Earlier this week, President Trump posted a video for his re-election campaign, which viewers quickly realized had used a bit of music from composer Hans Zimmer’s score for the 2012 superhero film The Dark Knight Rises . Per The Inquisitr , Warner Media, the parent company for studio Warner Brothers, told Deadline of its intention to file a copyright claim.
By Wednesday morning, the video had indeed been taken down, leaving a “content is not available” error message below the original tweet by the president.
The head of Trump’s 2020 campaign sees something suspicious.
“Sad to see an ? AT&T- owned company pull such a great video made by an every day American in good fun,” campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted Wednesday. “AT&T now owns ? @ CNN ? and is positioning themselves as a weapon of the left.”
The tweet also included a photo of Trump’s tweet with the error message.
It is indeed true that AT&T owns what used to be called Time Warner and is now Warner Media, and that CNN is part of that corporation as well. Trump has feuded with CNN throughout his presidency over the network’s coverage of him and even sought to block AT&T’s acquisition of the company, although that merger ultimately went through last year.
However, there is no indication that CNN had anything to do with Warner Bros’ decision to make a copyright claim. Movie studios tend to zealously guard their intellectual property, especially when the copyrighted material is used in a high-profile manner. It is most likely that the video posted by Trump used part of The Dark Knight Rises score without permission, and that the president was likely not thinking about copyright considerations when he posted the message.
Sad to see an ? @ATT ? owned company pull such a great video made by an every day American in good fun. AT&T now owns ? @CNN ? and is positioning themselves as a weapon of the left. pic.twitter.com/jP9kM0Rx7p
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) April 10, 2019
The original video seems to have been sourced from a pro-Trump forum on Reddit. It included video of the president with various world leaders, as well as footage of former President Barack Obama and Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Brad Parscale, a former Trump Organization employee, served as digital media director for Trump’s campaign in 2016 and was seen as one of the architects of the social media efforts that were so crucial to the victorious presidential campaign. In February of 2018, Parscale was named campaign manager of Trump’s 2020 re-election effort.
A long list of musical artists, including Neil Young, Rihanna, R.E.M., Twisted Sister, and Aerosmith, has moved to block President Trump from using their music at his rallies and other public events.
