Despite the rise of social media, television still remains as one of the biggest sources of information for people all across the globe. News channels are particularly responsible for providing timely coverage of events as they happen, effectively giving meaning to the entire global village idea. Cable News Network or CNN as most of us know it, was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, a concept that revolutionized the way news would be delivered on TV.

CNN is no small organization and its programming can be viewed by people in over 212 countries and territories. That is a huge number but everything about CNN isn’t that great, it’s far from it. There is a lot of fishy stuff that happens on the backend and every so often, some of it manages to surface. Here we have compiled a list of 15 disturbing facts that you probably did not know about the news network.

15. CNN only cares about the money

Starting last year during election season when CNN decided to give airtime to so called analysts, viewers noticed an elevation in racism and violence prone statements. Naturally, everyone began to wonder why the channel that called itself “the most trusted name in news” would give its platform to these uninformed, biased analysts in the name of informing its audience and let them go on and on with their mostly inaccurate and usually racist statements unchallenged. And even though CNN faced a huge backlash, people disgusted by its blatant elevation of racism started boycotting it, no one saw a change in its “balanced analysis” trends.

Obviously, the reason is MONEY, the root cause of all that is wrong in this world. CNN doesn’t care if it has lost users. The 25% rise in its subscription fees makes up for the lost viewers and helps bring in even higher revenues than before. So even though it’s on the wrong side of your moral compass and makes you question everything good in life, CNN is thriving. Now that’s disturbing.

14. Even Children aren’t safe from CNN’s hosts

Scripps Spelling Bee Champion of 2017, Ananya Vinay, is a bright 12-year-old of Indian origin but was born and raised in Fresno, California. Naturally, she was invited to New Day hosted by Alisyn Camerato after her win to speak on the show. When asked to spell the word “covfefe”, that was previously used in a tweet by the POTUS, the spelling bee champion misspelled it. Which gave Host Alisyn Camerato the opportunity to readily assume Ananya was unable to spell it because she thought the word was of Sanskrit origin, an ancient dead language that was used by Indians some hundred years ago. An obviously ill informed, racist comment that anyone with a moral compass wouldn’t aim towards a 12-year-old child. And one that went unchallenged by CNN authorities.

13. The coloUr of your skin defines your career at CNN

A top of the class degree, outstanding cv and long term outstanding service record will not save you from racial discrimination and harassment if you’re of African American origin and an employee at CNN. Slurs from superiors like “it’s hard to manage black people” have been heard by many. And those who have taken an initiative to report these discriminatory treatments have been allegedly fired or pressured to quit.

An ongoing law suit also brings to light the woes of many current and previous employees who say that promotions for African American employees are blocked by a glass ceiling, pay for similar positions vary dramatically with race and they receive lower performance ratings. The law suit adds that many higher-ranking officials are aware of these problems but turn a blind eye. Sounds like a classic case of white supremacy.

12. It promotes racism

Regardless of the backlash and lawsuits, CNN is adamant on bringing its own brand of racism to the already racism charged environment by hiring political commentators like Harry Houck. The statement “black people are prone to criminality” issued last year by him on New Day started a huge backlash and a petition to drop him from CNN. Just like all the other times, not only did this statement remain unchallenged by CNN authorities, no other action was taken against him for issuing such a racist statement, the supporting “statistics” of which he was unable to provide.

Under the cover of expert political opinion, these commentators are on a mission to spew hatred and discriminatory statements about anyone and everyone. But they’re still on the payroll. Which goes on to say much about what side of the moral compass CNN currently lies on.

11. CNN threatens national sovereignty

Imagine an outsider probing into your personal life and telling other people biased, half true versions of it. That’s exactly what CNN did to the Venezuela government earlier this year when they ran the year-long fraud investigation with CNN en Español on the air. The report accused the government of being involved in the passport and visa fraud that was being investigated.

The Venezuelan foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez denied the governments involvement and subsequently broadcasting of CNN ceased in Venezuela. Similarly, in the 2010 Thai protests, CNN reporters took to a more pro protestor and anti-government coverage style, which was unbalanced and biased.

10. It takes advantage of its viewers trust

Amber Lyon was a correspondent for CNN who revealed to a European news service about how CNN had pressured her to report selective, repetitive and false content so that the publics opinion could be swayed in favour of American aggression targeted towards Iran and Syria. She also implied that this was widespread practice at CNN and most international reports were paid for content or fabricated, which not only violates journalism ethics but also plays with viewers trust.

When Lyon discussed the matter with CNN international president, Tony Maddox, she was threatened with her severance and employee benefits to keep quiet.

9. Employees aren’t entitled to individual opinions and freedom of speech

Probably the biggest backlash at the firing of a CNN employee happened when chief middle east correspondent Octavia Nasr was fired from the company for tweeting a statement after the passing away of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Her tweet, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah…One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect[ed] a lot,” caused a wide spread reaction because Fadlallah was labeled as a terrorist by many and had strong anti-Zionist opinions.

Nasr had to issue a detailed apology before leaving CNN, and while some supported the notion, others called CNN an intellectual terrorist and a coward for firing her because of her opinions. Among many others, this is a classic example of why employees should be careful while stating their own opinions while they’re still working for CNN.

8. Rape isn’t a huge deal for CNN

Steubenville High School rape case coverage by CNN in 2013 was not only a violation of certain coverage guidelines, it was also grossly morally questionable. Throughout the trial, reporters tainted the sex offenders as helpless boys with bright futures whose lives were falling apart because of their conviction, while the 16-year-old victim was completely neglected.

If that wasn’t enough, CNN went ahead to reveal the identity of the victim by airing unedited footage of one of the rapists’ post-conviction statement. The coverage angered many people and led to a protest and online petition demanding an apology that was signed by 200,000 people.

7. It has no respect for the military and law enforcement

When you love your country, you love the men and women who fight for it and protect it. You respect them and honour them. Sadly, CNN doesn’t do either. CNN correspondents have repeatedly issued statements that attack the sovereignty of the military and law enforcement and they’re not very sorry about it.

Take for instance the statement issued by Brooke Baldwin during the 2015 Baltimore riots, when she blamed veterans for the unrest. Or the time Fredricka Whitfield called the gunman who attacked the Dallas police headquarters as “brave and courageous”. Or the time before that when Eason Jordan blamed the US military for killing journalists on purpose at the World Economic Forum. Not until there was immense public pressure and backlash did the CNN hosts apologize for their degrading comments.

6. It’s okay to make fun of victims at CNN

If you’re a victim whose story is being covered by CNN, expect no sympathy from its reporters or morality. Take for instance, when CNN Newsroom host Carol Costello was reporting on the audio release of Bristol Palin being assaulted by a man at a get-together in Alaska. Costello laughed and called it “quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across.”

Safe to say, she was not only criticized by the public but was also labeled as a hypocrite for making fun of a woman being physically abused by an unknown man, as she had recently called for the suspension of Stephen A. Smith at ESPN for his comments about women during the Ray Rice Controversy. Eventually, Costello had to give in to the pressure and CNN made her issue an apology, closing the case and making everything good again, as always at CNN.

5. Promoting racism is okay, but talking about genocide is taboo

Musician M.I.A felt offended when her hour-long interview was cut short to one minute and aired by CNN. The musician stated that she had done an interview with CNN that went on for an hour in which she condemned the mass bombing and the fatalities of the Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka government, but when the interview was released, it was edited so that only her single Paper Planes was discussed.

Later at the Grammys when she saw the same reporter and confronted her about this, the reporter told her that the interview contained the word “genocide” and had to be edited out. Sounds a little hypocritical coming from a company gaining popularity for its promotion of racism and hatred.

4. CNN doesn’t know how to maintain a balance

News channels play a vital role in influencing public opinion about anything and everything. It would be unfair to say that news channels don’t realize their power over the public, and more than a few times have abused their power too. CNN is no different. As the nation saw in the 2008 and 2016, CNN’s coverage was biased and most news about Republican candidates was negative.

Last year, people also protested that CNN didn’t give enough air time to candidate Bernie Sanders and gave more coverage to Hillary Clinton. From a network as big as CNN, people expect a more responsible and balanced approach while reporting important news like these. However, CNN has time and again failed to live up to its “most trustworthy name in news” reputation. CNN news like last year’s coverage of the congressional baseball game is an excellent example of how they mislead people into thinking that their choice of political party is the better one.

3. It plays dirty for ratings

Earlier this year, CNN anchor John Berman reported on the Harvard study of President Trumps first 100 days in office. During his show, he implied that all news channels under consideration for the study except Fox News had given unfavorable coverage of the president, which he supported with figures. The problem? These reported figures of 67% positive for Fox news were only a percentage of the actual report that corresponded to statements about Trumps fitness for office. Fox News had a favorable coverage of the president, but it was much more balanced at 48% positive of total news coverage. Which puts CNN’s 7% positive coverage under much scrutiny as it claims to be the more reliable source.

2. CNN got caught red handed for faking news to create narrative

After the POTUS called out CNN for being fake news, everyone has been in serious doubt. Their article implying that Russia had compromising information about the President was soon retracted as it was based off an unverified dossier.

This isn’t the first time CNN has published fake news. Later last year, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo issued a statement that said it was illegal to look at Wikileaks. And that only the media could look at them and inform the public about it. This was during the time Wikileaks was pushing out hacked emails from John Podesta that negatively affected the Clinton Campaign and emails about CNN and DNC collaboration to make interview questions for Trump and Ted Cruz. Of course, no such law exists. Many people also took to twitter to claim that CNN staged the anti-ISIS protest following the London Bridge attacks this year, obviously, CNN denied any such staging.

1. It thrives on controversy

WWE and John Cena demanded an apology from CNN following an investigative documentary on professional wrestling that included an interview footage of John Cena regarding drugs. According to them, CNN edited Cena’s responses to make it look like he hadn’t denied using drugs. The reply to the question “Have you ever taken drugs?” given by Cena was “Absolutely not.” But CNN used a more detailed reply John Cena had given later in the same interview.

After the complaint, CNN issued a comment that they used the other statement because they felt it was a more complete answer. But they would add both the statements in the weekend replay of the program so that viewers could see it in response to his complaint. WWE and John Cena felt that this move put them in bad light with the audience, and is a classic example of how CNN uses controversy in its programs in order to increase views and ratings.