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Put aside for a moment that CNN’s former anchor, Chris Cuomo, used to interview his brother, ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on his primetime show at the height of the COVID-19 War.
And forget how the media and Hollywood adored the former governor—who was forced to resign due to sexual harassment allegations—by awarding him an International Emmy for his “Masterful” COVID-19 briefings.
The public demise of Jeff Zucker, the former CNN president, has, once again, showcased how mainstream media companies and the people they claim to cover often have close, personal relationships and work with each other to decide the best approach to deliver the “news” to the public.
These are the conversations that occur far behind the scenes and not just between two Cuomo brothers yucking it up on television.
There is no clear line between corporate media and government.
Allison Gollust, the former CNN executive who came undone after it emerged that she had a secret affair with Zucker, once worked for Gov. Cuomo’s communications team as the director.
Gollust has been accused of letting the former governor approve questions prior to interviews on the network. The New York Post reported that Gollust would even coach the former governor on how to respond to questions about the COVID outbreak.
Gollust has defended herself against these claims and said, through a spokeswoman, that she did not direct these interviews or limit the subject matter.
The Trends Journal has reported on Cuomo’s disastrous job as governor during the virus’s outbreak, all while the news media embraced him as though he was destined for the White House. (See “CUOMO COVID COVER-UP CONTINUES,” “CUOMO’S BOOK A BUST, BUT GOT PAID MILLIONS” and “KILLER CUOMO: MISREPRESENTED COVID NURSING HOME DEATHS.”)
The New York Times reported on the ties between Gollust and Gov. Cuomo, writing that “the episode is the latest example of how closely entwined CNN’s leadership was with one of the country’s most prominent Democratic politicians.”
Of course, the close relationship between a network and its sources is not isolated to CNN. Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham were caught appealing to former President Donald Trump to come out against the capitol rioters during the 6 January attack in D.C.
“Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol,” Hannity wrote to Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff. “Ask people to peacefully leave the Capitol.”
But while Hannity was on the airwaves, he framed his concerns around the possible infiltration of “radical groups” like Antifa during the otherwise peaceful protest.
NPR ran an article titled, “THE TEXTS FOX HOSTS SENT DURING JAN. 6 RIOT DON’T MATCH HOW FOX COVERED IT ON AIR.”
Ingraham must have received the same memo that Hannity read because she, too, reported that Antifa may have infiltrated the rally. (See “CNN: THE VOICE OF HYPOCRISY.”)
Christy Haubegger, WarnerMedia’s top communications official, reportedly told staffers to focus on the network’s journalism in an effort to shift the public’s attention from the problems within CNN.
She saw the network’s coverage of Ukraine as a way out, which is another example of a mainstream media company selecting news items that benefit their bottom lines. So Haubegger admitted that war in Ukraine will get viewers and clicks, who cares about the human toll?
We reported on 9 March 2021, in an article titled, “CNN AGAIN ADMITS SELLING COVID-19 BOOSTS RATINGS.”
Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia, CNN’s parent company, was asked early last year about how the network would be able to keep its high ratings, and he essentially said the network will keep selling COVID Fear and Hysteria.
Kilar commented:
“It turns out that pandemic is a pretty big part of the news cycle, and that’s not going away anytime soon… If you take a look at the ratings and the performance, it’s going well. And I think it’s going well because… as it turns out that the pandemic and the way that we can help inform and contextualize the pandemic, turns out it’s really good for ratings.”
TRENDPOST: Journalism is dead in America and much of the world. We have been reporting that for years. See: “The Fourth Estate: RIP,” (1 Dec 2016) and “POLITICO’S NOT JOURNALISM, IT’S A PRESSTITUTE PUBLICATION” (19 Oct 2021).
As we reported in our Trends in the News broadcast, on 10 February 2021, the Financial Times headline read: “Fox News plans to maintain centre-right slant.”
The article went on to quote Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who made it 100 percent clear it is not true journalism that drives Fox News, it is the bottom line.
FT quoted Murdoch, who stated last year that “We will stick where we are and we think that is exactly right and is the best thing for business. We believe where we are targeted, to the centre-right, is exactly where we should be targeted.”
There it is: “the best thing for business” is their being “targeted, to the centre-right.”
Unlike the Trends Journal, where our motto is “Think for Yourself,” for Fox Corporation, it is not about journalism, not about reporting news, but playing to an audience.
That is why the company hires Republican hacks to host their shows. The list includes Kayleigh McEneny, the former Trump spokeswoman; Trey Gowdy, the former Texas representative; and Jason Chaffetz, the former Utah representative.
COVID War
We’ve seen the way corporate media companies have parroted inaccurate claims about COVID-19 and the vaccines. But what has been more perverse is the ability these companies have in destroying individuals who question government decisions. There is an old saying in journalism: “The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
Between the crackdown in Ottawa, the imposition of the Emergencies Act to stop protesters, and the bashing of those who refuse to fight the COVID War in body and spirit, that is no longer the case. See, “THE HILL: PROPAGANDA SUPREME. EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF ANTI-VAXXERS,” (20 Jul 2021) and “CNN, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?” (5 May 2020).