I'd count cross referencing reddit and facebook as putting in a fair bit of effort, at least considering how little is usually put in.
I'd have a lot more satisfaction about a troll type buckling if it weren't CNN doing it and if the guy was more at fault. End of the day it's a wrestling gif that got exposure because Trump posted it, it was not an assault on the 4th estate and it is utterly trivial. Yet CNN is so self important that they had them tracking down its author as their lead item, and were both smug and hypocritical about it. Ultimately I end up preferring that something bad would happen to CNN, rather than some random redditor.
Theoretically, if a site doxs or threatens to dox a reddit user by trawling their posts it's a sitewide ban for them from reddit as punishment, theoretically it's about the worst infraction there is. Doesn't have anything to do with quality, it being reddit quality doesn't enter into things. Happened to Gawker, for example. Won't happen to CNN though, as all the CTR Shareblue bots would throw a fit about it.
Really? To me CNN is middle of road for mainstream media in the US but Reddit is just a cancer. Didn't know they have an issue with sites doxing their users, kind of rich that they do. But alright. Not quite sure the wrong kind of shills are that much in charge of Reddit.