Fox News host Tucker Carlson released stunning audio recordings between CNN President Jeff Zucker and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that appeared to show Zucker trying to cozy up to Cohen in order to win favor with Trump.
During the segment, Carlson plays audio recordings between Cohen and Zucker where Zucker gives Trump political advice and says that he wants to create a weekly show for Trump. Zucker says during the recording that he doesn&#8217;t want to put any of it in writing in an email in an apparent attempt to keep it from becoming public.
At the very end of the segment, Carlson played an audio recording of CNN host Chris Cuomo that Carlson said proved that some CNN&#8217;s interviews are &#8220;coached.&#8221; Carlson said that he was releasing more on the tapes involving Cuomo tomorrow night.
WATCH:
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TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Disgraced felon lawyer Michael Cohen has a new book out, it’s an election year quickie that he probably hasn’t even read, it attacks Donald Trump. Someone should ask him, have you read it? Quick, what’s chapter three about? No one will ask him that of course, the media naturally have swung into formation to promote it. CNN’s leading the charge. Tomorrow night, Michael Cohen is on CNN for a much-hyped prime time interview. You can imagine how many tough questions he’s going to get on CNN, probably not too many. For Michael Cohen, CNN is like a second home. He’s got a lot of close friends over there including, we told you about this last week, the channel’s chief body building correspondent Chris Cuomo. We’ll have much more on the friendship between Cohen and Cuomo later in the week.
But Chris Cuomo is not Cohen’s only ally at CNN. Cohen is also close to CNN President Jeff Zucker, the man who moonlights as a Democratic campaign operative. Cohen and Zucker once had kids at the same private school in New York. Cohen served on the board of school with Zucker’s ex-wife. Jeff Zucker and Michael Cohen have long been personal friends, as least to the extent that narcissists have the capacity for personal friendship. The relationship tells you a lot about how things actually work in media and in politics. Case in point, on March 10, 2016, that was the day of the final Republican primary debate, Cohen called Jeff Zucker on his cell phone. CNN was hosting the debate in Miami and Cohen—who was working for Donald Trump at the time—wanted to check in about it. Zucker almost immediately started bragging about himself as he [wants] to do. After a few proforma words about their family, Zucker launched into an extended lecture about his own importance. &#8230;
&#8220;Here’s the thing… you cannot be elected president of the United States without CNN. Fox and MSNBC are irrelevant—irrelevant—in electing a general election candidate.&#8221;
If you want to run the country in other words, Jeff Zucker said, you’ve got to sniff my throne. It’s not that CNN needs the help, he explained, ‘We’re killing it, we’re doing great.’ But Donald Trump badly needs CNN.
“You guys have had great instincts, great guts and great understanding of everything. But you’re missing the boat on how it works going forward.”
“Okay,” Michael Cohen replies. “Why don’t you email Donald Trump and tell him that.”
And at that point, for the first time in the conversation, Jeff Zucker pauses. It turns out that Jeff Zucker doesn’t like to write things down, sneaky people never do. So here’s what he says next:
JEFF ZUCKER, CNN PRESIDENT: “I’m very conscious of not putting too much in email, as you’re a lawyer, as you understand. And, you know, and as fond as I am of the boss, he also has a tendency, like, you know, if I call him or I email him, he then is capable of going out at his next rally and saying that we just talked and I can’t have that if you know what I’m saying.”
CARLSON: People would know I talked to Trump and I can’t have that, if you know what I’m saying. Yeah, we know what you are saying Jeff Zucker. You are saying secretly, that when you think no one is watching, you are more than happy to play all sides. You can brag about how powerful you are, the big-time network honcho kingmaker, the man who decides who’s president. Like all tiny insecure people, you’ll mix flattery with your swagger along the way, you refer to Donald Trump as “The Boss” even when he is not on the call. You are happy to do that. What you don’t want, is anyone in your tiny self-righteous left-wing rich person world to know that you’re doing it. What would Don Lemon think if he knew you were talking to orange Satan? Brooke Baldwin might storm off the set. The world would conclude that you’re a dishonest phony and for good reasons. So, you’ve got to keep it all hidden. ‘Sorry, you know what I’m saying.’ But Zucker assured Michael Cohen that none of this was personal. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to Trump every day. I’ve just got to be careful because I’ve got to be careful. I just don’t want him talking about it on the campaign trail. But you know what? I’m going to give him a call right now and I’m going to wish him luck in the debate tonight.”
And then Zucker added this:
ZUCKER: “I have all these proposals for him. Like, I want to do a weekly show with and all this stuff. Is he back in New York tomorrow, do you know?”
CARLSON: Wait, what? A weekly show on CNN? Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, wanted to give a weekly show to a man he himself has denounced as a racist? Yep. That was the plan. Trump, of course, never did get the show, Anderson Cooper is still there. But Jeff Zucker did take the time to dispense quite a bit of unsolicited political advice to Michael Cohen, ‘ I think the other guys are going to gang up on him tremendously…and I think he’s going to hold his own, as he does every time. He’s never lost a debate. And you know what? He’s good at this…He’s going to do great.’ Cohen didn’t seem convinced by this. Cohen was worried about attacks from the other Republicans on the stage, but Zucker reassured him that Trump would prevail. And then, Jeff Zucker offered this surprisingly detailed political advice. Listen:
MICHAEL COHEN, THEN-TRUMP ATTORNEY: How many time do you think Cruz is going to call him a conman tonight?
ZUCKER: No, Rubio.
COHEN: I mean Rubio. I mean Rubio. How many times do you think he’s—
ZUCKER: A lot. A lot.
COHEN: I say, 100.
ZUCKER: So, you know what you should do? Whoever’s around him today should just be calling him a conman all day, so that he’s used to it, so that when he hears it from Rubio, it doesn’t matter. ‘Hey conman. Hey conman. Hey conman. He thinks that’s his name, you know?”</blockquote>
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WATCH: Tucker Carlson Releases Stunning Audio Of CNN’s Jeff Zucker And Michael Cohen; Hints More Coming On Chris Cuomo

Donald Trump

Jeff Zucker

Michael Cohen

Fox News host Tucker Carlson released stunning audio recordings between CNN President Jeff Zucker and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that appeared to

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During an interview with Ben Smith of Buzzfeed News several years ago, CNN President Jeff Zucker entertained the idea of entering politics in the future, albeit without a specific position in mind. But now, over seven years into his tenure as an executive at the news agency, Zucker teased in another interview with Smith that he’s open to running for mayor of New York City. 
As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/business/media/cable-news-fox-msnbc-cnn.html">The New York Times</a> reports, Smith asked Zucker whether he would consider running for mayor in 2021, when term-limited Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio will be through with his final full year in office. 
“New York City is going to need a very strong mayor in the aftermath of this, and I always like a challenge,” Zucker responded, after reportedly offering a brief pause and suggesting that he wanted to avoid dominating headlines with his answer. 
Before joining CNN, Zucker was president of NBCUniversal, where he helped raise businessman Donald Trump’s star even higher into the public eye through the reality TV show “The Apprentice,” as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnns-jeff-zucker-im-still-considering-running-emily-zanotti">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported. Media critic Stephen Miller told The Wrap in 2018 that Zucker was a large factor in helping Trump gain widespread public prominence before his 2015 presidential campaign. 
“There is no figure in media more responsible for Donald Trump’s legitimacy in media, which led to his rise in politics and to the presidency, than Jeff Zucker,” said Miller. 
In 2012, when CNN started looking at Zucker as a potential successor for the top position at the news agency, Trump tweeted that Zucker would be a “great choice” to “lead them out of the forest.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> is looking at Jeff Zucker to lead them out of the forest&#8211;Jeff would be a great choice.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/265476443138572288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2012</a></blockquote>
Zucker currently has a contract with CNN to stay at the company until the end of 2020, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cnn-renews-jeff-zuckers-contract-2020-1120001">The Hollywood Reporter</a> purportedly confirmed with “a source with knowledge of the situation” two years ago. Several months prior to signing the contract, the news agency reported that Zucker was vying for the top job at ESPN. 
In 2018, Zucker told former Obama administration official David Axelrod that he was unsure of where he would be in five years but still harbored an interest in entering politics “somewhere in my gut,&#8221; reported <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/cnns-zucker-im-interested-in-running-for-office/">The Washington Free Beacon</a>.
“You turned down an opportunity to work for Al Gore in 2000,” Axelrod told Zucker during a podcast interview. “You’ve talked in the past about potentially running for office.”
“So, I’m still interested in that, and it’s something I would consider,” Zucker replied. 
In addition to Zucker teasing a mayoral run, CNN Contributor and tech magnate Andrew Yang, who entered political prominence over a year ago after launching his “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/technology/his-2020-campaign-message-the-robots-are-coming.html">longer-than long-shot</a>” presidential bid, has also said he may run for the position, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-presidential-candidate-andrew-yang-looking-new-york-city-mayor-2020-3">Business Insider</a>. 
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13th Annual CNN Heroes

CNN President Jeff Zucker Teases NYC Mayoral Candidacy

Bill de Blasio

New York City

During an interview with Ben Smith of Buzzfeed News several years ago, CNN President Jeff Zucker entertained the idea of entering politics in the future,

CNN President Jeff Zucker Teases NYC Mayoral Candidacy | The Daily Wire

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In a letter obtained and published by the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/trump-campaign-to-sue-cnn-over-pro-impeachment-bias-demands-substantial-payment">Washington Examiner</a> on Friday, President Trump&#8217;s campaign informs CNN President Jeff Zucker that it plans to sue him and his network for a &#8220;substantial&#8221; amount as a result of CNN subjecting the president to &#8220;unfair, unfounded, unethical and unlawful attacks.&#8221;
The letter was sent after the release this week of a series of undercover videos produced by James O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s Project Veritas showing CNN insiders describing alleged overt, systemic bias against Trump within CNN, including from the top: Zucker himself.
The letter is addressed to Zucker and CNN&#8217;s Executive Vice President and General Counsel David Vigilante and signed by Charles J. Harder of Harder LLP, a firm representing Trump&#8217;s campaign. In the letter, Harder accuses CNN of failing to abide by &#8220;industry-accepted codes of ethics, including the Society for Professional Journalists&#8217; Code of Ethics,&#8221; as well as CNN&#8217;s own self-declared commitment to &#8220;excellence in journalism&#8221; and being &#8220;the most trusted source for news and information.&#8221;
Among the evidence of CNN&#8217;s alleged failure to provide ethical coverage, Harder cites Project Veritas&#8217; recent videos in which CNN employees say that their network is committed to help &#8220;take down President Trump&#8221; and Zucker is driven by a &#8220;personal vendetta&#8221; against him. Harder stresses that the listed examples &#8220;are merely the tip of the iceberg of the evidence my clients have accumulated over recent years.&#8221;
&#8220;We also expect substantial additional information about CNN’s wrongful practices to become known in the coming days and weeks,&#8221; Harder states. &#8220;Never in the history of this country has a president been the subject of such a sustained barrage of unfair, unfounded, unethical and unlawful attacks by so-called &#8216;mainstream&#8217; news, as the current situation.&#8221;
&#8220;Your actions are in violation of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.), among other applicable laws, by constituting misrepresentations to the public, to your advertisers, and others,&#8221; the letter reads. &#8220;Accordingly, my clients intend to file legal action against you, to seek compensatory damages, treble damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, reimbursement of legal costs, and all other available legal and equitable remedies, to the maximum extent permitted by law.&#8221;
Below is the full text of the letter (formatting adjusted):
<div id="dyId4dd2216ddfbec268" data-dy-embedded-object="true">
Dear Mr. Zucker and Mr. Vigilante:
This firm is litigation counsel for President Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. We write concerning your biased reporting practices relating to our clients. The terms “you” and “your” in this letter shall collectively refer to CNN Broadcasting, Inc., CNN Productions, Inc., CNN Interactive Group, Inc., the website located at CNN.com, and all broadcast television stations owned, operated or affiliated with the foregoing.
Your website expressly represents to the public, in writing, that you are “journalists,” “truth seekers,” “united by a mission to inform, engage and empower the world,” and you “stand for excellence in journalism and [your] products.” See <a href="https://www.cnn.com/About">https://www.CNN.com/About</a>  (emphasis added). Your slogan is “The Most Trusted Name in News”. Your Facebook account claims you are “widely known to be – the most trusted source for news and information.” Your anchor, Don Lemon, stated on June 6, 2019, as a keynote speaker at Financial Times Live Future of News: “We don’t profess to be a liberal network, we’re a news network … we have a commitment to the truth and to facts, which has really been paramount, especially always at CNN.” Mr. Zucker said in an interview with Variety, published on August 2, 2016: “[O]ur air, as opposed to others’, is truly fair and balanced.” (Emphasis added.)
Statements like “excellence in journalism,” “most trusted source for news and information,” “commitment to the truth and to facts” and “truly fair and balanced” are statements that would be widely considered throughout the journalism community and news industry as  journalism that complies with industry-accepted codes of ethics, including the Society for Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. That code — written by journalism experts for practicing journalists (available at<a href="https://www.spj.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf"> </a><a href="https://www.spj.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf">https://www.SPJ.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf</a>) (the “Code”)  — provides in pertinent part:
“Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest … in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.” (Emphasis added.)
“Journalists should:
<ul>
<li>“Verify information before releasing it.”</li>
<li>“Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.”</li>
<li>“Label advocacy and commentary.”</li>
<li>“Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.”</li>
<li>“Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.”</li>
<li>“[A]void political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.”</li>
<li>“Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.”</li>
<li>“Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.”</li>
</ul>
(Emphasis added.)
Recently released video footage of individuals alleged to be your employees (see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7XZmugtLv4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7XZmugtLv4</a>) (the “Footage”) indicates that your reporting relating to President Trump is contrary to your own mission and the aforementioned Code of Ethics. Your own employees appear to state that CNN is focused on trying to “take down President Trump,” driven by a “personal vendetta” that Mr. Zucker purportedly has against him, rather than reporting the news in an objective manner. In the Footage, your employees appear to state that CNN attempts to make its reporting appear neutral and unbiased, when in fact its reporting is far from neutral and highly biased against the President. Among other statements, your employees appear to state the following:  Nick Neville, Media Coordinator at CNN, states:
<blockquote>“Jeff Zucker, basically the president of CNN has a personal vendetta against Trump”
“[Jeff Zucker has] had an ongoing feud with Trump since The Apprentice” (where Zucker was a producer)
“I totally want to do just like the truth, the dogged reporting. But then you have higher up executives like Zucker and other people, who are saying we gotta make profits&#8230;so it turns into like certain things that you do are trying just to attract viewers, then it becomes kind of a comedy show” “Don Lemon comes on, he makes you think he’s objective news, but he’s  blatantly opinionated. So either disclose where you’re coming from or get someone whose a little bit more objective. Don Lemon&#8230;love him or hate him he’s blatantly anti-Trump, he’s blatantly left. So maybe Don Lemon could disclose that, but CNN makes it appear as though we have 24 hours of unbiased news, that’s not true.”</blockquote>
Cary Poarch, a CNN employee in the Washington, D.C. bureau, states:
<blockquote>“CNN purports to be facts first, and that’s just not the case”</blockquote>
Christian Sierra, a Media Coordinator at CNN, states:
<blockquote>“There’s just nothing we can do if Zucker wants impeachment every single day to be the top story … He wants impeachment above all else”
“I hate how everything is all Trump all the time now, everyone at the network complains about it, they hate covering Trump every day”
“Our Democratic interviews are like softballs, compared to the Republicans”</blockquote>
The aforementioned examples are merely the tip of the iceberg of the evidence my clients have accumulated over recent years. We also expect substantial additional information about CNN’s wrongful practices to become known in the coming days and weeks.  Never in the history of this country has a President been the subject of such a sustained barrage of unfair, unfounded, unethical and unlawful attacks by so-called “mainstream” news, as the current situation.
Your actions are in violation of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.), among other applicable laws, by constituting misrepresentations to the public, to your advertisers, and others. Accordingly, my clients intend to file legal action against you, to seek compensatory damages, treble damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, reimbursement of legal costs, and all other available legal and equitable remedies, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Please contact the undersigned to discuss an appropriate resolution of this matter, which would include a substantial payment of damages, as well as all other appropriate measures that are necessary to fully address the magnitude of the situation. This letter is not intended as a full or complete statement of all relevant facts, applicable law, causes of actions or legal remedies, and nothing herein is intended as, nor should it be deemed to constitute, a waiver or relinquishment of any of my clients’ rights, remedies, claims or causes of action, all of which are hereby expressly reserved. 
Very truly yours, 
CHARLES J. HARDER Of 
HARDER LLP
</div>

CNN President Jeff Zucker

READ IT: Trump Campaign’s Letter Declaring Legal Action Against CNN For Anti-Trump Bias

Media Bias

In a letter obtained and published by the Washington Examiner on Friday, President Trump&#039;s campaign informs CNN President Jeff Zucker that it plans to sue

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Oof. Well, that didn&#8217;t work out so well.
When Donald Trump shocked America and the world by defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, the humiliated two-time loser decided to push one excuse, and one excuse only: Trump must have stolen the election, somehow, some way.
The former secretary of state knew full well that President Obama and his cronies in the intelligence community had been wiretapping Trump campaign officials for months, under the guise of probing possible Russian collusion. So rather than admit the obvious &#8212; that she ran a terrible campaign and that Americans preferred a narcissistic reality TV host and boastful billionaire over her &#8212; she blamed that old standby, the Russians.
The lapdogs in the liberal media lapped it up, then yapped away like angry little shih tzus demanding walkies. &#8220;ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts produced a combined 2,284 minutes of &#8216;collusion&#8217; coverage,&#8221; Newsbusters reported. &#8220;That&#8217;s an average of roughly three minutes a night, every night, for an astonishing 791 days.&#8221;
The mainstream media went hard at President Trump. &#8220;The noose is tightening,&#8221; MSNBC&#8217;s Joe Scarborough said. &#8220;Does the public understand just how much trouble the president is in? If not, that is a failing of the press,&#8221; CNN&#8217;s Brian Stelter said condescendingly. &#8220;There is tons of proof of potential collusion,&#8221; CNN&#8217;s Chris Cuomo said.
Or not.
The alleged conspiracy was investigated for 675 days by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and a team of 19 lawyers. Despite 2,800 subpoenas and 500 witness interviews, the counsel&#8217;s office found no evidence &#8220;that any U.S. person or Trumpcampaign official or associate&#8221; conspired or &#8220;knowingly coordinated&#8221; with Russians during the 2016 campaign.
One would expect some soul-searching by the media, which got so much wrong for so long. The great journalist Terry Moran, ABC&#8217;s senior national correspondent, said in early March that should the Mueller report clear the president, that would bring a &#8220;reckoning for the media.&#8221;
But just like the allegations of Russian collusion, that didn&#8217;t happen, either.
CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker said in an email to The New York Times that he was &#8220;entirely comfortable&#8221; with CNN&#8217;s Trump-Russia coverage, adding that the &#8220;news&#8221; network was simply reporting &#8220;facts.&#8221;
&#8220;We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did,&#8221; Zucker said.
CNN&#8217;s Stelter had an even more laughable line. After pushing the collusion canard for more than two years, he said: &#8220;There is a giant difference between asking and telling. &#8230; But speculation actually has value, too. It helps open our eyes, helps open our minds to what&#8217;s possible.&#8221;
&#8220;Speculation actually has value too.&#8221;
In the days since the Mueller report&#8217;s clear conclusions that no collusion occurred, the media has offered no apology &#8212; or even an excuse, for that matter &#8212; for getting the story so wrong for so long. America&#8217;s mainstream media so wanted the story to be true that they simply did away with the need for evidence, proof, you know, facts.
And that dereliction of duty has, once again, proven Trump right about his take on most media in America. &#8220;The Mainstream Media is under fire and being scorned all over the World as being corrupt and FAKE,&#8221; the president tweeted Monday. &#8220;For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion when they always knew there was No Collusion. They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party!&#8221;
This is all a disaster for America&#8217;s Fourth Estate, especially heading into the 2020 elections. The mainstream media has now been proven &#8212; repeatedly, in fact &#8212; to be anti-Trump. Even the so-called bulwarks of journalism, The New York Times and The Washington Post, have a clear agenda: Oust Trump at any cost, damn the facts.
Eric Trump, the president&#8217;s son who does not say much, summed up the next move for the media. &#8220;How about a simple apology from the #MSM for the hell everyone has been put through for the past two + years? @CNN @MSNBC @NBCNews @ABC @CBS @nytimes @washingtonpost,&#8221; he tweeted.
Of course, that won&#8217;t happen. And it might be too late, anyway.
America&#8217;s media is now severely damaged. How it salvages its seedy reputation is as yet unknown. But refusing to simply apologize for years of erroneous reporting is not a good sign.
They are now, in a phrase, nothing more than &#8220;fake news.&#8221;
*Joseph Curl ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015 and covered the White House for a dozen years. He can be can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter at @JosephCurl. A version of this article ran previously in The Washington Times.

CURL: Day Of Reckoning Arrives For America’s Media After Collusion Hoax Crumbles

Brian Stelter

Joe Scarborough

Robert Mueller

Russia

Trump Administration

Oof. Well, that didn’t work out so well. When Donald Trump shocked America and the world by defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential

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CNN welcomed another New Year sans comedienne Kathy Griffin, who was given the pink slip from her New Year&#8217;s Eve hosting gig in 2017 after posing for that grisly photograph of herself holding a fake severed head of President Trump. Two years later, Griffin is overtly bitter about the whole affair and voiced her disgust with CNN in a <a href="https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/status/1079689982174883840">long-winded Twitter rant </a>Tuesday in which she used fellow comedienne Leslie Jones as a battering ram to accuse the network of racism and sexism.
Griffin began her soliloquy by first thanking her many fans for expressing their dismay over her absence at the CNN New Year&#8217;s Eve show this year, during which her former co-host Anderson Cooper pounded shots while <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39822/watch-cnns-cooper-gets-drunk-air-talks-about-moms-ryan-saavedra">revealing one too many details</a> about his mother&#8217;s sex life.
&#8220;I&#8217;m so flattered and touched by all the comments saying that you miss me co-hosting the New Year&#8217;s Eve telecast,&#8221; said Griffin. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been pleasantly surprised by the positivity and I want you to know how grateful I am.&#8221;
The toxic comedienne then announced she had some inside dirt about CNN regarding their treatment of SNL cast member Leslie Jones. According to Griffin, Jones at one point was floated as a potential host for the CNN show but was dropped entirely for an inexplicable reason.
&#8220;I heard that they had downgraded her to a couple of segments or some sort of a guest role,&#8221; said Griffin. &#8220;Anything less than co-hosting screams to me very little or no pay, and a lack of respect for someone who is such a proven talent, has a big fan base, and knows what she&#8217;s doing. She has paid her dues and then some!&#8221;
She continued: &#8220;Soon after, I heard from a couple folks she had been dropped from the show entirely because NBC Universal did not want her to appear on a different network. This didn&#8217;t pass the smell test with me. The <a data-query-source="hashtag_click" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JeffZucker?src=hash">#JeffZucker</a> I knew for years could make this happen. What say you, Jeff?&#8221;
Griffin then segued into a talk about equal pay, lamenting how she worked the CNN show for 10 years until she got a paycheck of $150,000 for one night of work.
&#8220;I worked my way up by the 10th year at CNN to get a fee of $150,000,&#8221; said Griffin. &#8220;By the way, just as a point of reference, Anderson Cooper regularly bragged for years that his annual CNN contract was $10 million a year.&#8221;
&#8220;The first two years I appeared on CNN, it didn&#8217;t even occur to me to ask for a salary,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;The 8th year when I asked Jeff Zucker for a raise, he was so angry he docked me 30%. I&#8217;m sorry to say I took the pay cut because I truly enjoyed making you all laugh.&#8221;
Following the controversy over the ghastly photo, Griffin apologized for posing with a severed head of President Trump before ultimately <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30044/watch-kathy-griffin-takes-back-trump-apology-ryan-saavedra">taking the apology back</a>.
See the full text of her Twitter rant below:
<blockquote>
A.) I&#8217;m so flattered and touched by all the comments saying that you miss me co-hosting the New Year&#8217;s Eve telecast. I&#8217;ve been pleasantly surprised by the positivity and I want you to know how grateful I am. So, I wanted to share some juicy gossip I heard about the telecast&#8230;
B) I&#8217;ve been in this business for over 30 years&#8230;I&#8217;ve gotten to know everybody. A few little birdies told me some juicy nuggets&#8230;
C) I heard from a few different people that the hilarious <a data-mentioned-user-id="47216804" href="https://twitter.com/Lesdoggg">@Lesdoggg</a> was in talks to co-host CNN&#8217;s New Year&#8217;s telecast with Anderson Cooper this year.
D) I was elated when I heard this news. If I can&#8217;t get the gig, I will cheer for Leslie. I don&#8217;t know her, but I thought it was such a great idea for CNN to have a woman of color over 50 who is so sharp, improvisational, and hilarious. I was ready to congratulate her publicly.
E) I love all of Leslie&#8217;s work, but this little short tape she posted on her 50th birthday last year says it all about her. How can you not love <a data-mentioned-user-id="47216804" href="https://twitter.com/Lesdoggg">@lesdoggg</a>?!
F) As I started asking around to find out when CNN was going to announce Leslie as co-host, I heard that they had downgraded her to a couple of segments or some sort of a guest role.
G) Anything less than co-hosting screams to me very little or no pay, and a lack of respect for someone who is such a proven talent, has a big fan base, and knows what she&#8217;s doing. She has paid her dues and then some!
H) Soon after, I heard from a couple folks she had been dropped from the show entirely because NBC Universal did not want her to appear on a different network. This didn&#8217;t pass the smell test with me. The <a data-query-source="hashtag_click" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JeffZucker?src=hash">#JeffZucker</a> I knew for years could make this happen. What say you, Jeff?
I) I&#8217;m thrilled she is going to appear in the NBC New Years telecast with Carson Daly/Chrissy Teigen, but it&#8217;s time for Leslie to co-host/host. That would be progress&#8230;it would have been a step in the right direction for all women if she got the CNN gig
J) You have to admit, it didn&#8217;t make sense that NBC Uni wouldn&#8217;t have a problem with Andy Cohen, who also works for NBC Uni, appearing on CNN, but would have a problem with Leslie? Since Leslie didn&#8217;t work out, CNN couldn&#8217;t find one woman standup comic star to co-host? Jeff?
K) I didn&#8217;t hear anything about what Leslie&#8216;s fee will be on NBC, but I really hope it is AT LEAST $150,000 because that is a nice paycheck and it&#8217;s what she deserves.
L) I worked my way up by the 10th year at CNN to get a fee of $150,000. By the way, just as a point of reference, Anderson Cooper regularly bragged for years that his annual CNN contract was $10 million a year.
M) I know $150,000 is a hell of lot of money for one night of work (although when I was doing it, I certainly put in more than one night of work) but trust me Leslie has paid her dues and when you are a female comic starting out you do gigs for free sometimes for years.
N) The first two years I appeared on CNN, it didn&#8217;t even occur to me to ask for a salary. The 8th year when I asked Jeff Zucker for a raise, he was so angry he docked me 30%. I&#8217;m sorry to say I took the pay cut because I truly enjoyed making you all laugh.
O) I really hope <a data-mentioned-user-id="47216804" href="https://twitter.com/Lesdoggg">@Lesdoggg</a> has been paid fairly for New Years&#8230;but I&#8217;m not optimistic. The boys get paid much, much more in the comedy industry and that is a fact I know a lot about.
P) I&#8217;ve never made serious New Year&#8217;s resolutions. Not when I did three shows on NYE at Carolines Comedy Club, or co-hosted MTV&#8217;s New Year&#8217;s broadcast in the year 2000. Remember Y2K?! I also appeared with Carson Daly in the NBC broadcast and had a blast.
Q) So each time I worked either live or on television on New Year&#8217;s Eve I would make a joke about how I didn&#8217;t believe in resolutions. Well, I&#8217;ve change my mind! Here are my three resolutions for 2019&#8230;
R) Resolution #1: Try to make as many people laugh, giggle, gasp in shock, throw their head back and have a belly laugh for as long as possible!
S) Resolution #2: I have learned it is essential to stick up for others in ways I truly wish others would have stuck up for me. I have done that more than ever in the past year and will continue to do it no matter what.
T) Resolution #3: I will stay positive, be as brave as I can in my comedy, never quit, and never let the old boys club keep me silent or out of work.
U) I love you all and am so grateful for the love and support you have given me. Happy New Year to all of you! I may not be able to have a drink with you, but I have served up a pot of piping hot tea!
</blockquote>

Kathy Griffin Shares Some ‘Juicy Gossip’ About CNN’s New Year’s Show

Anderson Cooper

Kathy Griffin

CNN welcomed another New Year sans comedienne Kathy Griffin, who was given the pink slip from her New Year&#039;s Eve hosting gig in 2017 after posing for that

Kathy Griffin Shares Some &#039;Juicy Gossip&#039; About CNN&#039;s New Year&#039;s Show | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/kathy-griffin-shares-some-juicy-gossip-about-cnns-paul-bois/

CNN&#8217;s head honcho, Jeff Zucker, told David Axelrod&#8217;s political podcast this week that he&#8217;s interested in potentially running for office, though he hasn&#8217;t quite ironed out the details.
Speaking to &#8220;The Axe Files,&#8221; Axelrod&#8217;s cleverly named weekly radio program, Zucker said he hasn&#8217;t ruled out a second career in front of the camera, rather than behind it.
&#8220;With regard to be where I&#8217;ll be in five years &#8230; I don&#8217;t know for sure where I&#8217;ll be but here&#8217;s the two things I do know: if the Miami Dolphins call, that&#8217;s where I&#8217;ll be,&#8221; Zucker said, <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/cnns-zucker-im-interested-in-running-for-office/">according to The Washington Free Beacon</a>. &#8220;And number two, I still harbor somewhere in my gut that I&#8217;m still very interested in politics.&#8221;
Axelrod then pointed out that Zucker is no stranger to the political landscape. Back in 2000, former Vice President Al Gore, who was competing for the nation&#8217;s top job against newcomer Texas governor George W. Bush, asked Zucker to help coordinate his on-air communications and improve his messaging.
&#8220;You turned down an opportunity to work for Al Gore in 2000,&#8221; Axelrod said. &#8220;You&#8217;ve talked in the past about potentially running for office.&#8221;
&#8220;So, I&#8217;m still interested in that, and it&#8217;s something I would consider,&#8221; Zucker replied.
It would be a unique move for Zucker, who has been in the media business for decades and began as a field researcher for NBC&#8217;s coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Zucker">according to Wikipedia</a>. He then worked his way up at NBC until he took over the network in the early 2000s, where he ushered in the &#8220;reality television&#8221; era with shows like &#8220;The Apprentice&#8221; &#8212; which eventually gave now-President Donald Trump national exposure.
Zucker has been president of CNN since 2013.
If he does end up in the political arena, though, it might by years before he declares his intent to run for anything other than president of CNN. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-jeff-zucker-cnn-20180613-story.html">The LA Times reports</a> that Zucker inked a deal with the network over the summer that will keep him at the helm of CNN until at least 2020, partly because Zucker has turned CNN into a major media foil for the President.
&#8220;CNN has delivered solid ratings and revenue growth under Zucker&#8217;s watch, exceeding $1 billion in profits in each of the last two years,&#8221; the LA Times says. &#8220;Trump has largely been responsible for the boost, as viewing for all of the cable news networks has grown since the real estate mogul-turned-reality TV star formally entered politics as a presidential candidate in 2015.&#8221;
That&#8217;s good news for the rest of the Democratic field. At the moment, if Zucker declared an intention to run for President in 2020, even taking a financial loss by leaving CNN early and breaking his contract, he&#8217;d be up against at least 30 other presidential contenders. At last count, the Democrats have senators, representatives, former governors and former mayors all contending for the top prize: the opportunity to unseat President Donald Trump.
Zucker would likely be no one&#8217;s top choice, though the face off would be entertaining.

CNN’s Jeff Zucker: I’m Still Considering Running For Office

CNN&#039;s head honcho, Jeff Zucker, told David Axelrod&#039;s political podcast this week that he&#039;s interested in potentially running for office, though he hasn&#039;t

CNN&#039;s Jeff Zucker: I&#039;m Still Considering Running For Office | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnns-jeff-zucker-im-still-considering-running-emily-zanotti/

No Trump, no ratings. That&#8217;s the reality of CNN&#8217;s situation in the Trump era, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker begrudgingly admits.
In an interview with Vanity Fair that offers a glimpse &#8220;<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/inside-the-trump-gold-rush-at-cnn">inside the Trump gold rush at CNN</a>,&#8221; Zucker acknowledged some things that he&#8217;d probably rather not be the case: The network is indeed obsessed with Trump &#8212; because it has to be.
&#8220;People say all the time, &#8216;Oh, I don&#8217;t want to talk about Trump. I&#8217;ve had too much Trump,'&#8221; Zucker told Vanity Fair&#8217;s Joe Pompeo. &#8220;And yet at the end of the day, all they want to do is talk about Trump. We&#8217;ve seen that, anytime you break away from the Trump story and cover other events in this era, the audience goes away. So we know that, right now, Donald Trump dominates.&#8221;
Pompeo makes a point of crediting Zucker for bringing Trump to television when he was at NBC by green-lighting &#8220;The Apprentice&#8221; back in 2004. Zucker &#8220;arguably schooled Trump in the art of reality television,&#8221; writes Pompeo. &#8220;Halfway through Trump&#8217;s first term, his instincts remain just as acute.&#8221;
Zucker portrays CNN as the place where, supposedly, both Trump&#8217;s base and the resistance are allowed to duke it out with more parity than on other networks.
&#8220;On Fox, you rarely hear from people who don&#8217;t support Trump,&#8221; said Zucker. &#8220;On MSNBC, you rarely hear from people who do support Trump. We want to be home to both those points of view. It is true some of these folks are not very good with the facts, but that&#8217;s O.K. in the sense that it&#8217;s our job then to call them out.&#8221;
And, Pompeo notes, CNN&#8217;s all-Trump-all-the-time/&#8221;cantankerous battle&#8221; model appears to be paying off:
<blockquote>
Even though CNN still trails Fox News and MSNBC in prime-time audience size, its ratings have never been better. The average number of people watching on a given day has been above 700,000 each year since 2016, compared to around 400,000 in the pre-Trump news cycle. That&#8217;s also considerably larger than any other time over the past 25 years, an astonishing feat given the ubiquity of news and the decline of cable. The ratings of course skew higher in the evening hours, when the most people are watching all at once. The average prime-time audience is around a million, compared to fewer than 600,000 when Zucker arrived, in 2013. According to someone with direct knowledge of the numbers, CNN is projected to turn a $1.2 billion profit on $2.5 billion in revenue this year, making 2018 its most profitable year ever. 
</blockquote>
As CNN profits off Trump, the president continues to smack the network and their &#8220;fake news media&#8221; allies at every occasion, including this week.
&#8220;CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the &#8216;Media is the Enemy of the People.&#8217; Wrong! I said that the &#8216;Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,&#8217; a very big difference. When you give out false information &#8211; not good!&#8221; he tweeted Tuesday. &#8220;Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People &#8211; but dishonest reporters use only the word &#8220;Media.&#8221; The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
</div>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37792/don-lemon-says-i-dont-see-democrats-killing-people-james-barrett">Don Lemon Says &#8216;I Don&#8217;t See Democrats Killing People.&#8217; Scalise Helps Him See More Clearly.</a>

CNN Chief Admits: Without Trump, Our Ratings Collapse

No Trump, no ratings. That&#039;s the reality of CNN&#039;s situation in the Trump era, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker begrudgingly admits. In an interview

CNN Chief Admits: Without Trump, Our Ratings Collapse | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-chief-admits-without-trump-our-ratings-james-barrett/

President Donald Trump had harsh words in response to a statement from CNN&#8217;s Jeff Zucker, essentially blaming the President&#8217;s &#8220;rhetoric&#8221; for fanning the flames of political violence and inspiring whomever sent a series of suspicious devices to prominent Democrats.
Trump took to Twitter to blame the media &#8212; not the White House &#8212; for stoking political acrimony. &#8220;
&#8220;A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News,&#8221; Trump tweeted. &#8220;It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description.&#8221;
&#8220;Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1055418269270716418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2018</a></blockquote>
The president also refused to accept CNN&#8217;s plea that he apologize for using dangerous &#8220;rhetoric&#8221; in his public speeches. Trump<a href="https://nypost.com/2018/10/24/zucker-slams-white-house-for-continued-attacks-on-the-media/"> earlier denounced the attacks</a> as &#8220;despicable acts&#8221; of &#8220;political violence,&#8221; according to the New York Post.
On Wednesday night, though, CNN president Jeff Zucker <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/10/24/zucker-slams-white-house-for-continued-attacks-on-the-media/">lashed out at Trump directly</a> in a statement, blaming the White House for what Zucker claims is a direct attack on the media.
&#8220;There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,&#8221; Zucker said.
&#8220;The president, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that,&#8221; he continued.
Contrary to Zucker&#8217;s implication, it does not appear the media itself was the target of the bomber&#8217;s attacks. Although a suspicious package fitting the description of several other suspicious packages containing rudimentary explosive devices was discovered in CNN&#8217;s mailroom, it appears the sender intended the package to reach former CIA chief John Brennan, care of the network.
The bomber got Brennan&#8217;s information wrong. He is an analyst for MSNBC.
Brennan himself also lashed out at the president on social media, cautioning Trump to &#8220;stop blaming others&#8221; and &#8220;look in the mirror.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, &amp; encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act&#8230;.try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence. <a href="https://t.co/cS5qNiuU7o">https://t.co/cS5qNiuU7o</a>
&#8212; John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/1055436953129246720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2018</a></blockquote>
The White House refused to bend to either Zucker or Brennan. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Thursday morning that the president has &#8220;condemned violence in all forms, has done that since Day 1.&#8221;

Trump Fires Back At CNN’s Zucker, Says MEDIA Is Stoking National Anger

President Donald Trump had harsh words in response to a statement from CNN&#039;s Jeff Zucker, essentially blaming the President&#039;s &quot;rhetoric&quot; for fanning the

Trump Fires Back At CNN&#039;s Zucker, Says MEDIA Is Stoking National Anger | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-fires-back-cnns-zucker-says-media-stoking-emily-zanotti/

Denial of left-wing and partisan Democrat news biases in their professional conduct is a regular feature of CNN&#8217;s most prominent personalities.
Below is a montage of CNN figures framing their work as a good faith pursuit of truth:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cEaIaCWk-k8" width="854"></iframe></div>
<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?427701-1/journalists-discuss-press-freedom-fake-news">As part of a panel</a> ostensibly examining the state of the news media in April, hosted by the National Press Club, CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper said of his and his colleagues&#8217; work: &#8220;We want to cover [the news] in a fair and impartial way.&#8221; MSNBC&#8217;s Katy Tur agreed: &#8220;Journalists aren&#8217;t biased; and if they do have biases, our job is to put those aside and report fairly. If we have any bias, it&#8217;s a bias toward the facts.&#8221;
&#8220;My job is not to be liked. My job is to tell the truth and deliver the facts and hold people accountable,&#8221; said Tapper during <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7KnAd9AM1o">a February interview</a> with CBS&#8217; Stephen Colbert.
CNN&#8217;s Dylan Byers described persons of &#8220;the media&#8221; as broadly &#8220;acting in good faith and with good intentions&#8221; during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85-EqrJPPyg">panel discussion in May</a>.
During an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5j--UXQqtY">impromptu interview with TMZ</a> in July of 2016, CNN&#8217;s Chris Cuomo denied the existence of an &#8220;anti-Donald Trump&#8221; bias at CNN.
CNN&#8217;s Don Lemon denied the existence of a broad &#8220;liberal bias&#8221; across the news media during an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq2113whpvc">interview with MRCTV</a> in October of 2015: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think that people are deliberately trying to skew things one way or the other.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know of anyone that has put out a story in the mainstream media &#8230; to intentionally deceive anyone,&#8221; said Lemon during <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9_xStKZCVU">a February segment</a>.
&#8220;We need people to trust us, and I think that we have been acting in a way that garners that trust,&#8221; said CNN&#8217;s Jim Acosta during a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?426814-1/sean-spicer-apologizes-hitlerassad-comparison">Newseum-hosted panel discussion</a> in April.
&#8220;We are going to be in dogged pursuit of the truth no matter what happens to us,&#8221; said Acosta during a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?422868-1/white-house-press-secretary-sean-spicer-discusses-media-coverage-trump-administration">January panel discussion</a> at Georgetown University.
Jeff Zucker, CNN&#8217;s president, denied CNN&#8217;s approach toward President Donald Trump as biased in a political or personal manner during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtgkg3WBCAk">March interview in Israel</a>: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re hitting back hard [at Trump], we&#8217;re doing our jobs.&#8221;
CNN brands itself &#8220;The Most Trusted Name In News.&#8221;
Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

WATCH: 17 Times CNN Personalities Denied Their Leftist Biases

Alisyn Camerota

Chris Cuomo

Dylan Byers

Jake Tapper

Media

Denial of left-wing and partisan Democrat news biases in their professional conduct is a regular feature of CNN’s most prominent personalities.

WATCH: 17 Times CNN Personalities Denied Their Leftist Biases | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-17-times-cnners-denied-left-wing-biases-robert-kraychik/

In an interview with <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/kathy-griffin-donald-trump-interview.html">The Cut</a> clearly intended to help rehabilitate her career after her disastrous &#8220;Trump beheading&#8221; stunt, Kathy Griffin pulls the curtain back on what was going on behind the scenes with some of her professional and personal relationships, including with former CNN co-host Anderson Cooper. After Cooper condemned her gruesome photo shoot on Twitter and failed to reach out to her for weeks, Griffin said she told him their friendship was &#8220;over.&#8221;
The Cut&#8216;s Yashar Ali, a friend of Griffin who had discouraged her from spreading the photo that proved to be professionally devastating, spoke at length with Griffin about the fallout from the stunt and provided a few juicy details, including a section on the end of Griffin&#8217;s &#8220;best-known celebrity friendship&#8221; going back 17 years. The beginning of the end of the friendship started with Cooper&#8217;s tweet on the night that Griffin posted the beheading image.
&#8220;For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate,&#8221; wrote Cooper.
Ali says that while Griffin &#8220;acknowledges that Cooper was in an untenable position,&#8221; she feels that &#8220;their long friendship afforded her a call or text message beforehand.&#8221; Here&#8217;s an excerpt from the Cooper section:
<blockquote>
In the following days, Griffin says four of Cooper&#8217;s CNN colleagues reached out repeatedly to Griffin to check on her and offer private support (I independently confirmed this). But Cooper didn&#8217;t contact Griffin until August 10, CNN confirmed to me.
On July 26, when asked about Griffin on Andy Cohen&#8217;s talk show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Cooper claimed that Griffin was still a friend. &#8220;Yeah, we&#8217;re still friends, and look I said what I said about &#8212; I didn&#8217;t think what she said was appropriate, but I wish her the best and I hope she bounces back,&#8221; he told Cohen.
The fact that Cooper was telling people publicly they were friends, while not checking in with her, hurt Griffin deeply. When he finally reached out to her in a series of text messages, she told him their friendship was over.
A source close to Cooper tells me that Cooper was &#8220;shocked and upset by the photo, and while he was not ready to talk to her personally about it, he still considered her to be a friend, and was publicly supportive when asked about the controversy.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Ali also provides some behind-the-scenes details about Griffin&#8217;s rocky relationship with CNN President Jeff Zucker, with whom she said she had &#8220;clashed regularly.&#8221; Griffin told Ali that in 2015 she called Zucker to see if he would pay her more for the New Year&#8217;s Eve co-hosting role. According to Griffin, he was &#8220;livid,&#8221; firing her before eventually rehiring her. For the 2017 show, she says Zucker gave her a limit on Trump jokes:
<blockquote>
Griffin says Zucker was livid and told her that he could get comedian Samantha Bee to take her place. Zucker, Griffin says, called her agent and publicist to say she was fired. They eventually made up, but not before Zucker cut Griffin&#8217;s pay (she did get a raise in 2016).
Griffin also says that before the 2017 broadcast, Zucker called her at home to tell her she could only do four jokes about Trump (the first time there had ever been limits on her material during the special). When Griffin pushed back, she says Zucker said to her, &#8220;I don&#8217;t need this, you don&#8217;t need this. He&#8217;s come after me harder than anybody. I have to deal with this guy.&#8221; Griffin reluctantly agreed to the limit. Zucker, through a CNN spokeswoman, declined to comment.
</blockquote>
Another claim Griffin makes is that CBS Corporation board of directors member Arnold Koplelson emailed her a creepy prewritten letter to Trump that he said she needed to mail to the president or &#8220;your career is over.&#8221; Here&#8217;s Ali&#8217;s summary of the letter Griffin shared with her:
<blockquote>
The letter includes phrases like, &#8220;Now with my world crumbling around me, I am listening for the first time about the great things you have done and are doing. How stupid I was to follow the lies from the &#8216;Left.&#8217; It took my terrible mistake to finally see the false news,&#8221; and &#8220;I do not deserve what I am asking of you. I am begging you to open your heart and forgive me.&#8221; Kopelson said that Griffin should &#8220;exclusively release the letter to Fox Broadcasting,&#8221; adding, &#8220;Do not send to the other networks.&#8221; &#8220;If you don&#8217;t do exactly what I&#8217;ve written, your career is over,&#8221; Kopelson wrote. A spokesman for CBS Corporation declined to comment. When I called Kopelson for comment, he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m tied up&#8221; as soon as I explained the reason for the call, and hung up the phone. Kopelson did not respond to a request for comment via email.
</blockquote>
Griffin also said that when the Trump beheading scandal erupted, Trump-nemesis Rosie O&#8217;Donnell wasn&#8217;t even on her side, asking her, &#8220;What is James Foley&#8217;s mom going to think when she sees this?&#8221;
Apart from the horrific idea to post the picture, Griffin also seemed to regret her chaotic press conference, after which, she said, she &#8220;couldn&#8217;t even find a reputable crisis-management expert to take her on as a client, and she still hasn&#8217;t found a publicist.&#8221;
On Tuesday, as part of her attempted rehabilitation tour, Griffin appeared on Sunrise Live to make clear that she is &#8220;<a href="https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/36876774/kathy-griffin-is-no-longer-sorry-about-that-trump-controversy/#page1">no longer sorry</a>&#8221; about the beheaded Trump stunt, though once again she got more pushback than she appears to have anticipated.
<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/kathy-griffin-donald-trump-interview.html">Read the full interview here</a>.

Kathy Griffin: I Told Anderson Cooper Our Friendship Is OVER

In an interview with The Cut clearly intended to help rehabilitate her career after her disastrous &quot;Trump beheading&quot; stunt, Kathy Griffin pulls the

Kathy Griffin: I Told Anderson Cooper Our Friendship Is OVER | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/kathy-griffin-i-told-anderson-cooper-our-james-barrett/

CNN chief Jeff Zucker&#8217;s only legacy will be as The Great Destroyer, the destroyer of a once-widely respected news brand, the destroyer of his network&#8217;s ratings (half the viewers of its competition), and the destroyer of the souls and reputations of formerly respected journalists. Alisyn Camerota is one of the casualties of Zucker&#8217;s obsession with pushing fake news on behalf of the Democrat Party.
Over at Fox News, Camerota was great, a real stand-out as the weekend anchor of Fox &amp; Friends. Notwithstanding the fact that I&#8217;m no fan of cable news in any format, while she was at Fox, Camerota impressed me with her smarts and fairness. And so when she moved to CNN&#8217;s failing morning show New Day, I naively believed she would bring her integrity and smarts with her.
I&#8217;m such a fool.
The Alisyn Camerota on the last-place-and-sinking CNN is a completely different person, someone who gave away both her soul and brain. And she is getting worse&#8230;
As a means to shrink her elite, provincial, leftwing bubble into something even more comfortable, proving she has no creativity whatsoever, Camerota quit Twitter in the least creative fashion possible &#8212; with an <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18528/cnn-anchor-announces-shes-breaking-twitter-aaron-bandler">insipid Dear John letter</a>.
No one need tell me how much hate there is out there. Believe me&#8230; No. One. Need. Tell. ME. Mean tweets are not why adults flee Twitter. Camerota fled because the criticism stung, because the Truths hurled her way were accurate, because these Truths conflicted with what Zucker requires her to do for three hours every morning, and do it in front of fewer viewers than the low-rated Morning Joe.
But now that she has squashed her Jiminy Cricket, now that there is literally no one to tell her that what she is doing is morally wrong, Camerota immediately went bonkers on Thursday with the absurd claim that President Trump would have approved <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/14202/5-times-democrats-sold-out-us-russia-aaron-bandler">the Uranium One</a> deal &#8212; you know, the deal that then-Secretary of State Clinton signed off on, that sweet two-fer that handed Russian President Vladimir Putin 20% to 50% of America&#8217;s uranium supplies AND won hubby Bill Clinton lucrative speaking gigs with the very same Russian companies that benefitted from this treason?
You know, the Obama administration&#8217;s treasonous deal with the Russians that the fake news media insists on downplaying or ignoring altogether, even as they enter year two of trying to pound the Trump Treason Drum with no evidence of any wrongdoing?
Tired of having this inconvenient truth thrown in her face, this is how Camerota responded when Jason Miller, Trump&#8217;s former senior communications advisor, <a href="http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-xenos/2017/07/13/cnns-trump-hatred-host-says-president-would-have-sold-uranium-russia">brought it up</a>:
<blockquote>
JASON MILLER: What we did know at the time is that Secretary Clinton had been very much involved with the Russians, as we talk about the Uranium One deal, which was very scandalous and maybe there was &#8212;
CAMEROTA: We keep hearing that talking point. We understand that you guys keep bringing that up.
MILLER: So you don&#8217;t think the Uranium One deal was a big deal? 
CAMEROTA: And you don&#8217;t think President Trump would have approved the Uranium One deal, the person who doesn&#8217;t want &#8212; we hear his administration doesn&#8217;t want Congress to keep sanctions on Russia?
</blockquote>
There are two lies in there. First off, Trump is opposed to additional Russian sanctions. There is nothing from the White House that indicates in any way that there is even the slightest desire to remove the existing sanctions.
The other lie is the insinuation that Trump would have backed the treasonous Uranium One deal. After just six months in office, Trump has already been much tougher on Putin than Obama was in his dreams. Whereas Obama <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18299/anti-obama-trump-selling-missile-defense-poland-hank-berrien">attempted to appease Russia</a> by refusing our Polish allies something as crucial to their survival as missile defense, Trump has already <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-03-31/poland-expects-to-sign-deal-for-eight-patriot-missile-defense-systems-by-end-2017">reversed that policy</a>. Moreover, Trump is giving Putin and his Syrian allies fits with actual bombing campaigns and real, believable red lines.
Breitbart News has <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/07/13/fraud-news-wrong-again-cnn-host-falsely-claims-president-trump-would-have-approved-hillary-backed-uranium-one-deal/">contacted CNN</a> with a request to explain where Camerota got this bonkers idea from; CNN appears to have gone back into the bunker.
But now that Camerota has completely removed herself from the Real World, now that she has snuffed out her Twitter account as a means to avoid uncomfortable truths, she has no one to answer to, no one to challenge her, no one to put her in check &#8230; other than the unscrupulous Jeff Zucker, who seems intent on burning everything and everyone down with him. 
Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC">@NolteNC</a>. Follow his Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnNolteNC/?skip_nax_wizard=true">here</a>.

After Quitting Twitter, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota Goes Bonkers With Fake News

Barack Obama

Democratic Party

Fake News

Hillary Clinton

CNN chief Jeff Zucker&#039;s only legacy will be as The Great Destroyer, the destroyer of a once-widely respected news brand, the destroyer of his network&#039;s

After Quitting Twitter, CNN&#039;s Alisyn Camerota Goes Bonkers With Fake News | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-quitting-twitter-cnns-alisyn-camerota-goes-john-nolte/

In perhaps the least shocking development in CNN&#8217;s retracted Russiagate story saga, the real reason CNN pulled the story and issued its unorthodox apology to Trump associate Anthony Scaramucci has come to light: the network was facing a $100 million libel suit, and at a particularly inopportune moment for CNN President Jeff Zucker.
On Tuesday, <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/06/27/cnn-staffers-didnt-resign-over-retracted-story-they-got-fired/">The New York Post</a> drew back the curtain on CNN&#8217;s latest &#8220;fake news&#8221; debacle &#8212; the retraction of an anonymous source-based article which resulted in the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17972/three-cnn-journalists-resign-over-retracted-james-barrett">resignation</a> of three of its more widely respected journalists &#8212; and revealed an ugly scene:
<blockquote>
The specter of a $100 million libel suit scared CNN into <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/06/25/cnn-is-cracking-down-on-how-they-cover-russia/">retracting a poorly reported story</a> that slimed an ally of President Trump&#8217;s &#8212; and forcing out the staffers responsible for it, The Post has learned.
The cable network&#8217;s coverage of Trump transition-team member Anthony Scaramucci came amid federal scrutiny of <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/06/20/time-warner-execs-face-an-awkward-dinner-with-att-bosses/">corporate parent Time Warner&#8217;s pending purchase by AT&amp;T</a> &#8212; and the widespread belief among media execs that CNN President Jeff Zucker can&#8217;t survive a merger.
CNN immediately caved after Scaramucci, a financier and frequent network guest, cried foul and threatened to take legal action, sources said Tuesday.
</blockquote>
The Post explains that the embattled Zucker &#8212; who, according to a BuzzFeed source, was &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17972/three-cnn-journalists-resign-over-retracted-james-barrett">directly involved</a>&#8221; in the investigation of what went wrong with the botched story &#8212; was unwilling to risk the $100 million lawsuit at such a precarious time for the company and his own job:
<blockquote>
Zucker was afraid of facing a high-profile suit from Scaramucci while the US Justice Department weighs the proposed $85.4 billion media merger.
</blockquote>
So, the &#8220;fake news&#8221; story was retracted and Scaramucci got &#8220;an unusual public apology.&#8221; But that didn&#8217;t stop the Trump associate from hiring &#8220;a top Manhattan lawyer to put further pressure on CNN and &#8216;look after [his] interests in this matter,'&#8221; according to a source. 
The Post also notes that its sources confirmed what most suspected: CNN pressured the three journalists from its new investigative team to resign. &#8220;They called them in and said they&#8217;d pay out their contracts, but they should leave immediately,&#8221; one source told the Post. 
A CNN insider described a staff that is fuming about the whole humiliating affair, fearing they have &#8220;lost the moral high ground.&#8221; But Zucker continues to insist that this is actually evidence of CNN&#8217;s strong journalistic standards and that the story was an anomaly, published without the network&#8217;s usual top-notch editorial oversight. 
Right.
Meanwhile, President Trump is <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18005/trump-having-blast-cnns-epic-meltdown-james-barrett">having a blast</a> online at Fake News CNN&#8217;s expense. 
More from The Daily Wire on CNN&#8217;s retracted Russia story debacle:
<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17972/three-cnn-journalists-resign-over-retracted-james-barrett">Fake News Fallout: Three CNN Journalists Resign Over Retracted Russiagate Story</a>
<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17984/wut-cnn-claims-retracted-fake-news-story-could-john-nolte">Wut??? CNN Claims Retracted Fake News Story Could Still Be True! </a>

The REAL Reason CNN Retracted Russia Story Comes Out — And It’s Not CNN’s ‘Journalistic Standards’

In perhaps the least shocking development in CNN&#039;s retracted Russiagate story saga, the real reason CNN pulled the story and issued its unorthodox apology

The REAL Reason CNN Retracted Russia Story Comes Out — And It&#039;s Not CNN&#039;s &#039;Journalistic Standards&#039; | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/real-reason-cnn-retracted-russia-story-comes-out-james-barrett/

One thing we all have to love about CNN under Jeff Zucker is that they can always be counted on to do the wrong thing. Case in point&#8230; In yesterday&#8217;s bombshell CNN story &#8212; no, not <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17976/undercover-video-cnn-producer-says-trumprussia-robert-kraychik">that one</a>, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/26/media/cnn-announcement-retracted-article/index.html">this one</a> &#8212; the story where CNN pretends it has done the correct thing in separating itself from the three fake journalists responsible for publishing fake journalism about the fake Trump/Russia story, the leftwing cable news network slips another piece of fake news in there, a defiant piece of fake news that is itself quite obviously fake news&#8230;
<blockquote>
In a staff meeting Monday afternoon, investigative unit members were told that the retraction did not mean the facts of the story were necessarily wrong.
</blockquote>
Yes, you read that correctly. Despite a full-retraction of the fake news, an apology to one of the targets of the fake news, and CNN losing three top members of its investigative team over the fake news, CNN is still publicly proclaiming that its fake news could be true.
This is what you call the full-Dan Rather, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy">fake but true</a> defense that proves beyond any doubt that the levers of our establishment media are now in the hands of zealots and witch hunters, unconcerned with facts or truth, dismissive of common decency, and interested only in personally destroying those on the political right they see as something not-quite-human.
CNN, however, is something unique, as I said above, something that can always be counted on to do the wrong thing&#8230;
If there is a severed head of Donald Trump available, you can bet a CNN star will hold it up to the world.
If someone somewhere once called for a Republican lawmaker to be raped, you can bet <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17153/flashback-cnns-reza-aslan-wished-republican-john-nolte">CNN will hire him</a>.
If there is a play going on somewhere that washes itself <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17414/cnns-fareed-zakaria-hails-trump-assassination-play-john-nolte">in the blood of President Trump</a>, you can bet Jeff Zucker&#8217;s employer sponsors it, you can bet his employees declare it a &#8220;masterpiece.&#8221;
If there&#8217;s a guy who believes <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/13831/what-about-consent-chris-cuomos-depraved-beliefs-john-nolte">12 year-old girls should be exposed to naked men against their will</a>, you can bet he works for CNN.
If what looks like <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/14170/crosshairs-cnn-points-what-looks-sniper-scope-john-nolte">a sniper scope</a> is being pointed at the White House, you can bet it belongs to CNN.
If a joke is being told about <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bristolpalin/2016/12/cnn-made-horrible-accusations-sarah-palin-now-makes-jokes-trumps-plane-crashing/">Trump&#8217;s plane crashing</a>, you can bet it&#8217;s being told on CNN.
If someone is openly <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/27/professor-and-cnn-commentator-we-should-be-strategic-in-how-we-riot-video/">calling for a riots</a> in a poor, black neighborhood, you can bet it is being called for on CNN.
If a phony dossier that CNN knows is phony is being <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12320/cnnbuzzfeed-smear-collapses-trump-attorney-cohen-john-nolte">dropped into the world</a> solely as a means to humiliate a Republican president, you can bet the man CNN considers its Precious Conscience is behind it.
And now we have a confession on video of what we have always known &#8212; that CNN knows the Trump/Russia hoax is a hoax but <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17976/undercover-video-cnn-producer-says-trumprussia-robert-kraychik">pushes it anyway</a>&#8230;
&#8230;a confession that CNN would never apply the same level of &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17976/undercover-video-cnn-producer-says-trumprussia-robert-kraychik">scrutiny</a>&#8221; to Obama:
<blockquote>
I think if we would have behaved that way with President Obama, and scrutinized everything that he was doing with as much scrutiny as we apply to Donald Trump, I think our viewers would&#8217;ve been turned off. I think they would have felt like we were attacking him.
</blockquote>
&#8230; a confession that CNN treating Obama with kid gloves and serially-lying about Trump is driven solely by Jeff Zucker&#8217;s desire to please the Left.
<blockquote>
I think that there are a lot of like, liberal CNN viewers who want to see Trump really get scrutinized[.]
</blockquote>
CNN could not attract more than <a href="http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/scoreboard-friday-june-23/333362">711K viewers</a> last week.
CNN is in a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17936/retractions-ratings-and-rape-catastrophic-month-john-nolte">credibility death spiral</a>.
Even Trump can&#8217;t resist piling on.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/879678356450676736">June 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
And if you want to finish off CNN (and save money doing so!), <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/14832/how-destroy-cnn-survive-without-cable-tv-and-save-john-nolte">this</a> is the only way that will ever happen.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC">@NolteNC</a>. Follow his Facebook Page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnNolteNC/?skip_nax_wizard=true">here</a>.

Wut??? CNN Claims Retracted Fake News Story Could Still Be True!!

One thing we all have to love about CNN under Jeff Zucker is that they can always be counted on to do the wrong thing. Case in point… In yesterday&#039;s

Wut??? CNN Claims Retracted Fake News Story Could Still Be True!! | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/wut-cnn-claims-retracted-fake-news-story-could-john-nolte/

In the world of CNN president Jeff Zucker, CNN has no political ax to grind, and simply tells the truth, while Fox News is <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/jeff-zucker-apprentice-and-president/">&#8220;state-run TV.&#8221;</a> Speaking on <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/jeff-zucker-apprentice-and-president/">The New Yorker Radio Hour broadcast over the weekend</a>, Zucker was asked to characterize the area of cable news in the era of President Trump. Zucker responded, &#8220;Obviously Fox News is, uh,&#8221; paused for roughly ten seconds, then continued, &#8220;So, look, there&#8217;s three cable news networks. Certainly in primetime and in the morning, Fox is state-run TV and is extolling the line out of the White House.&#8221;
MSNBC, according to Zucker? They have &#8220;become the opposition.&#8221;
Zucker&#8217;s own CNN? &#8220;Seeking the truth.&#8221;
David Remnick of The New Yorker pressed, &#8220;Do you think the other two networks are not broadcasting the truth?&#8221;
Zucker: &#8220;Well, I think that there are clear agendas at work at the other cable news networks depending on their political points of view.&#8221;
Zucker spoke of Trump branding CNN and other outlets as &#8220;fake news.&#8221; He said, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s an unfortunate phrase. I think we should all try to avoid it. I think it&#8217;s also dangerous and unfortunate that the president of the United States and the people around him would try and denigrate an institution like the media, which is one of the bedrocks of this country.&#8221;
Zucker acknowledged some &#8220;news that isn&#8217;t real&#8221; that is false but furthers a political agenda or uses clickbait to sell advertising, but added Trump&#8217;s &#8220;fake news is news he doesn&#8217;t like &#8212; and there is a difference between news that is not real and news that he doesn&#8217;t like.&#8221;
Zucker, who helped Trump rise to stardom on The Apprentice, said Trump &#8220;knows how to work an audience.&#8221; He reminisced:
<blockquote>
There&#8217;s no way I or anyone else back in 2004, when The Apprentice went on the air, would have predicted that Donald Trump would end up as president of the United States. I never had political conversations with him, ever. We had conversations about the ratings of The Apprentice and how much [money] he was going to make doing The Apprentice. We ended up paying him what we wanted to pay him. He wanted a million dollars an episode to do The Apprentice in the second year.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Zucker said airing the Trump 2016 campaign in full and unedited was a mistake, adding, &#8220;I think, in hindsight, if we could go back, we probably wouldn&#8217;t do all those. I think we probably did do too many of them. I do not think that&#8217;s why he&#8217;s president of the United States. I do not believe that&#8217;s why he won the Republican nomination.&#8221;
Of course, Zucker relentlessly promoted Trump as far back as 2005; when Trump was readying for his marriage to Melania Knauss in 2005, Zucker wanted to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jeff-zuckers-singular-role-in-promoting-donald-trumps-rise/2016/10/02/7c3d4366-865b-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html?utm_term=.31d352de8a53">broadcast the wedding live</a>. And last October, when it looked as though Hillary Clinton would win the presidency, Zucker wasn&#8217;t sorry he promoted Trump during the campaign and raised CNN&#8217;s ratings, <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/10/jeff-zucker-cnn-no-regrets-229820">saying</a>, &#8220;We recognized &#8230; there was a little bit of a phenomenon to Donald Trump.&#8221;

CNN’s Zucker: Fox News Is ‘State-Run TV’

Fox News

MSNBC

In the world of CNN president Jeff Zucker, CNN has no political ax to grind, and simply tells the truth, while Fox News is “state-run TV.”

CNN&#039;s Zucker: Fox News Is &#039;State-Run TV&#039; | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnns-zucker-fox-news-state-run-tv-hank-berrien/

The president of CNN is warning that journalism is in danger under President Donald Trump. Speaking at the Overseas Press Club of America, Jeff Zucker claimed, &#8220;Journalism is threatened by senior officials in our own government.&#8221;
This is not the first time Zucker has sounded the alarm about the supposed threat posed by Trump, having warned in the past that the President is waging a campaign to &#8220;<a href="http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/28/cnn-chief-journalism-is-threatened-by-the-trump-administration/?utm_content=bufferf8420&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">delegitimize journalism.</a>&#8220;
While Trump has repeatedly slammed the establishment media over rolling out &#8220;fake news,&#8221; deliberately misleading the American people, and unfairly targeting him, Zucker&#8217;s claim that journalism is legitimately &#8220;threatened&#8221; by the Trump administration is hyperbole. It also reveals a double standard on the CNN president&#8217;s part. Here are four reasons why.
1. Trump has criticized specific news outlets. So did Barack Obama. Trump, of course, has <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/13606/trump-calls-press-enemy-american-people-no-ben-shapiro">declared</a> that news outlets like the &#8220;failing&#8221; New York Times and CNN are &#8220;the enemy of the American people.&#8221; Obama had <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/11424/obama-says-presidents-must-not-retaliate-against-aaron-bandler">a penchant</a> for frequently attacking Fox News and Rush Limbaugh:
<blockquote>
&#8220;If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you&#8217;ll see more of them doing it,&#8221; Obama said in an interview with The New Republic.
Back in September, Obama lamented in a fundraiser that the race was close because &#8220;if all you&#8217;re doing is watching Fox News and listening to Rush Limbaugh &#8230; a lot of misinformation on a regular basis, then it&#8217;s very hard for you to think that you&#8217;re going to vote for somebody who you&#8217;ve been told is taking the country in the wrong direction.&#8221;
Obama also recently blamed Donald Trump&#8217;s election win on the notion that Fox News is playing &#8220;in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country&#8221; in an interview with Rolling Stone.
</blockquote>
That&#8217;s not to excuse Trump&#8217;s over-the-top statement about the media being the &#8220;enemy&#8221; of the people, but it reveals a lack of intellectual honesty for Zucker to act like Trump is harming journalism for criticizing certain news outlets, while absolving Obama for doing the same thing.
2. Trump has not implemented any policies that suppress freedom of the press. While Trump has called for loosening libel laws &#8211; a move that could certainly suppress freedom of the press &#8211; such laws can only be changed at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/can-trump-change-libel-laws.html">the state level</a>. So unless Trump acts beyond his authority, such calls are meaningless. Otherwise, there&#8217;s nothing to suggest that Trump is taking any action to limit journalistic freedoms.
3. The Obama administration actually did partake in actions against a news outlet and a journalist that were chilling. As The Daily Wire has previously reported, Obama&#8217;s Department of Justice went after the Associated Press and Fox News reporter James Rosen:
<blockquote>
In the AP&#8217;s case, the DOJ was investigating a story involving &#8220;a CIA operation in Yemen that foiled an al-Qaeda plot in the spring of 2012 to set off a bomb on an airplane headed to the United States,&#8221; according to the Washington Post. The DOJ seized two months of phone records from the AP without informing the news outlet.
&#8220;There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,&#8221; Gary Pruitt, president of the AP wrote to Holder at the time. &#8220;These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP&#8217;s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP&#8217;s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.&#8221;
In the Rosen case, the DOJ was investigating a story Rosen did involving North Korea and tracked &#8220;his movements and conversations,&#8221; according to Fox News, including phone numbers belonging to Rosen&#8217;s parents. The DOJ had listed Rosen as a &#8220;co-conspirator&#8221; under the Espionage Act in regards to the story&#8212;allegedly pressing a source for classified information. Rosen was never charged with a crime.
Fox News executive Michael Clemente called the DOJ&#8217;s actions against Rosen &#8220;downright chilling.&#8221; &#8220;We will unequivocally defend [Rosen&#8217;s] right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press,&#8221; Clemente said in a statement, per the Washington Post.
</blockquote>
4. The biggest threat to journalism is actually the media themselves. The left-wing media is increasingly discrediting themselves with their openly partisan reporting. CNN is a perfect example of this, as their <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/15736/cnn-pretends-be-fair-and-balanced-so-why-do-their-frank-camp">chyrons</a> are constantly fact-checking Trump in ways they never did for Obama or Hillary Clinton. Most of the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12031/9-worst-fake-news-stories-2016-aaron-bandler">worst fake news stories</a> from 2016 were stemming from left-wing news outlets. Ben Rhodes, Obama&#8217;s national security advisor, <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/15511/obama-national-security-advisor-tweets-something-ben-shapiro">openly gloated</a> about lying to the media about the Iran deal, yet the media did not voice any displeasure about being manipulated.
Unless Trump starts actively shutting down news outlets, Zucker really has no leg to stand on in his claims that Trump is &#8220;threatening&#8221; journalism. If he wants to see what really poses the biggest threat to journalism, Zucker should take a long look in the mirror instead.
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

CNN Head: Journalism ‘Threatened’ By Trump. Here Are 4 Reasons That’s Nonsense.

Journalism

The president of CNN is warning that journalism is in danger under President Donald Trump. Speaking at the Overseas Press Club of America, Jeff Zucker

CNN Head: Journalism &#039;Threatened&#039; By Trump. Here Are 4 Reasons That&#039;s Nonsense. | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-head-journalism-threatened-trump-here-are-7-aaron-bandler/

In what appears to be a desperate publicity blitz to prop up a flailing cable news network, earlier this week CNN anchor Jake Tapper yukked it up with fellow Trump-hating Leftist Seth Myers on &#8220;Late Night.&#8221; Then on Wednesday, CNN chief Jeff Zucker <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/cnns-zucker-on-covering-trump-past-present-and-future.html">sat down</a> with Fox News-hating journalist Gabriel Sherman. Both Tapper and Zucker are obviously afraid to make their case outside of a safe space. Moreover, both have now been caught spinning furiously with something less than the truth.
Tapper went out to reassure the world that &#8220;every word&#8221; of his sleazy Trump attack from last week was true (<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12488/days-after-jim-acosta-shouts-trump-cnn-colleague-john-nolte">it wasn&#8217;t</a>), and now Zucker, despite all polling evidence to the contrary, is out there defensively claiming, &#8220;I think our credibility is higher than ever[.]&#8221;
And just who are these people who believe CNN&#8217;s credibility is &#8220;higher than ever&#8221;?
It is certainly not among a little group I like to call &#8230; CNN VIEWERS.
Good heavens, among those who actually punish themselves by watching CNN, a recent poll shows that only 33% &#8220;<a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2017/cable_news_viewers_still_turn_to_fox_first">trust the political news they are getting</a>.&#8221;
That bears repeating&#8230;
Only 1/3rd of CNN&#8217;s own viewers trust CNN. 
That means 2/3rds of CNN&#8217;s very own viewers do not trust the once Most Trusted Name In News.
CNN not only comes in last place in this poll, Fox News enjoys a trust rating of 50%. Worse, MSNBC &#8212; you know, the Brian Williams network &#8212; has a trust rating of 43%, a full 10 points higher than CNN.
Hold on. I&#8217;m just getting to the best part&#8230;
This is a poll taken of Likely Voters. So not only is CNN the least trusted name in cable news (and by a wide margin), it is the least trusted among those who vote; among those CNN would like to influence most.
Moreover, a lot has happened to CNN in the two weeks since that January 3 poll, and all of it has almost certainly further damaged whatever might remain of the left-wing network&#8217;s credibility.
The phony Russian dossier filled with wild and salacious claims about President-elect Donald Trump is, without question, the worst thing to happen to the media-at-large since Rathergate, and <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12358/cnnbuzzfeed-story-falls-apart-team-trump-declares-john-nolte">it was CNN</a> that led that Fake News charge.
On Tuesday, Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12485/fake-news-cnn-reports-tom-price-bought-health-care-ben-shapiro">reported on yet-another CNN Fake News story</a>, this one about Rep. Tom Price, Trump&#8217;s <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12485/fake-news-cnn-reports-tom-price-bought-health-care-ben-shapiro">choice as</a> Secretary of Health and Human Services. The incoming Trump Administration has already <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12520/team-trump-demands-cnn-retract-blatantly-false-james-barrett">called for a retraction</a>.
During Trump&#8217;s January 10 press conference, CNN&#8217;s White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12335/watch-trump-bulldozes-cnn-reporter-amanda-prestigiacomo">heckled and shouted down</a> both the incoming president and NPR&#8217;s Mara Liasson. What a spectacle that was.
Just two weeks ago, CNN anchor Don Lemon defended <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12193/chicago-hate-crime-proves-once-again-cnn-hitler-john-nolte">four adults who kidnapped and tortured a mentally disabled</a> man for up to 48 hours. These four black racists aired at least a half-hour of their torture on Facebook Live, where they can be seen and heard taunting the helpless white man with racial slurs, beating him, forcing him to drink toilet water, and threatening him with murder (luckily he escaped).
On Wednesday, just 48 hours before Trump is sworn in, CNN appeared to openly daydream about what catastrophes would have to befall Trump (including assassination) <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/18/cnn-airs-segment-saying-obama-admin-keep-power-trump-pence-blown-inauguration-day/">in order to keep their precious Obama in power</a>.
Earlier this week, CNN&#8217;s Marc Lamont Hill (who once used his CNN perch <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/27/professor-and-cnn-commentator-we-should-be-strategic-in-how-we-riot-video/">to openly call for riots in Baltimore</a>) trashed black people willing to work with Trump as &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12484/racism-cnns-marc-lamont-hill-calls-open-trump-ben-shapiro">mediocre negroes</a>.&#8221; This is coming from the same network currently facing a class action <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/11481/class-action-suit-blacks-face-glass-ceiling-racial-john-nolte">racial discrimination suit</a>.
To say CNN&#8217;s credibility is in a death spiral would be to say that CNN has some residual credibility, and I am just not sure that&#8217;s true anymore. If only 33% of your own viewers trust you, it means you are a laughingstock across all ideological lines.
As far as the network&#8217;s ratings, something else Zucker bragged on, CNN can proudly state that they are currently in a fierce battle with MSNBC for &#8230; last place.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC">@NolteNC</a>

FAKE NEWS: Jeff Zucker Claims CNN’s Credibility Is ‘Higher Than Ever’ (It’s Not)

Don Lemon

In what appears to be a desperate publicity blitz to prop up a flailing cable news network, earlier this week CNN anchor Jake Tapper yukked it up with

FAKE NEWS: Jeff Zucker Claims CNN&#039;s Credibility Is &#039;Higher Than Ever&#039; (It&#039;s Not) | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/fake-news-jeff-zucker-claims-cnns-credibility-john-nolte/

On Monday evening, Donald Trump held a face-to-face meeting with a bevy of mainstream-media stars: Lester Holt and Chuck Todd of NBC, George Stephanopoulos and Martha Raddatz of ABC, John Dickerson and Charlie Rose of CBS, Phil Griffin of MSNBC, and Jeff Zucker of CNN, among others. According to the New York Post, the meeting went disastrously:
<blockquote>
Donald Trump scolded media big shots during an off-the-record Trump Tower sitdown on Monday, sources told the Post. &#8220;It was like a f***ing firing squad,&#8221; one source said of the encounter. &#8220;Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said, &#8216;I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed,&#8217; &#8221; the source said. &#8220;The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing-down,&#8221; the source added.
</blockquote>
Most conservatives&#8217; first reaction will be laughter. Their second reaction will be cheering. After all, the vast majority of these media figures covered not just Trump but Republicans unfairly for years. This is the same cast of characters that somehow turned Mitt Romney, a deeply honorable human being, into a cruel sexist carrying around binders full of women, strapping dogs to the top of cars, and forcibly cutting the hair of closeted gay teens.
They deserve it. The media have obviously destroyed their own credibility. Polls show that nearly seven in ten Americans don&#8217;t trust the media. That lack of trust meant that even solidly researched stories about Trump were routinely ignored during the election cycle. Trump&#8217;s slamming the media isn&#8217;t out of bounds on a moral level.
With that said, we do have a problem: Who is going to actually cover the Trump presidency?
<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442399/free-press-vital-trump-must-give-full-access">Read the rest by clicking here</a>.

Shapiro at ‘National Review’: Hate The Press, But Don’t Destroy Their Access

Chuck Todd

On Monday evening, Donald Trump held a face-to-face meeting with a bevy of mainstream-media stars: Lester Holt and Chuck Todd of NBC, George

Shapiro at &#039;National Review&#039;: Hate The Press, But Don&#039;t Destroy Their Access | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-national-review-hate-press-dont-destroy-ben-shapiro/

&#8220;[CNN] turned over their airways to Donald Trump,&#8221; said left-wing MSNBC&#8217;s Joe Scarborough in an interview with left-wing Politico&#8217;s Glenn Thrush, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/morning-joe-scarborough-donald-trump-cnn-224101">published</a> on Thursday. &#8220;[CNN] basically turned their entire broadcast center over to him.&#8221;

CNN President Jeff Zucker, added Scarborough, personally calls Trump to schedule him for appearances on his network.


&#8220;[Trump] and Zucker are very close,&#8221; said Scarborough. &#8220;Zucker personally calls Trump, and books Trump. Trumps laughs and calls Zucker &#8216;my personal booker.&#8217;&#8221;

Listen to the segment below.

<div class="media_embed"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="360px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LNKeQZo896U" width="640px"></iframe></div>

Despite CNN&#8217;s hostile left-wing coverage of him and his campaign, Scarborough&#8217;s statement suggests a congenial relationship between Trump and Zucker.

&#8220;If you&#8217;re looking for Trump&#8217;s weakness, it&#8217;s his insecurity,&#8221; said Scarborough, adding that being excluded from &#8220;the club&#8221; or &#8220;polite society&#8221; in New York City fueled his &#8220;rage&#8221; to enter politics. Connecting what he described as Trump&#8217;s drive to that of Rush Limbaugh&#8217;s and Bill O&#8217;Reilly&#8217;s, Scarborough stated that their professional successes still did not allow any of them to fulfill their shared desire to enter &#8220;the club&#8221; of political and media influencers.

On the evolving media landscape, both Scarborough and Thrush lamented the fragmentation of power previously held by legacy outlets. 

The public is &#8220;overwhelmed by so many sources of news,&#8221; said Scarborough, adding that the media&#8217;s fragmentation allows Trump to &#8220;get away with what he gets away with.&#8221; 

Pre-1990, &#8220;ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal&#8221; made it easier to &#8220;fact-check&#8221; the claims of presidential candidates, said Scarborough.

Thrush agreed, noting that greater consolidation of media in terms of ownership and ideological alignment provided a &#8220;coherence to the narrative&#8221; of the news.

Both Scarborough and Thrush agreed that the internet&#8217;s facilitation of media fragmentation was &#8220;a huge frustration.&#8221;

Listen to the full interview below.

<div class="media_embed"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166px" width></iframe></div>

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

LISTEN: Scarborough Reveals Trump’s Relationship With Zucker

Glenn Thrush

Politico

“ turned over their airways to Donald Trump,” said left-wing MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough in an interview with left-wing Politico’s

LISTEN: Scarborough Reveals Trump&#039;s Relationship With Zucker | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/listen-scarborough-reveals-trumps-relationship-robert-kraychik/

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