The mainstream media hasn’t learned anything. They keep peddling the same tired narratives.
And now a CNN reporter went off the rails with an outrageous claim about Donald Trump.
Amanpour’s Exaggerated Fears of U.S. Travel
CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour stirred controversy this week by likening a trip to the United States to visiting North Korea, revealing a penchant for sensationalism that undermines the network’s credibility.
Speaking on her podcast The Ex Files, the British-Iranian journalist, 67, claimed she was “afraid” to travel to Harvard University last month to deliver a speech, citing unfounded concerns about border scrutiny.
Her remarks, steeped in hyperbole, reflect CNN’s tendency to amplify narratives that paint the U.S.—particularly under President Donald Trump’s influence—in an unfairly negative light, overshadowing her admission that her fears were baseless.
Dramatizing a Routine Trip
Amanpour detailed her elaborate precautions, telling her ex-husband and co-host James Rubin, “I’m a foreigner, I don’t have a green card, I’m not an American citizen, I’m fairly prominent, and I literally prepared to go to America as if I was going to North Korea.”
She added, “I took a burner phone, Jamie, imagine that,” explaining she left her regular phone and iPad behind, loading the burner with only a few contacts, including her assistant, Rubin, her son, and a CNN lawyer. “I was really afraid. I’d even talked to the CNN security person, because I’ve heard that many, including British citizens, are being stopped at the border and questioned for hours and hours and hours,” she said.
Yet, she conceded, “So, huge sigh of relief I breathed, but wow, can you imagine if I’m afraid, what do others think?”
This admission of an uneventful trip undermines her alarmist narrative, suggesting CNN’s inclination to sensationalize rather than report objectively, especially when it comes to Trump’s America.
A History of Controversial Comparisons
Amanpour’s latest remarks echo her 2020 controversy, when she drew ire for comparing Trump’s administration to N-zi Germany on CNN.
Days after the 2020 election, she stated, “This week, 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened,” referencing the 1938 N-zi pogrom, and continued, “It was the N-zis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and truth.
After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth.”
Jewish advocacy groups condemned the analogy, with one urging her to “stop using the horrors of the Holocaust to justify an agenda.”
This pattern of inflammatory rhetoric, from N-zi comparisons to equating U.S. travel with North Korea, highlights Amanpour’s—and CNN’s—bias, casting doubt on their commitment to balanced reporting while fueling Trump’s critique of mainstream media exaggeration.
