CNN Pundit Apologizes For 2016 Focus On Clinton's Emails

By Aliza Worthington — October 21, 2019

Something interesting happened on CNN's New Day: A member of the news media apologized for focusing on Hillary Clinton's emails during the 2016 election.

Jeffrey Toobin expressed sincere remorse and regret for having focused on what he called "a nothing story" after host Alysin Camerota reported that yet again, Hillary Clinton has been exonerated of wrongdoing with regard to her emails. This is according to the State Department, which just concluded its investigation, and The New York Times saw fit to report as quietly as it could on page 16 on a Friday.

Toobin interjected to make sure the news media's role was highlighted, and to take responsibility himself for elevating this story to the detriment of her campaign, and ultimately, the nation.

TOOBIN: This is also a story about the news media, about how much time we spend on that and that's something that I have felt a great deal of personal responsibility for, because I talked about the e-mails here at CNN, I wrote about it in The New Yorker, and I think I paid too much attention to them, and I regret that, and I think -- I hope a lesson is learned. I mean this story turns out to be, you paraphrase, I'm paraphrasing too, a big nothing, and we spent months on it, Hillary Clinton very likely lost the election because of it, and I think I should have been talking about other issues not about the e-mails.

This is how apologies should look, and Toobin's regret seems truly heartfelt. One hopes more people in the media learned the lessons of 2016 and follow his example, but I'm not holding my breath. But I'm looking at you, Mika, Joe, and The New York Times.

UPDATE: Brian Fallon responds:

Jeff Toobin was not even close to being one of the main offenders when it came to blowing Clinton emails out of proportion. I wish others with more culpability would show this level of introspection or else the media is likely to repeat its mistakes in '20https://t.co/1QOnnFEIF5

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) October 21, 2019

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