EVEN THE PRESS SHOULD BE COURTEOUS ON OCCASION:

Several of the objections made to CNN's conduct here appear to be false. That includes the claim by the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., that the user threatened by CNN is 15 years old (the CNN reporter, Andrew Kaczynski, said the Reddit user is an adult). The claim that CNN "blackmailed" the user into apologizing -- expressed by a Twitter hashtag, #CNNBlackmail, that still sits at the top of trending topics on the site -- seems dubious at best, since there is no evidence the user spoke to CNN before posting his apology (though CNN itself says it contacted the user the day before he posted his apology, which presumably means he knew CNN had found out his name when he posted it).

But the invalidity of those particular accusations does not exonerate CNN. There is something self-evidently creepy, bullying, and heavy-handed about a large news organization publicly announcing that it will expose someone's identity if he ever again publishes content on the internet that the network deems inappropriate or objectionable. Whether it was CNN's intent or not, its article makes it appear as if CNN will be monitoring this citizen's online writing, and will punish him with exposure if he writes something they dislike.

There is also something untoward about the fact that CNN -- the subject of the original video -- was the news outlet that uncovered his identity. That fact creates the appearance of vengeance: If you, even as a random and anonymous internet user, post content critical of CNN, then it will use its vast corporate resources to investigate you, uncover your identity, and threaten to expose you if you ever do so again.

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