A but some say B.

[melm00se]

13. CNN is establishing

that they are exercising due diligence as it relates to Trump's statements rather than stamping Trump comments as false or lies.

The latter plays into the Trumper claim that the news media is biased.

It is easier to defend against that when they can say "We said we were checking on it. We did. Now we can stamp it false".

That will never sway the uber-Trumpers, it will have an effect on others and move them away from Trump.

While some can petulantly stomp their foot and say "They should've been doing this all along", the reality is we cannot change the past but we can change present which impacts the past.

[PortTack]

14. TURN IT OFF!

[Joinfortmill]

15. CNN sucks, BIGLY!

[RidinWithHarris]

17. I'm far, far more pissed when they let crazy shit like that slide

Are we going to be pissed both when they let Trump lie without comment, and also pissed when they do comment, because commenting requires repeating the lie?

I see nothing wrong with what CNN did here. It was appropriately scathing, not "whitewashing" at all, as someone else called it.