A CNN correspondent referred to TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who identifies as a transgender woman, as a male during a Tuesday segment covering transgender activist’s Bud Light controversy.
CNN’s Ryan Young detailed “confusion” and “anger” amongst on-the-street interviews with people across the country.
Two interviewees featured took a stance in favor of the boycott with one man saying he didn’t want Mulvaney and LGBTQ issues “shoved down their throat,” while another grandmother said she didn’t want LGBTQ ideas exposed to children.
Another man, who appeared to work in a bar, claimed he had only experienced one patron who refused to purchase Bud Light, noting other patrons “rolled their eyes.”
“This Bud Light really seems to send a chasm down the middle in terms of talking to folks,” Young said, adding one bar in Chicago had stopped serving the beer brand citing Bud Light’s lack of support for Mulvaney after the controversy went viral.
“He, of course, is the transgender person they were going to sponsor and go along with Bud Light,” Young continued referring to Mulvaney as a male.
“They didn’t like how Bud Light didn’t stand by him after all this.”
CNN national correspondent Ryan Young misgenders Dylan Mulvaney live on the air.
The anchors didn't even correct him, tragic. pic.twitter.com/n7VGCsbkdt
— Expose Them (@ExposeDarkDeeds) July 12, 2023
Media Matters’ Ari Drennen slammed CNN’s coverage, referring to it as “unbelievably bad” in a Tuesday Twitter post.
“Unbelievably bad CNN segment fails to interrogate where the Bud Light boycott came from,” Drennen wrote. “Launders perspectives of people who think their grandchildren will be harmed by the knowledge that trans people exist. Misgenders Dylan Mulvaney.”
Drennen concluded by suggesting the segment could have been run by Fox News.
Unbelievably bad CNN segment
-fails to interrogate where the Bud Light boycott came from
-launders perspectives of people who think their grandchildren will be harmed by the knowledge that trans people exist
-misgenders Dylan Mulvaney
This segment could've run on Fox News! pic.twitter.com/dBc9xVeR3Q— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) July 11, 2023
“CNN correspondent Ryan Young misgenders Dylan Mulvaney twice during report, calls her ‘he’ and ‘him,’” wrote former NBCUniversal executive Mike Sington.
“[CNN] has had trans-positive pieces before, even on [Dylan Mulvaney] herself,” another Twitter user said. “It has run positive trans-advocacy segments (recently on [Michael Smerconish]). Misgendering trans ppl in 2023 is not a faux pas but intentional bad politics (as well as blatantly unprofessional). Do better [CNN].”
Mulvaney previously suggested referring to the transgender activist as a male should be “illegal” saying “adults can be bullies too.”
“When someone writes that I’m a child predator solely based on the fact that I’m a trans woman, well, that’s just bullying,” Mulvaney said in an October 7 TikTok post. “Or even worse in my opinion are, like, the articles written about me using ‘he’ pronouns and calling me a man over and over again.”
“I feel like that should be illegal,” Mulvaney added. “I don’t know, that’s just bad journalism.”
This Week, Mulvaney revealed the TikTok influencer was taking a vacation in Peru.
“It’s a little sad that I had to leave my country to feel safe,” Mulvaney said. “But that will get better eventually.”
