On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted a 10-year-old video of him guest-starring at a pro wrestling event, doctored to make it look like he was knocking down a man with CNN's logo superimposed over his face. After the President beats up "CNN," another image pops up on the screen: "FNN: Fraud News Network." 

A Reddit user named "HanA**holeSolo," claimed credit. “Holy shit!!” HanA**holeSolo wrote. “I wake up and have my morning coffee and who retweets my shitpost but the MAGA EMPORER [sic] himself!!! I am honored!!” Pretty soon, other memes and images created by this user also circulated around the internet. Many of them were racist against blacks, immigrants, and Jews and used vile language. After the GIF was perceived by many liberals to incite violence, the anonymous creator apologized. Before it was taken down by /The_Donald subreddit, his apology read:

"First of all, I would like to apologize to the members of the reddit community for getting this site and this sub embroiled in a controversy that should never have happened. I would also like to apologize for the posts made that were racist, bigoted, and anti-semitic. I am in no way this kind of person, I love and accept people of all walks of life and have done so for my entire life. I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life, I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction from the subs on reddit and never meant any of the hateful things I said in those posts. I would never support any kind of violence or actions against others simply for what they believe in, their religion, or the lifestyle they choose to have. Nor would I carry out any violence against anyone based upon that or support anyone who did. The meme was created purely as satire, it was not meant to be a call to violence against CNN or any other news affiliation. I had no idea anyone would take it and put sound to it and then have it put up on the President's Twitter feed. It was a prank, nothing more. What the President's feed showed was not the original post that was posted here, but loaded up somewhere else and sound added to it then sent out on Twitter. I thought it was the original post that was made and that is why I took credit for it. I have the highest respect for the journalist community and they put their lives on the line every day with the jobs that they do in reporting the news."

Notwithstanding this apology, CNN established the identity of the user responsible for the GIF... and they're not telling who it is. CNN reports:

CNN is not publishing "HanA**holeSolo's" name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.

CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.

In other words, CNN promises to blackmail the GIF creator if he doesn't behave. Now that's responsible journalism.