You ever watch a network try to spin a story so hard they pull a muscle? Pull up a chair.
Two guys allegedly pack homemade bombs and roll into New York City to throw them at a protest outside the mayor’s house. ISIS ties. IEDs. A literal terror attack on American soil. And CNN — the network that once called itself “the most trusted name in news” with a straight face — looked at all of that and thought: you know what angle is missing here? The weather.
That’s not a joke. That’s the post they actually published.
“Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather,”
CNN wrote on X before the internet collectively lost its mind and they quietly deleted it. Two guys allegedly heading to commit a terror attack — and CNN’s framing was basically a travel blog entry. Warm weather, great city, lovely time to throw explosives.
Joe Rogan wasn’t having it. Not even a little.
“The CNN one is so kooky,” Rogan said on The Joe Rogan Experience, screenshot in hand like a man who knew history was being made in real time.
“They did take it down because it’s so f***ing ridiculous. But the internet never forgets… Thank god I saved it. I took a screenshot because I’m like, ‘This is such a crazy way to frame two guys who wanted to do a terror attack.’”
Then he did what Rogan does best — he held the absurdity up to the light and let it cook.
“Two Pennsylvania teenagers, just regular fellas from PA, from Philly! Two Philly boys had a couple of cheesesteaks and then got on the train!”
The man has a gift. That’s not mockery — that’s an autopsy.
“Why the f*** would you even say that?” Rogan asked. “Could have been a normal day if they weren’t going there to commit terrorism.”
Exactly. Could’ve been a normal day if they weren’t, you know, terrorists. That’s the part CNN forgot to weight appropriately against the nice weather.
Rogan also zeroed in on something the rest of the press corps is too scared to touch. New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani — democratic socialist, some say further left than that — is Muslim. The attackers were allegedly Islamist counter-protesters. And CNN’s first instinct was to soften the frame around the whole thing.
“Are you trying to downplay the possibility of — first of all, now in New York, because you have a guy who’s an avowed whatever he is, democratic socialist, some say communist, but also Muslim. And then you have these Islamists who are doing a terrorist attack. So are you trying to soften that? It seems like you’re trying to soften it.”
That’s the question every honest journalist should be asking. Instead, CNN, the New York Times, and NPR were busy framing the attack as targeting an “anti-Islam” protest — even though the IEDs were allegedly thrown by Islamic counter-protesters. Read that twice. Let it settle.
CNN eventually issued a statement explaining the deletion:
“A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting.”
“Failed to reflect the gravity.” That’s corporate speak for: we got caught.
CNN’s “NewsNight” host Abby Phillip also had to issue her own Wednesday apology after incorrectly claiming on air that the attack targeted Mamdani himself rather than the protesters. So between the cozy weather post and the backwards attack direction, CNN managed to get basically everything wrong — twice — before lunch.
The suspects, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were arrested after allegedly throwing improvised explosive devices at a protest outside Mamdani’s mansion. That’s the story. That’s always been the story. Joe Rogan read a screenshot and understood it better than an entire editorial team at a major cable news network.
And that right there tells you everything about where we are in 2026 — a podcaster with a screenshot is doing more honest journalism than the people with the studios, the chyrons, and the self-congratulatory awards on the wall.
Warm weather, though. Really lovely this time of year.
