I think we all know that Barack Obama didn’t literally found ISIS, right? I mean, literally everyone in America knows this. I suspect even Donald Trump knows this – I assume he was either confused by the question, speaking in hyperbole, or trying to lose. Any of the above is equally possible where Trump is concerned.

So when Trump goes out there and says that Obama founded ISIS, is this headline really necessary?

Now look, I get the impulse. You don’t want to write quote such a thing and let people get the idea that you might possibly agree with this somehow, or think it’s a potentially reasonable thing to so.

Nor is this the first time CNN has flat out called Trump a liar in a graphic. Remember back when they did this?

But I think – and Trump is testing the limits of this principle, I will admit – that it’s not the job to repeat something a political candidate says and then flat out say (that’s wrong) right afterwards. I mean, it’s certainly fine to include actual facts in the body of the story, like information about who actually founded ISIS, but this whole thing has an air of internet twitter troll account than it does supposedly objective media.

Look, we get it, Trump says things that are false – so false and crazy that it makes you feel dirty just repeating the fact that he said them without making it clear that you are rolling your eyes. But I think it still ought to be the job, at least if CNN wants to keep the illusion that it’s a neutral news organization.