Don't tug on CNN's cape

So that silly GIF that Trump retweeted? The one that showed Trump body-slamming a guy with a CNN logo superimposed over his head? CNN didn't like it, so they went after the guy who produced it:

The Reddit user who initially claimed credit for President Donald Trump's tweet that showed Trump tackling CNN issued an apology Tuesday for the video and other offensive content he posted -- one day after CNN identified the man behind the account and attempted to make contact with him.

Reddit user "HanA**holeSolo" first shared the GIF last Wednesday of Trump pummeling a wrestler with CNN's logo imposed on his face. CNN could find no earlier instance of the GIF. The GIF was later edited into a video with sound and tweeted by the President on Sunday.

The First Amendment doesn't belong to dudes on Reddit. It belongs only to CNN and its pals in the mainstream media. The apology from the Reddit guy is Nikolai Bukharin-quality stuff:

"First of all, I would like to apologize to the members of the reddit community for getting this site and this sub embroiled in a controversy that should never have happened," he wrote. "I would also like to apologize for the posts made that were racist, bigoted, and anti-semitic. I am in no way this kind of person, I love and accept people of all walks of life and have done so for my entire life. I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life, I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction from the subs on reddit and never meant any of the hateful things I said in those posts. I would never support any kind of violence or actions against others simply for what they believe in, their religion, or the lifestyle they choose to have. Nor would I carry out any violence against anyone based upon that or support anyone who did."

CNN then added the following:

The user further apologized for calls for violence against the press in his statement on Reddit.

"The meme was created purely as satire, it was not meant to be a call to violence against CNN or any other news affiliation," he wrote. "I had no idea anyone would take it and put sound to it and then have it put up on the President's Twitter feed. It was a prank, nothing more. What the President's feed showed was not the original post that was posted here, but loaded up somewhere else and sound added to it then sent out on Twitter. I thought it was the original post that was made and that is why I took credit for it. I have the highest respect for the journalist community and they put their lives on the line every day with the jobs that they do in reporting the news."

This last part is crap, of course. Most journalism jobs consist of rewriting other people's press releases and reporting on meetings of the Danville Sewer Board. The dashing foreign correspondents are mostly sitting in windowless rooms, banging out the company line on laptops. The most dangerous place the average CNN on-air personality goes is the tailor, and that's only because tailors have sharp objects.

But this incident isn't about exposing malfeasance. It's strictly pour encourager les autres. CNN notes as much in its self-congratulatory dispatch:

CNN is not publishing "HanA**holeSolo's" name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.

And just so this Reddit guy keeps his yap shut, they add the following:

CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.

They won't destroy the Reddit guy so long as he doesn't squirm too much under the boot on his throat.

How do we put this politely? CNN can screw itself. And I do hope they enjoy the blowback, because if the Reddit dudes feel constrained, there are plenty of other wiseguys on the web who will ensure that the mockery increases exponentially.