CNN posted a follow-up to their article about the Reddit user apologizing to CNN about making a meme featuring Donald Trump clotheslining Vince McMahan who had his head replaced with the CNN logo. CNN coerced an apology out of an alleged 15-year-old who made the meme and shared it on Reddit. However, it turns out that CNN has admitted that the person they attempted to blackmail into an apology wasn’t the one who made the meme that Donald Trump shared on his Twitter account.

In an article published on July 5th, 2017, they acknowledge that the White House has stated that President Donald Trump did not get the meme from Reddit; the White House declined to say where Trump originally found the meme, but an anonymous person who claims to be from Mexico, took to 4chan’s /pol/ to claim responsibility for having originally posted the meme on January 12th, 2017.

Unconfirmed: The person who originally made the Trump-WWE meme appears to be an Anon from Mexico.

CNN literally can’t do anything correctly. pic.twitter.com/UINmYXigBP — /pol/ News Forever (@polNewsForever) July 5, 2017

Obviously an anon claiming responsibility for a meme is like a discombobulated police officer claiming a yellow taxi in New York committed a traffic violation.

Nevertheless, CNN reporter Chris Cillizza writes…

“On the one hand, we have a detailed analysis of the origin of the GIF, which first appeared on Reddit last Wednesday, and its creator acknowledging he made it. “On the other we have the White House — with no name attached! — insisting Trump didn’t get the GIF from Reddit. “Which leaves an obvious question: Where did Trump get it then?”

This has created a serious ethical vortex following on the news that CNN had allegedly blackmailed the Reddit user by threatening to dox him if he didn’t apologize. The alleged 15-year-old capitulated.

There had been rumors that the original creator of the meme was from Mexico, but CNN is reporting that the meme that the Reddit user posted was slightly different from the one Donald Trump shared, thus they admit that they may have targeted the wrong person in the supposed blackmail attempt.

With CNN admitting that the White House is claiming that the meme didn’t come from Reddit, it does mean that their previous report about the meme-maker is non-credible for as far as information sourcing is concerned. Worse yet is that CNN violated a New York State law in regards to blackmail, but there hasn’t been any word yet on if any sort of legal ramifications will follow.

For now, CNN is simply seeing their reputation take a serious hit due to unscrupulous actions of their own doing.