CNN Faced $100M Lawsuit over Botched Russia Story
Scaramucci, Scaramucci, can you do the fandango?!
Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening me…Galileo!
Is CNN afraid of Anthony Scaramucci? They should be. At least as the media giant created a fake news story about the Trump transition team member.
According to the New York Post,
The cable network’s coverage of Trump transition-team member Anthony Scaramucci came amid federal scrutiny of corporate parent Time Warner’s pending purchase by AT&T — and the widespread belief among media execs that CNN President Jeff Zucker can’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.
Scaramucci got an unusual public apology but still hired a top Manhattan lawyer to put further pressure on CNN and “look after [his] interests in this matter,” one source said.
As we reported earlier, the three journalists responsible for the story were fired.
Sources also said the three journalists responsible for the retracted story — reporter Tom Frank, editor Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris, who headed the CNN Investigates unit — were urged to resign.
“They called them in and said they’d pay out their contracts, but they should leave immediately,” one source said.
While Zucker claims bashing Trump “boosts morale” at CNN, insiders suggest the opposite.
Meanwhile, a CNN insider said staffers are furious at “having lost the moral high ground because of this story.” Sources said Zucker tried to rally his staff during a Tuesday morning conference call.
CNN is no stranger to violating journalistic ethics and standards.
We reported on Reza Aslan, a CNN host:
Saturday night Trump renewed his call for U.S. courts to approve his travel ban in the wake of a deadly terror attack in London.
Afterward, CNN host Reza Aslan called President Trump “a piece of s—” and “an embarrassment to humankind.”
Because that’s what a good reporter does? Clearly, I’m confused. After growing up in a time when reporters were to remain balanced it’s hard to understand the leftist media.
CNN’s show “The Believer” airs on Sunday nights and is hosted by Aslan. CNN bills Aslan as an Iranian-born religious scholar.
Aslan is also the author of such religious texts as Zealout: The Life and Times of Jesus, Beyond Fundamentalism, No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, among others.
He considers himself a secularized Muslim or what we refer to as a jihadist-in-waiting.
But Zucker doesn’t seem to believe his organization has deeper issues.
Based on this comment, Zucker thinks CNN’s media malpractice is limited.
“Zucker stressed that this issue was a ‘lapse in editorial standards’ and said it was a lesson to all reporters and editors to continue to strive for strong, accurate reporting,” a source said.
At last week’s Cannes Lions festival in France — where Zucker boasted that viewers trust CNN “more than ever”. I suspect, Zucker may find himself unemployed, particularly if the merger with AT&T is approved.
