XPost: alt.att, alt.politics.trump, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa.republican, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/592969-cnns-collapse-is-now-complete   
      
   It all began 42 years ago — Ted Turner's creation of a 24/7 news network   
   that would exist on something called cable TV. Few believed it could   
   succeed.   
      
   And, for its first decade, CNN largely chugged along but wasn't seen as a   
   game-changer or ?a true competitor to big broadcast news entities based in   
   New York in the form of CBS, NBC and ABC. That all changed when war broke   
   out between the United States and Iraq in 1991.   
      
   On the night war exploded over Baghdad, CNN was the only news organization   
   that was able to broadcast from the city under siege as the U.S. onslaught   
   began, all courtesy of the CNN team’s ability to convince the Iraqi   
   government to grant them a line out of the city to broadcast?, one that   
   the competition could not secure.   
      
   "How CNN Won the War" was the glowing headline from The Washington Post on   
   a story that perfectly chronicled the events that led to CNN officially   
   becoming a major player. And off it went.   
      
   Until 2002, CNN was ?No. 1 in the cable news race. But competition that   
   hadn't existed before ended its dominance forever, primarily in the form   
   of Fox News and, to a lesser extent, MSNBC. Despite the ratings results,   
   CNN continued to carry itself as a credible, facts-first network of   
   integrity that leaned heavily on solid reporting with a sprinkling of   
   opinion and infotainment mixed in via programs such as "Larry King Live"   
   and "Crossfire."   
      
   In 2013, the network hired former NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker to   
   take the reins as ratings continued to be below average at best. This gave   
   Zucker a mandate to radically change the network from its journalistic   
   roots of more than three decades — the months-long wall-to-wall coverage   
   of a missing Malaysian airliner being an early example.   
      
   But two years later, the move to insert heavy doses of partisan opinion   
   into its news reports only accelerated when former President Trump — a   
   Zucker hire at NBC for "The Apprentice" — jumped in to the 2016   
   presidential race. At first, CNN bear-hugged Trump's every move. (Hillary   
   Clinton's giving a speech somewhere? Screw it. Let's show an empty Trump   
   podium with chyrons stating "Trump to speak soon" instead.) The real   
   estate mogul's 17 Republican challengers never had a shot; Trump blotted   
   out the sun in terms of media coverage ?on his way to winning the   
   nomination.   
      
   At that point, Zucker and CNN began to worry. Because while it was a   
   ratings boon for the network to make Trump the centerpiece, there was   
   growing concern that the guy could actually beat Hillary and become the   
   nation's 45th president. So Zucker unleashed the hounds, but it was too   
   late. Trump would go on to shock the world in November 2016.   
      
   Undeterred, CNN decided there would be no honeymoon period for the new   
   president. Talk ?about Russian collusion handing Trump the White House   
   began even before the inauguration. And after the nonstop Trump-bashing,   
   Harvard University concluded that CNN led the way, along with Zucker's   
   former home of NBC, in giving Trump 93 percent negative coverage in his   
   first 100 days.   
      
   For the next four years, CNN served as the leading media resistance to   
   Trump, throwing objectivity out the window. And after President Biden got   
   elected, the network cheered the new president as it had throughout the   
   entire campaign while still making Trump a prime centerpiece for over-the-   
   top negative coverage despite ?his being out of office.   
      
   But as much as CNN tried to resurrect its lead character — who was banned   
   from social media and largely off the grid for the year — his absence   
   ?clearly showed the network was a one-trick partisan pony. Ratings fell 90   
   percent overall when comparing January 2021 to January 2022. That’s hard   
   to do.   
      
   Which brings us to the events of this week: Zucker released a statement   
   saying he had to resign because of a consensual affair with an executive   
   named Allison Gollust. WarnerMedia apparently has a rule against this, so   
   Zucker — instead of a slap on the wrist for a benign offense — simply had   
   to go abruptly.   
      
   Nobody believed this excuse. Turns out they may have had plenty of reason   
   to be skeptical.   
      
   Per several reports, Zucker and Gollust allegedly advised then-New York   
   Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) – the older brother of then-?CNN anchor Chris Cuomo   
   — on what to say during his COVID-19 daily briefings in the spring of   
   2020. They also reportedly told Cuomo how to respond to and how to   
   criticize Trump, to make it more compelling TV. (Gollust is a former   
   communications director for Andrew Cuomo.)   
      
   Let's unpack all of this:   
      
   In the spring of 2020, the country was in a horrific place. Businesses   
   shut completely; people were scared. There were no COVID-19 therapeutics,   
   no vaccines. Hospitals ?were overwhelmed, thousands were dying ?each day.   
   If ?ever there was a time for news organizations to educate and inform the   
   public, this was it.   
      
   Instead, Zucker apparently believed it was the perfect time to exploit the   
   situation for political gain and to help the network's ratings.   
      
   Andrew Cuomo benefited from briefings that made him? appear to be the   
   adult in the room ?regarding COVID-19 and Trump ?appear to be the villain.   
   ?Cuomo got a $5.1 million book deal as a result.   
      
   Chris Cuomo and Zucker/Gollust/CNN benefited from marathon interviews with   
   ?Cuomo's governor/brother, which didn't touch the governor's alleged   
   nursing home scandal. Ratings soared.   
      
   So, was Zucker's departure ?simply about a consensual relationship with a   
   co-worker? One might be forgiven for questioning that.   
      
   Moving forward, what's next for CNN when the company falls under the   
   Discovery Channel umbrella later this year? Let's hear from its soon-to-be   
   largest shareholder, John Malone of Liberty Media.   
      
   "I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it   
   started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and   
   refreshing," Malone said in an interview that recently aired on CNBC.   
      
   Andrew Yang in now-deleted tweet: 'I don't think Joe Rogan is a...   
   The collapse of CNN is now complete: 9 out of 10 viewers, gone. Its top-   
   rated anchor, ?Chris Cuomo, gone. Its network president, gone. Its   
   integrity in shambles.   
      
   ?Oh, and new management coming in that is signaling big-time changes ...   
   changes that may bring CNN back to the proud network it once was before   
   Jeff Zucker destroyed it.   
      
   Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist and a Fox News contributor.   
      
      
   --   
   "LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering.  95% of COVID infections   
   recover with no after effects.   
      
   No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.   
   Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.   
      
      
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