Media Bias: CNN Politics reporter's 'analysis' includes opinions

With the Neutral Zone Infraction, Just the News tries to do its part to maintain the line between fact and opinion in American journalism by blowing the whistle each week on an egregious example of slanted coverage by reporters. This week's offender: CNN Politics reporter Stephen Collinson.

In a May 20 piece titled "Trump sows division and confusion as anxious country edges toward reopening," CNN reporter Stephen Collinson opened with a statement that should have earned the writing an opinion label. But like all of the recent work listed on his CNN.com profile, the piece is labeled as "analysis."

"If America navigates its risky pursuit of a comeback without unleashing a vicious resurgence of coronavirus, it will be in spite of President Donald Trump, not because of him," the lead paragraph asserts. 

The president "is not providing unifying national leadership," Collinson wrote in the post.

In a May 21 "analysis" piece, Collinson said that the president "is making clear that he plans to use every instrument of the federal government to ensure he wins a second term. This ranges from the seemingly trivial — the use of the Lincoln Memorial as a backdrop to a boosterish Fox News town hall — to the more sinister, the declassification of intelligence to fuel conservative conspiracy theories," Collinson wrote.

According to his bio on CNN's website, "Stephen Collinson is a reporter for CNN Politics covering the White House, and politics across the United States and around the world." His Twitter bio describes him as "Senior Reporter CNN Politics."

The practice of reporting news entails the transmission of information devoid of opinion, but while Collinson is described as a reporter, his work is rife with judgments and opinions. 

Just the News reached out to CNN for comment.