Zucker Shows Us Why CNN Has Gone So Far Downhill

I think we can all see pretty clearly how CNN became the new Fox News lite based on the latest comments from the network’s president Jeff Zucker after firing Donna Brazile. Zucker called Brazile “disgusting” and “unethical” after a WikiLeaks email showed that she had passes on a probable question for two CNN debates last March. Brazile is a long-time Democratic operative who went on temporary leave from CNN when she assumed the position of chair at the DNC when Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign. The two questions that Brazile passed along involved the death penalty and, at a town hall in Flint, Michigan, a question on how Hillary would help the people of Flint with the issue of water quality due to lead poisoining. Zucker is adamant that the leak of these question did not come from CNN employees so there is no indication that Brazile took advantage of something she learned from CNN employees to help the Clinton campaign. Zucker said that the appearance that campaigns could benefit from knowing questions in advance hurt the network, saying, “I have no tolerance for her behavior or that kind of behavior.”

Meanwhile, Corey Lewandowski, another one of Trump’s former campaign managers, still works for CNN despite continuing to be paid a severance package of some kind, being held to some kind of non-disclosure agreement by Trump, and, at times, traveling with the Trump campaign. That is OK for Zucker but passing along the probability of a question on the death penalty which was clearly going to be an issue in the Democratic primary and a question on lead poisoning at a town hall in Flint, where the whole purpose of having the debate in Flint was because of the lead poisoning of their water supply, is “disgusting” and beyond the pale. Heck, I could have predicted that each of those questions would be coming up, especially the one for the town hall in Flint.

Brazile has always been a Democratic operative and the whole point of having her as a CNN commentator is to provide a Democratic view. To expect that her partisan political activities would end just because she spends some time on CNN is pretty naive. Does anyone really thing that Lewandoswki isn’t communicating with the Trump campaign? So I’m not sure what Zucker expects. If he was looking for impartial reporting, perhaps he shouldn’t hire life-long political hacks to be part of his network. But that probably wouldn’t sell.