The immediate backlash against CNN for hiring yet another Trump sycophant to go on air and peddle conspiracy theories and smear campaigns in the service of Dear Leader was not unexpected, but the backlash is more intense this time after what CNN did in 2016. People just aren't going to put up with this nonsense, and if CNN persists they will lose viewership and advertising.
Here's what CNN host Brianna Keilar said yesterday after Sean Duffy's foolishness went viral:
That is some anti-immigrant bigotry and it’s an odd questioning of patriotism coming from Sean Duffy, the guy who spent part of his 20s on MTV’s The Real World and the Real World – Road Rules Challenge while Alexander Vindman spent his years in foreign deployments, including one to Iraq where he was awarded a Purple Heart after he was injured by a roadside bomb.
Smear merchants are not acceptable in 2019.
Source: Politico
A CNN executive on Tuesday defended new political commentator Sean Duffy after several of the network’s anchors and commentators criticized the former Republican congressman’s on-air remarks earlier that day as “anti-immigrant” and “appalling.”
In an interview with POLITICO, CNN vice president Rebecca Kutler said the network “is out there reporting from all over the country and from all points of view” and that “having people who support the president’s policies is part of that.”
Kutler said that Duffy, who started on the network on Oct. 20, was elected to Congress five times from Wisconsin and can help “share with our audience what’s important to the voters he’s represented and how that will impact the 2020 election.”
CNN's chief Jeff Zucker defended Duffy's hiring this way:
CNN built a stable of pro-Trump pundits, like Jeffrey Lord, Kayleigh McEnany, and Corey Lewandowski, during the 2016 election as several of its conservative commentators, and other leading Republican voices, were critical of his candidacy. After they departed, CNN continued adding supportive commentators during Trump’s presidency, with Duffy the most recent.
“It is hard to find people who will come on and support the president’s point of view,” CNN chief Jeff Zucker said at the network’s “Citizen” conference last Thursday. “We need these voices.”
Sure you do, bud.
And of those CNN hosts and contributors who've spoken out against what Duffy is doing, including Brianna Keilar, John Berman, Jeffery Toobin, as well as Chris Cillizza and Brian Stelter, Rebecca Kutler said this:
Regarding Duffy’s comments, Kutler pointed out that Berman, Toobin, and Keilar forcefully pushed back on air. “I think our air speaks for itself,” she said.
"Our air speaks for itself." Ponder that for a moment. More's the pity, because CNN executives are soulless cretins who have no business running a news network.
