CNN faces backlash over handling of doctored Trump wrestling video

Yet the way the decision was explained and deep distrust of the network among Trump's supporters provoked a backlash Wednesday.

New York, July 6: CNN says a concern for the man's safety led to its decision not to publish the name of a Reddit user whose doctored video of Donald Trump beating up a man with a CNN logo superimposed over his face was later tweeted out by the president himself.

The network revealed that it had identified the man, who apologised for his posting and said it had been a prank. CNN said it would not reveal his name, noting he had shown remorse, taken down his account and promised not to publish ugly material online.

But CNN's statement that it "reserves the right to publish his name should any of that change" led to a backlash. Critics said that the network was essentially blackmailing the man, which the network denied

CNN also received heat from another direction for its decision to withhold the user's name.

The video sent out by Trump on Sunday morning had been retweeted more than 340,000 times by Wednesday. That passes Trump's tweet the morning of last November's election - "TODAY WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! as his most-shared post, Twitter said.

PTI