Trump accuses CNN of 'representing US poorly'

By Ayse Humeyra

ISTANBUL

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized CNN for spreading "fake news" and presenting the country "poorly to the world".

He tweeted on Saturday: "@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!"

The tweet garnered thousands of reactions. Many responded negatively.

The CNN communications department, @CNNPR, tweeted in a reply: "It's not CNN's job to represent the U.S. to the world. That's yours. Our job is to report the news."

Trump has targeted CNN in the past too calling it "fake news" because of its coverage of his presidential campaign and administration.

Therefore, a deal, which would give telecommunications giant AT&T ownership of CNN, HBO and a collection of other channels, has been widely criticized by Trump, who said earlier: “As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner, and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few."

Although AT&T said earlier this year that the deal was expected to close by the end of 2017, last month, the company’s chief financial officer told investors government approval was not moving as smoothly as expected and the deal would be delayed until next year.