Opinion

CNN President Jeff Zucker Said Network Had To Play ‘Error Free Ball,’ So How Does It Explain Miles Taylor?

   DailyWire.com
The CNN logo is seen atop its bureau in Los Angeles, California.
Ronen Tivony/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

For two years, all of America was wondering which anonymous senior Trump administration official wrote the New York Times op-ed claiming to be the “resistance” inside.

Then they found out it was a nobody bureaucrat. *cough*

The revelation came the same week that CNN president Jeff Zucker once again told his employees they need to play “error-free ball” over the next few weeks. It is a phrase Zucker has used before, including back in 2017 after three CNN reporters resigned over a story involving then-White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci and a $10 billion Russian investment fund allegedly being investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Far from being a “senior official,” as the Times suggested the author of the op-ed to be, Miles Taylor was merely a deputy chief of staff to the DHS secretary. A lofty position, sure, but far from someone with the ability to rein in President Donald Trump.

Zucker’s repeated demand that his employees play “error-free ball” comes at the same time that CNN said it would keep Taylor on as a contributor even though he lied to the network about his role in the op-ed. As The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra reported, Taylor lied on air to CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the op-ed. Cooper asked Taylor if he was aware of who wrote the op-ed, to which Taylor replied: “I’m not.” Cooper then asked Taylor directly if he was the author and Taylor said: “No.”

Taylor is a CNN contributor, and the network has told news outlets that he will continue to be a contributor despite lying on air.

Erik Wemple, The Washington Post’s media blogger, wrote an article about how the revelation that Taylor wrote the anonymous article has “sullied” the Times and CNN.

“We asked CNN what it had to say about a contributor doing such a thing on air. A spokeswoman responded that he will remain a contributor — on the network that pillories Trump for lying, that sics a fact-checker on virtually every statement coming out of the White House, that has made a franchise out of ‘Facts First,’” Wemple wrote.

Wemple spent a lot of time discussing how regular readers wouldn’t find Taylor’s position to actually be “senior,” considering how people like CNN’s Chris Cillizza dreamed about who could have written the op-ed and made a list of actual senior-level officials like Kellyanne Conway and former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Wemple, however, didn’t go into detail about how the Times’ framing of Taylor as a “senior” official harms the newspaper’s reputation. It makes it difficult to trust the paper’s other anonymous sources, which have already come under scrutiny in the Trump era as media outlets base scandalous stories on unnamed sources. “People familiar with the matter” is a favored line these days, even though it’s utterly meaningless. Saying someone is a “senior” official makes readers believe this is a person probably close to the president.

Yet, now that we know “senior” can apply to any random bureaucrat, how are we supposed to believe the next anonymous source has real, pertinent information? And as to CNN, how are they going to play “error-free ball” if they keep on a contributor who lied to one of the network’s top anchors and its millions of viewers?

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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