CNN: “Nice little life you have there. Shame if something were to happen to it.”

Here is what happened…

A Reddit user made a fairly crappy GIF of Trump clotheslining CNN and put it on Twitter.

It would have been a big fat nothing except that the POTUS retweeted it.

This caused CNN to investigate the true identity of the GIF maker.

CNN contacted said GIF maker and, under threat of ruining his life, made him engage in a session of Marxist self-criticism and self-denunciation.

Then Ted Cruz got in the act.

Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz even suggested on Twitter that CNN could have a legal problem.

“Troubling. I assume CNN’s lawyers are examining GA § 16-8-16 Theft by extortion. If CNN constructively obtained the gif-maker’s IP…it’s a GA crime if they threatened to ‘Disseminate any information tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule….’” he wrote.

The Reddit user was behind the controversial GIF that Trump tweeted out Sunday — and that showed Trump wrestling an opponent (from his pre-politician days) with a CNN logo plastered over his face. The KFile group found the creator — user name “HanA**holeSolo” — by comparing information posted on Reddit to Facebook profiles. While CNN decided against publishing the user’s real name, the network appeared to attach a caveat to that decision.

So, once again CNN shoots itself in its own bullet ridden foot.

Look, there is right to anonymity for Internet trolls. If CNN would have simply published his name, not much would have come of that, what with the First Amendment and all. That is a free press.

What you can’t do, however, is threaten someone with ruin in order to get them to do what you want them to do. That is exactly what CNN did. How many times will CNN shoot itself in the foot? Turn in tomorrow.