CNN's public perception rapidly declined around the time the network's reporting suggested Donald Trump's rhetoric prompted a Republican Party office in North Carolina to be firebombed, according to a recent poll.
CNN's brand perception levels among the American public, which are currently below those of MSNBC and Fox News, steadily declined starting in August for three months until mid-October, when the network's numbers plummeted, a YouGov poll found.
The survey, flagged by Townhall, asked respondents, "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news, or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"
Poll results showed that MSNBC's perception dropped from mid-October through Christmas but rose by 50 percent in recent weeks. Fox News, the only one of the three news networks to have a neutral rather than negative perception, saw its numbers drop from early June through Thanksgiving.
But neither outlet nearly experienced the decline that CNN did over the past several months.
The negative acceleration coincided with a local Republican office in North Carolina being firebombed and CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewing Melania Trump about her husband's "Access Hollywood" tape, in which he made lewd comments about women with former NBC host Billy Bush.
YouGov noted that conservative critics said at the time CNN's coverage of the North Carolina firebombing suggested Donald Trump's rhetoric helped incite the attack, while some viewers did not like Cooper pushing the current first lady on questions about her husband's lewd comments.
CNN's negative acceleration point happened in mid-October 2016, around the time Anderson Cooper interviewed Melania Trump, notably discussing her husband's famous "Access Hollywood" tape. Also at that time, a local North Carolina Republican office was firebombed, causing conservative-leaning media to pounce on CNN for suggesting Trump's rhetoric spurred the incident.
While CNN's perception levels steadily declined for three months beginning in August, the scores fell even more sharply at that mid-October point, hitting bottom around Election Day.
CNN has been labeled "fake news" multiple times by President Donald Trump and has struggled to recover from its reputation hit in the months following the election, the poll found.
"We have no idea who has done this. We don’t know if it’s a Republican, a Democrat, a movement. No idea," Stelter said. "Could be some core of extremists, some sort of radical. Hopefully, we’ll get more information soon. But that kind of action is unacceptable. And we need to have the temperature come down on all sides right now."
Then he added, for the kicker: "Unfortunately, Donald Trump is the lead in terms of raising the temperature at this moment in time."