Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Links - 31st May 2023 (2 - US Media: CNN)

Meme - "Mark Dice @MarkDice: "Notice they only mention the race of those involved when the murderer is white and the victim is black."
CNN @CNN: "Police have charged a 25-year-old man with first-degree murder after they say he shot and killed a 5-year-old boy last week in Wilson, North Carolina."

CNN article comparing soldiers to media is from 2018, not Veterans Day - "CLAIM: CNN ran an article on Veterans Day arguing that “we thank soldiers for their service” and “should also thank the media for the same reason especially when the stakes have never been higher.” AP’S ASSESSMENT: Partly false. While the opinion piece is real, CNN did not run the story on Veterans Day. It was published in August 2018. .. The opinion piece ran on August 3, 2018, with the headline, “The press isn’t the enemy, it’s the protector.”  The article, which contained the comment about soldiers in its final paragraph, was written by Joseph Holt, an ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame."
Naturally, when shared on Facebook this got hidden behind a "fact check" on the technicality

O’Keefe video shows CNN’s Van Jones calling Russia story a ‘nothingburger’ - "Conservative provocateur James O’Keefe of Project Veritas released Wednesday another secretly recorded tape of a CNN employee, this time featuring political commentator and host Van Jones saying the network’s heavy coverage of possible collusion between Trump administration officials and Russia during the 2016 presidential election “is just a big nothingburger.”... Project Veritas released a video of a medical producer at CNN saying that while he believes the Trump-Russia narrative is “bullshit,” CEO Jeff Zucker has instructed his employees to focus on it to help boost the network’s ratings."

Meme - John Griffin @JGriffNYC: "Just did the math. We have, count 'em, FOUR stories about people abusing kids today. 3 up now. If we're society's mirror, you people suck"
"Ex-CNN producer John Griffin pleads guilty to child sex charge"

WATCH: Project Veritas busts CNN director admitting network preys on COVID fears to drive ratings - "CNN technical director Charles Chester admitting that the network hyped the coronavirus pandemic in order to drive their ratings. "COVID? Gangbusters with ratings," Chester said. "Which is why we constantly have the death toll on the side."... Chester admitted to wanting the death toll to be higher in order to increase the network's ratings... Explaining why CNN wanted to report a higher coronavirus death toll, Chester said "it's fear. Like, fear really drives numbers," referring to TV ratings. "Fear is the thing that keeps you tuned in.  "If it bleeds, it leads," Chester said with a smirk. "No one ever says those things out loud, but it's obvious.""

BREAKING: CNN director admits Matt Gaetz coverage is Democrat propaganda - "CNN engaging intentionally in creating and spreading propaganda to boost Joe Biden's campaign during the 2020 election season. The second video is all about how they planned to destroy Florida Representative Matt Gaetz."

BREAKING: CNN director admits network is anti-Trump propaganda: 'Our focus was to get Trump out of office' - ""[Trump's] hand was shaking or whatever, I think. We brought in so many medical people to tell a story that was all speculation—that he was neurologically damaged, and he was losing it. He's unfit to—you know, whatever. We were creating a story there that we didn't know anything about. That's what—I think that's propaganda," Chester says.  In an effort to give the exact opposite treatment to Biden, Chester said "We would always show shots of him [Biden] jogging and that [he’s] healthy, you know, and him in aviator shades. Like you paint him as a young geriatric." After the election season, Chester can be heard to remark that their first goal was to get Trump out of office, and that the next thing will be to focus on Biden's pet issue, climate change... As far as COVID is concerned? That's practically a thing of the past, Chester said. "It [COVID] will taper off to a point that it's not a problem anymore. Climate change can take years, so they'll [CNN will] probably be able to milk that quite a bit…Climate change is going to be the next COVID thing for CNN…Fear sells.""

Just in case CNN saying its goal was to oust Trump wasn't bad enough, here's their technical director saying their COVID death toll was "gangbusters with ratings" and reporters are "always leading" guests in interviews - ""Any reporter on CNN, what they're actually doing is they're telling the person what to say... it's always leading them in a direction before they even open their mouths."... "And the only people we let on the air, for the most part, are people who have a proven track record of taking the bait.""

CNN Director: CNN Reporters Manipulate People, Those On TV Have ‘Proven Track Record’ Of Taking ‘Bait’ - "Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist, noted how damaging the segment was to the credibility of those who appear on the network.  “The thing he admits at the end about the only voices they allow on air being the ones that are easily controlled is devastating to every CNN reporter/contributor/host’s credibility,” Hemingway said. “Not that wise people needed to have him admit that.”"

Clay Travis Rips CNN: Banned Me For Saying ‘Boobs’ But Welcomed Back ‘Guy Caught Masturbating On A Zoom Call’ - "sports commentator Clay Travis, who was banned from CNN after he said he “believed in the First Amendment and boobs,” roasted CNN for bringing back legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after he had been caught masturbating on a Zoom call with colleagues from The New Yorker."

New survey shows Fox News more trusted than MSNBC, CNN - "Fox News was ranked the “most trusted” American TV news brand in the United States, and was second overall, behind only the British-based BBC... Ninety percent of the viewers surveyed said they trusted the BCC, with 87 percent saying they trusted Fox News.  PBS finished third with 86 percent, followed by Bloomberg and MSNBC... DePauw University professor and media analyst Jeffrey McCall told Fox News the study is a fair indication of how viewers feel about news organizations.  “A key to this study is that it assesses viewers who watch a channel three-plus times a week. Thus, unlike some studies, it gets input from people who actually watch and know something about the channel they are rating,” McCall said. “Some studies of media credibility have respondents assessing channels they don't watch and of which they have little real experience."
The cope will be that Americans are all ignorant, but that undermines the BBC and PBS at the same time. But probably liberals hate Fox more than they love the BBC and PBS
CNN was the least trusted major TV news brand

WATCH: CNN hosts who spread countless hateful hoaxes admit they avoided having Kayleigh McEnany on air because 'she lies' - "Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany didn't make the cut... Stetler and Tapper were both on board with lies about Russian collusion during Trump's term in office, and were party to the spreading of numerous "hateful hoaxes such as Covington, Jussie Smollett and Brett Kavanaugh.""

CNN Condemns D-Day Soldiers For Lack Of Diversity | Babylon Bee

Departing CNN anchor criticizes network for lack of diversity and not providing opportunities for women - "Departing CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin criticized the news network on her way out the door, suggesting not enough was done by the company to ensure equal opportunities for women."

CNN viewership drops 44 percent in first week after Trump presidency

CNN's corporate boss David Zaslav wants network for 'Republicans, Democrats' - "Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is renewing its focus on “journalism” — signaling he wants the scandal-scarred, left-leaning network to eventually deliver straight news that also appeals to conservatives. The CEO, whose company owns CNN, Warner Bros., HBO, Animal Planet and TLC, told reporters at Allen & Co.’s “summer camp for billionaires” in Sun Valley, Idaho, that CNN’s new approach will pay off in the long term, even as ratings sink to historic lows.   “Journalism first. America needs a news network where everybody can come and be heard; Republicans, Democrats,” Zaslav said. “I think you’re seeing more of that at CNN. We’re not going to look at the ratings and, in the long run, it’s going to be worth more.”  Zaslav, who took the helm of Discovery and WarnerMedia after it merged to form Warner Bros. Discovery in April, hired Chris Licht as head of CNN, following the ouster of Jeff Zucker earlier this year. His mandate for Licht, a former executive producer of CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” was to get rid of the sensational, partisan, Trump-focused coverage made popular under Zucker."
Clearly under Trump CNN was neutral and objective and they're only admitting they were biased then because now they're biased

New CNN CEO’s Bleak Message For Employees At Far-Left Network: You ‘Might Not’ Like What’s Coming

Tape shows: ethically, CNN chief a little shaky - "The public legend about Zucker, furthered by Donald Trump himself and buttressed by reports in conservative media like Project Veritas, is that he despises Trump. We’ve heard reports in recent years of Zucker ordering staff to be “fully committed” to Trump’s impeachment, for instance.  What these new tapes make plain is that this is likely neither a personal nor political issue with Zucker, who had a relationship with Trump dating back years. Zucker, after all, had made Trump a media star back when he was running NBC. He’d green-lit The Apprentice, which a pair of Washington Post writers would later describe as a “virtually nonstop advertisement for the Trump empire and lifestyle.”... In that recording, Zucker reassured Cohen that “the boss,” i.e. Trump, was going to do great at the debate, because he always did... What these recordings reveal is that CNN’s cartoonish role as a determined and vituperative “fake news media” foil to Trump — while perhaps real for some of the reporters and broadcasters involved — is at least to some degree kabuki theater for executives. Even as president, Trump to network leaders is first and foremost a commodity, and an extraordinarily valuable one at that. Were he not president, Zucker might very well be offering him that weekly show."

Journalists like Jim Acosta are now just publicly admitting the media's plan is to take it easy on Biden.

Russell Brand on CNN: 'You Can't Use This as a News Source' - "There’s a reason reporters are eager to attack Joe Rogan.  The burly podcaster, who leans to the Left but holds opinions from both sides of the aisle, dares to interview disparate voices on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”  And, along the way, call the media out for its lies...   “You can’t use [CNN] as a news source. You can watch it as entertainment, but you might as well be watching ‘The Waltons,'” Brand said in the podcast.  Earlier in the podcast, Brand shared a new Gallup poll showing trust in the mainstream media had fallen to its second-lowest rating on record...   Brand, for one, isn’t surprised, and he has some advice for those seeking honest brokers of the news.  “You should use news sources … outside of this matrix of treachery,” he said, citing Rogan, his own podcast and the wildly popular “Breaking Points” podcast as examples. “[The matrix is]there in order to accept advertising and lobbying money from established corporate sources which means it has to operate compliantly and in alliance with the government. So you’re not gonna get honest information from those sources.”  What’s Brand’s goal with this critique, and others like it?  “I don’t trust no media. I don’t trust no political parties. My interest is in us forming news ways of communicating that lead to the maximum amount of freedom for us as individuals and as communities,” he said."
No wonder the left now hate him and call him "far right"

Credit where credit is due, CNN - "In an effort to counter the ratings juggernaut that is Fox News, CNN hired Jeff Zucker (who recently resigned his position due to ethics violations) to rebrand its entire identity to be a center-left political propaganda operation. They willfully blurred the lines between reporting and opinion, something Fox – for all its hysterics and silliness is careful not to do – and began jockeying with MSNBC to become the cable news world's "anti-Fox."  That competition resulted in a precipitous slide further and further left, including the elevation of hosts that specialized in faux outrage and the manipulative presentation of information. The result? CNN is watched by fewer people than the Home Shopping Network, and its most familiar faces are out whining about people listening to the pop culture podcast of an MMA fanatic... To their shame, the Olympic television partner NBC has apparently agreed to play by those censorious rules. And here's Jake Tapper and CNN working diligently to expose the truth."

Nolte: CNN Chief Jeff Zucker Resigns in Disgrace over Inappropriate Relationship - "Jeff Zucker, the far-left extremist responsible for destroying CNN’s credibility and ratings, resigned in disgrace Wednesday after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate...   Zucker took over as CNN chief in 2013 and quickly drove the once-respected cable news outlet into the ground by moving the network to the extreme left, which included the embracing of countless conspiracy theories and barrels of misinformation: the Russia Collusion Hoax, the Covington Kids, “Hands Up; Don’t Shoot,” among countless others.  Even more disturbing is how Zucker twisted CNN into a corporate media outlet that openly embraced political violence against the right and encouraged riots in predominantly black neighborhoods.  In the arena of credibility, the results were catastrophic. In the arena of ratings, after an anti-Trump sugar high, CNN watched its viewership collapse as much as 90 percent to humiliating lows that would have seemed impossible pre-Zucker. As of this writing, CNN’s primetime averages only a little more than 500,000 viewers.   What’s more, this is just the latest in a litany of unsavory sex scandals to hit the basement-rated outlet. Before he was fired, Chris Cuomo admitted to grabbing a colleague’s butt. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was caught masturbating on a work Zoom call. CNN suspended him and then, incredibly, allowed him to return. Two CNN producers are implicated in sex crimes involving children. The first, John Griffin, is charged with trolling underage girls for sex. The second was a producer for Jake Tapper’s basement-rated show.  On top of all that, CNN anchor Don Lemon has been credibly accused of a sexual assault and remains on the air, despite a viewership that regularly dips below 500,000.  The ongoing sex scandals at CNN are of no surprise to anyone who understands human nature. For years, this misinformation outlet has puffed itself up as morally pure and demonized those who it saw as falling short. Generally, people who behave in this way are covering up their own misdeed in a cloak of self-righteousness."

Jake Tapper's CNN Fear-Porn Show Lost 75 Percent Of Its Audience Since January - "Whereas Tapper’s show had 2.8 million viewers in the month of January, it raked in an abysmally low 706,000 from May 23 to June 23. In terms of the second quarter, the host has experienced about a 50 percent decrease in viewership compared to quarter one...   Fox News lost only 12 percent of its viewership between January and May, which proved to be a much more difficult period for CNN. The left-leaning outlet coughed up 49 percent of its total viewers during this time."

Perverts, Predators And Adulterers: 7 CNN Employees Forced Out In Disgrace

CNN Chief Zucker Resigns Two Days After Brian Stelter Sneers Over People Trusting Joe Rogan More Than CNN - "Stelter played a clip of Rogan saying, “My pledge to you is that I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view. I don’t want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is. I want to show all kinds of opinions.”"
Liberals are threatened by viewpoint diversity, after all

Robby Starbuck on Twitter - "A source brought Project Veritas horrific video and texts that show a @CNN Producer fantasizing about raping his fiancé’s young daughter and asking for nude photos of a 2nd child. This is the 2nd CNN producer this week accused of child sex crimes. Horrific."

BREAKING: Project Veritas reveals ANOTHER pedophilia scandal involving a CNN producer | The Post Millennial - "Project Veritas published graphic texts and videos of a CNN producer fantasizing about molesting his fiancé’s daughter. According to the outlet, one text exchange featured the producer telling the source how his fiancé’s daughter was "wearing very closely cut bottoms at the pool," before graphically describing how he could see the outline of her genitals. The CNN producer also allegedly solicited sexually explicit photos of the source’s underage daughter.  The messages and videos were allegedly obtained by a woman who was involved in a relationship with the CNN producer for over a decade, Janine Banani, a case manager for human trafficking victims, as well as those of domestic violence and sexual assault. The source claimed to have obtained the information for authorities but contacted Project Veritas when she was worried that action might not be taken. The source told the outlet that she "felt disgusted" and felt the need to come forward because "these people with power seem to get away with it.""

Second CNN Producer Under Criminal Investigation For Allegations ‘Involving Potential Juvenile Victims’: Report - "The allegations against Rick Saleeby, a former senior producer for Jake Tapper’s “The Lead,” appear to be connected to reporting by Project Veritas. Saleeby resigned from CNN this month."

CNN Staffer Allegedly Lured Mom, Daughter to 'Train' in Sex Submission - "“John Griffin, who worked on the CNN show New Day, was charged with three counts that he used a ‘facility of interstate commerce to abuse underage girls'... 'According to the indictment, from April to July of 2020, Griffin utilized the messaging applications Kik and Google Hangouts to communicate with people purporting to be parents of minor daughters, conveying to them, among other ideas, that a “woman is a woman regardless of her age,” and that women should be sexually subservient and inferior to men.'...        The indictment included allegations that Griffin tried to entice two other children online to engage in sexual activity.”
Since liberals get very upset when you use the term "female", the line “woman is a woman regardless of her age" should be uncontroversial to them

CNN's Anti-Trump Russia Hoaxer Paula Reid Is Married to a Chinese Communist Party Lobbyist. - "Reid – who joined CNN as its Senior Legal Affairs Correspondent after working as a CBS News White House Correspondent – has frequently used her platform to spread the debunked narrative that Donald Trump colluded with Russia. Reid drew the ire of the former president during press briefings for abrasive and often flawed questions about his administration’s COVID-19 response.  Most recently, Reid was tasked by the disgraced former CNN President Jeff Zucker with falsifying reports about Congressman Matt Gaetz.  And despite Reid constantly peddling the “Russia Collusion” hoax, her husband, Jason Kolsevich, formerly worked as an analyst for the American Chamber of Commerce in China, according to his professional bio.  The Chamber, known as “AmCham China,” functions as a pro-Chinese Communist Party lobbying group, whose leadership is comprised of American companies keen on securing market access and outsourcing American jobs to the country."

CNN's Oliver Darcy bemoans the fact that people are “ignoring” cable news and “living their lives” - "Our favorite cable news potato Brian Stelter asked CNN reporter Oliver Darcy if cable news, broadly, was out of touch with the American people when it comes to Covid... People in the United States are getting fed up with hearing the constant fear on CNN and this is resulting in the worst thing possible for Darcy and his colleagues."

CNN+ draws fewer than 10,000 daily viewers: report - "The embattled CNN cable network looks to have another situation on its hands: the underwhelming launch of its new streaming service, CNN+.  The service’s total number of daily viewers has yet to surpass 10,000, according to reports — fueling speculation that the network’s new parent company, Discovery WarnerMedia, could be pushed into slashing costs even as CNN+ tries to get off the ground.  The latest black eye for the left-leaning network comes after a tumultuous year when its chief, Jeff Zucker, stepped down after admitting to a consensual relationship with Allison Gollust, his former lieutenant at the company. It also comes after star anchor Chris Cuomo was fired for his involvement advising his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as he faced a sexual harassment scandal."

CNN+ to shut down after only 150,000 sign up | Toronto Sun

Internal Documents Show CNN Seriously Thought They Could Get 29 Million "Superfans" Who Would Pay Big Bucks For CNN+ - "CNN believed that there would be around 30 million "superfans" willing to pay big bucks to watch CNN+, even though there aren't that many people who watch it for free."

CNN+ Staff Sent Welcome Boxes AFTER $300M Service Collapsed

CNN staffers are 'terrified' after Brian Stelter and John Harwood were fired - "CNN staffers said they fear a network-wide purge of top talent after Brian Stelter and White House correspondent John Hardwood were unceremoniously fired.   After Hardwood announced his surprise departure on Friday, just hours after reporting from the White House, current and former CNN employees told the The Washington Post that there appears to be a culling of the woke at the media outlet... It's seen as evidence that new boss Chris Licht is looking to cast out those who have been critical of Donald Trump and his allies in order to present a more neutral CNN and win back its 'most trusted name in news' title. In a memo to staff in May, Licht, who was appointed to the network by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, said CNN needed to regain the trust of the people.   He said the outlet needed to focus on 'fearlessly speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo, questioning 'group-think,' and educating viewers and readers with straightforward facts and insightful commentary, while always being respectful of differing viewpoints.' ... Harwood was a vocal critic of Trump, and earlier this year he said Trump was 'mentally unwell.'  During his last day on the job, Harwood called Trump a 'dishonest demagogue' and agreed with Joe Biden's divisive speech calling the former president and his MAGA supporters 'a threat' to American democracy.   Harwood admitted his statements veered off the path of journalism but maintained his criticisms against Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen"

CNN staffers call for Don Lemon's ouster after 'self-serving' apology - "CNN staffers are fuming over Don Lemon’s cringeworthy apology for his on-air, sexist diatribe about 51-year-old Nikki Haley — with some calling for the anchor to be fired.  “He has got to go,” a CNN insider told The Post. “He is hurting the brand. Women aren’t even focused on the sexism — it’s the damage to CNN.”... Lemon was pictured emerging from the South Beach surf with a smile on his face and laying on chaise lounge after his bizarre Friday morning plea to his CNN colleagues.  Before he soaked up the Florida sunshine, Lemon began his phone call to staff by saying he was likely the first person “in the history” of CNN to apologize and that it was his idea to address the company.  Lemon went on to declare that “the people I am closest to in this organization are women,” and called out prominent journalists like Dana Bash, Erin Burnett and his “CNN This Morning” co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, whom he said he respects. He also mentioned his mother.  “He doubled-down by explaining his comments and then he said, ‘I’m friends with women so I can’t be sexist.’”...   Lemon’s apology follows a drumbeat of self-inflicted wounds, including The Post’s report that Lemon screamed at his “CNN This Morning” co-anchor Kaitlan Collins, after she interrupted him on air in December. Lemon has also been called out for talking over co-host Poppy Harlow on air and going on an unscripted rant after Rep. James Comer (R-KY) called The Post “credible.”   The source pointed to a slew of other issues the anchor has had at the network including his role in Jussie Smollet’s case. The “Empire” star, who made up a narrative that two Trump-loving bigots beat him up and tied a noose around his neck in Chicago in 2019, was convicted in Dec. 2021.  The actor’s courtroom testimony revealed the CNN host had tipped him off that he was being investigated by police.  “Did we learn nothing from Chris Cuomo?,” the source said, referring to the former primetime anchor’s role in advising his brother, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on how to dodge his sexual harassment accusations. The CNN anchor was dismissed in Dec. 2021, as a result...   “He owed an apology to his co-hosts and Nikki [Haley] and the whole staff who busted their asses for weeks who can’t just do their jobs because he keeps making ridiculous headlines.”"
Don Lemon Ousted From CNN in Move That Left Him ‘Stunned’ - The New York Times - "In a clear sign of acrimony, Mr. Lemon has retained the aggressive Hollywood litigator Bryan Freedman to handle his exit. His contract with CNN runs through 2026"

Don Lemon is stunned into silence when royal commentator says African kings should pay reparations - "The call is one of CNN's new CEO Chris Licht's most prominent decisions as he seeks to rid of and steer the outlet away from 'opinion-based partisan news' and anchors who slam conservatives and the GOP. CNN has been purging itself of the reputation of being a woke media source since Licht pledged to make the network reliable to the people again by halting the slander of Republicans. The new movement has resulted in the termination of popular CNN hosts, including John Harwood and Brian Stelter, along with their shows. Licht previously warned CNN staffers that changes to the network were coming to the network that they would 'not understand' or 'like.'"

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