The recent interview of a drug-trafficking cartel member by CNN’s Isobel Yeung is not a story from “The Onion” or the “Babylon Bee.” It’s not a joke. It actually happened.

CNN’s big scoop wasn’t investigating fentanyl deaths in America. Instead, their bombshell exclusive was handing a microphone to a Sinaloa cartel member to ask how the fentanyl drug trafficker felt about being called a terrorist by Donald Trump.

Clearly, when Americans are dying in record numbers, CNN decided that their real story should be the emotional journey of a drug trafficker, who said he was in a “sad” situation.

“We have to eat” was his excuse, blaming Americans for being the consumers of the drug.

The network, which used to pride itself on journalism (long, long ago), now seems focused on letting cartel members justify their actions – and boosting ratings.

Stephen Miller, senior adviser to President Trump, not known for mincing words, tore into the circus, accusing corporate media of being more concerned about the feelings of mass murderers than the lives of dead Americans. Miller told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, “Yes, the American press is trying to see how it hurts cartel members’ feelings when Donald Trump has accurately portrayed them as foreign terrorist enemies of the United States…Hundreds of thousands of Americans, hundreds of thousands, have been killed by the fentanyl that these monsters have trafficked into our country.”

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wasn’t having it either. She called the whole thing “despicable,” noting that the same network that melted down over Trump’s tough border rhetoric is now cozying up to the men responsible for flooding the U.S. with fentanyl.

But rest easy, America – the cartel member made sure to explain that he only sells drugs because he has to put food on the table for himself and his family – not because of, you know, greed or complete disregard for human life. We’re sure that brought comfort to the families burying loved ones after overdoses.

Maybe next week, CNN can sit down with an arsonist to ask if being called a “firebug” is stigmatizing.