It seems that CNN, the “fake news” outlet now seen by many as the least-trusted name in cable news that obsessed over tweets by President Trump for 13 hours, also happens to be the king of fake Twitter followers, WND reported Thursday, citing Twitter Audit, which found that of the network’s 35 million Twitter followers, 17 million — 48 percent — are bogus.
According to WND:
Twitter Audit says it calculates the quality and score of real and fake followers by taking “a sample of up to 5000 (or more, if you subscribe to Pro) Twitter followers for a user and calculates a score for each follower. This score is based on number of tweets, date of the last tweet, and ratio of followers to friends.”
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While the results aren’t perfect, the site says the calculations can determine whether a Twitter account obtained followers legitimately. It’s unclear what percentage of the “fake” followers are simply inactive Twitter users who followed the accounts but are no longer tweeting on the site. A number of factors can affect the score, such as natural drop-off or churn rates.
Furthermore, high-profile Twitter users can – and often do – purchase thousands or even millions of followers. As CNET reports, any Twitter user can buy 1,000 followers for as little as $12.
“We use these scores to determine whether any given user is real or fake. Of course, this scoring method is not perfect but it is a good way to tell if someone with lots of followers is likely to have increased their follower count by inorganic, fraudulent, or dishonest means,” Twitter Audit explains.
WND noted that many outlets, including Fox News, has a high number of fake Twitter followers, but said that in its analysis, CNN was the worse. So how did others stand up? WND posted the ratings of other left-wing news organizations:
- 47 percent of ABC News’ Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 46 percent of the News York Times’ Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 41 percent of the Huffington Post’s Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 40 percent of the Wall Street Journal’s Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 40 percent of Reuters’ Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 36 percent of the Associated Press’ Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 36 percent of the Washington Post’s Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 35 percent of the Daily Mail Online’s Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 35 percent of CBS News’ Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
- 34 percent of NBC News’ Twitter followers are determined to be fake.
Conservative-leaning news outlets, on the other hand, had a significantly lower number of fake followers:
- 4 percent of Breitbart News’ Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
- 6 percent of Newsbusters’ Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
- 12 percent of the Washington Times’ Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
- 16 percent of National Review Online’s Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
- 16 percent of Newsmax’s Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
- 15 percent of Hot Air’s Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
- 23 percent of Townhall’s Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
- 30 percent of the Daily Caller’s Twitter followers were determined to be fake.
Chelsea Shilling added:
As WND has reported, CNN has been busted multiple times for bogus reporting in just the last month. It misreported an emotional moment before the Congressional Baseball Game, tweeting that it was only Democrats who knelt for prayer on the field.
Also, a CNN producer was caught on hidden camera admitting the network’s focus on allegations that Trump’s election campaign colluded with Russia is mostly for ratings, noting his mostly liberal audience wouldn’t have to put up with that kind of treatment of former President Obama.
It was also reported Monday that three CNN employees handed in their resignations over a retracted story linking Trump to Russia. The story had been based on a single anonymous source.
And let’s not forget that Kathy Griffin — the alleged comedian who though an ISIS-like photo of her holding up a facsimile of Trump’s bloody severed head — worked for CNN. She was let go after that stunt. Additionally, brain-eating host Reza Aslan referred to Trump as a “piece of s**t” for correctly identifying a terror attack.
Meanwhile, CNN claims it’s Trump that’s obsessed with media bias.
“This is a de facto declaration of making the media an enemy of the state, that is what this effort winds up amounting to,” “New Day” host Chris Cuomo said on Wednesday. “It’s not just Cillizza, it’s not just Cuomo, it’s not just one story. It’s all of them all the time, they’re all fake. Don’t trust them, [reporters] only trust us [The White House].”
Related:
- Fake news CNN claims Trump’s words are physically endangering journalists
- CNN’s Jim Acosta whines: White House takes questions from conservatives!
- Video: CNN producer admits Trump-Russia narrative is ‘BS’
- CNN’s Chris Cillizza demands examples of fake news, gets buried on Twitter
- This is CNN: Destroy Trump by any means necessary
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