CNN strikes back at Trump after he attacks them: We are confident in Russia dossier reporting

After a contentious exchange between CNN political reporter Jim Acosta and Donald Trump in Wednesdays' press conference—in which the president-elect refused to answer Acosta's question and suggested the network spread "fake news"—CNN released a statement defending their reporting on the story in question: the existence of a memo containing salacious allegations against Donald Trump and suggesting that they might impact his relationship with Russia.

In the past few days media organization's handling of the documents have stirred debate. The CNN article referenced the existence of the memo, but did not provide details that they could not confirm. Buzzfeed then published the memo in its entirety, prompting critics to argue that they were irresponsibly spreading unverifiable information. The president-elect called Buzzfeed a "failing pile of garbage."

On Wednesday, CNN distanced itself from Buzzfeed with the following statement (reported by Erik Wemple):