US mainstream news outlets like CBS News with actual reporters on the ground at the time: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/there-was-no-tiananmen-square-massacre/
Classified US communications with assets on the ground: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/89BEIJING18828_a.html
Image Analysis
From your CNN link:
Saying that the "Tiananmen Square massacre" killings actually happened in other parts of the city may be an important academic distinction, but it isn't a particularly stirring defense of the army's actions.
Let me be clear here, No one's denying skirmishes and bloodshed. But the way it is portrayed in the western media is actually far from the ground reality. Have a read at that btw even WikiLeaks provide evidence of fabrication by the US
thx, nice read!
Considering this is the image of Tiananmen that lives in the western popular consciousness, I think there is real value in deconstructing this myth though. When I learned that western journalists are all in agreement that no massacre took place in the square itself, I became more interested in researching the events myself because other Western views concerning what happened could also be misleading or outright lies
spoiler
they were