“The most trusted name in news” just got some more bad news. And this time, it wasn’t about a top talking head who was caught doing you know what during a Zoom call.
Last night, CNN learned that Project Veritas, the conservative “guerilla journalism” outfit, has been listening to the morning conference call among CNN’s top left-wing reporters and producers and hate-Trump chieftain Jeff Zucker.
Aside from explaining how CNN must spin its coverage, the tapes also reveal that Zucker ordered his subalterns to “go after” GOP Senator Lindsey Graham. And a top CNN exec called Fox’s Tucker Carlson a “racist” and accused him of pushing “white supremacy.”
CNN’s response: PV might have committed a “felony.”
Hey Jeff, We’ve Been Listening
Zucker got the bad news when O’Keefe interrupted the call and informed him that PV had been listening to and recording CNN’s morning meetings.
“Hey, Jeff Zucker, you there?” O’Keefe asked. “We’ve been listening to your CNN calls for, basically, two months, recording everything. Just wanted to ask you some questions if you have a minute.”
“Do you still feel you’re the most trusted name in news?” O’Keefe asked the network’s openly hate-Trump chieftain. “Because I have to say, from what I have been hearing on these phone calls, I don’t know about that. We’ve got a lot of recordings that indicate you’re not really that independent of a journalist.”
Zucker was stunned. “OK, ummm, thank you, uh, thank you for your comments. So everybody, in light of that, I think we’ll set up a new system, and we’ll be back with you, we’ll do the rest of the call a little bit later.”
When O’Keefe said he would release the recording, Zucker cut off the call.
What O’Keefe revealed is not surprising. CNN is part of the Democrat Party’s mainstream-media information ministry.
Yet the revelations are disturbing because they reveal just how deeply Zucker and his subalterns despise the president and his supporters, and how they coordinate with the radical Left to spin the news.
Choice Quotes
PV posted some key quotes and videos from meetings held in October through and after the November 3 presidential election:
Zucker:
This is a president who knows he’s losing, who knows he’s in trouble, is sick, maybe is on the aftereffects of steroids or not. I don’t know. But he is acting erratically and desperately, and we need to not normalize that….
You know, this is what we’ve come to expect for the last three and a half years, four years, but it clearly is exacerbated by the time that we’re in and the issues that he’s [Trump] dealing with. I think that we cannot just let it be normalized. He is all over the place and acting erratically, and I think we need to lean into that.
Even worse, Zucker said the network isn’t biased enough against Trump, Republicans, and conservatives, and ordered his subordinates to attack the network’s enemies:
Frankly, if we’ve made any mistake, it’s been that our banners have been too polite, and we need to go well after Lindsey Graham….
There’s a ton going on. Let’s stay strong. Let’s stay newsy. Let’s stay urgent. Let’s be smart. There is a lot of news out there, and Lindsey Graham really deserves it.
David Vigilante, CNN general counsel:
Yeah, I was just going to say, if you’re going to talk about the story, I think it’s unavoidable that you have to talk about the naked racism of Tucker Carlson. Because that’s really what drove this anti-diversity push, you know, Trump watches Tucker Carlson’s show and then reacts. And just as sort of the white supremacy hour they have on Fox News every night, I think it’s the — you can’t disconnect the two.
(PV mistakenly labeled those comments as coming from CNN’s Marcus Mabry.)
Journalism 101: Telling your subordinates to “go after” someone is evidence of malice in a defamation lawsuit. So are Vigilante’s remarks.
Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel said Democrats and even Republicans told her that “news organizations have to be very careful and very responsible about not giving Trump too much of a platform on his not conceding. Because they feel the transition can go forward. And, you know, other than the national security briefings, which are critical to start now, they just don’t want us to exaggerate that Trump isn’t leaving office.”
“Yep, agreed,” Zucker said.
In other words, Gangel’s sources guide her reports.
CNN Responds
“Legal experts say this may be a felony,” CNN tweeted. “We’ve referred it to law enforcement.”
O’Keefe said a CNN insider provided PV with access to the phone call.
H/T: The Daily Caller