Can’t Stop/Won’t Stop: CNN Has A New Racist Bigot Apologist

You may remember that CNN recently terminated their go to racist bigot Trumpian apologist asshole, Jeffrey Lord.

As Politico succinctly put it:

CNN on Thursday fired contributor and staunch Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord after he tweeted a Nazi salute.

Well, yes. That is literally the least you could say about Jeff Lord’s “contributions” to CNN. He was, from the start, an unnecessary, and in the face of competent journalism and reportage, complete plant by Jeff Zucker into the CNN family and reportage to do NOTHING but assuage the idiot extremist right wing racist assholes who were watching FoxNews to start with. In short it was insane and counterproductive programming to cater to ignorant racist people that hated, and were not watching, CNN to start with.

The presence of Jeff Lord on CNN was an affront on common intelligence, good journalism and root morality. But there he was. Until Lord actually displayed his inner Trumpian Nazism that was clear under the veneer from moment one, and was the exact reason Zucker and CNN hired and paid the jerk to start with. Jeff Lord was exactly who Zucker and CNN bought and paid for from moment one. He was exactly what they cravenly wanted.

So, did Jeff Zucker, and the worthy geniuses at CNN, learn any lessons by having promoted a clear cut immoral asshole racist Nazi like Lord?

Nope. They have simply found and cultivated a new one.

Today’s version (and seen on CNN!) is Trumpalo Michael Caputo, who had these gems to say on CNN’s The State of the Union show today:

“Our Department of Justice under Obama was the most political Department of Justice in modern times”

Well Mike, that is not quite right. In fact, that would have been the DOJ under George Bush, who your boy Trump is making look good at warp speed. Here is thanks to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse back in 2007, is a graph of political appointee communication of the Clinton White House with the Department of Justice:

Here is, again from Senator Whitehouse, an identical chart of the contacts of the contacts from the Bush/Cheney White House:

Ooof, if you want to talk about root politicization of the DOJ, that is pretty telling, even without going into the Monica Goodling/Karl Rove nonsense.

Caputo goes on to belligerently defend Trump

“…against all this talk of racism”

So, eh, no. For Caputo, in the face of what Trump is doing vis a vis the DOJ, whether firing the Director of the FBI for not covering his ass or asking his Attorney General to kill an investigation of his largest racist supporter Arpaio, is just another hired liar.

But having such an immoral liar to balance actual truth and fair reportage with absolute flat earth level racism horse manure from Trumpland, is what Jeff Zucker and CNN demands. They simply cannot fathom presenting the former without salting it with the latter.

Ted Turner must be beside himself somewhere in Montana. The demand of media, in this case CNN, to “both sides” even in the face of grossly immoral and unconscionable racism and bigotry, is insane. It needs to stop. There is no need to put on an apologist like Michael Caputo just to say you did so. It added nothing, but support for rank ignorance and bigotry. That is not what America’s media should be about.

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21 replies
  1. Charles says:

    Zucker never learns. CNN is trying to poach viewers from FOX, even as FOX viewership is declining, due to demographics and Sinclair Broadcasting. Meanwhile, MSNBC is poaching viewers from CNN who are tired of seeing people like Jeffrey Lord given a platform.

    Replying to your comment on another thread to the effect that law enforcement as a whole is down with the Arpaio pardon, I think you’re wrong. Especially in border states, there are enough Hispanic (and African American) officers who understand that Arpaio is dirty and that a pardon for him only makes their jobs more difficult. While these things are hard to prove or disprove (so, you might be right), here’s an example:

    “Artemio Muniz, chair of the Texas Federation of Hispanic Republicans, who opposed Trump during the campaign but said he wants him to succeed as president, said an Arpaio pardon would lay bare the problem between the Republican Party and Hispanic voters, the majority of whom are Mexican-American.

    “It seems as though conservatives say, ‘Rule of law for me, but not for you. Opportunity for us, but not for you. Amnesty for Arpaio, but not for the hard-working,'” he said.”

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/latinos-dont-think-trump-understands-what-an-arpaio-pardon?utm_term=.lnZArwYYbG#.lyam1dzzvD

  2. SpaceLifeForm says:

    Sorta related. Last Monday, 2017-08-21 (eclipse day), the City of St. Louis having already removed the Lee statue in Forest Park (about two months ago, starting a meme), removed the concrete street that led to the where the statue used to reside.

    That concrete street was called Confederate Drive. It will soon just be grass.

    Interestingly, the eclipse shadow crossed the southwest corner of Forest Park (where probably the 2nd best free zoo in the US exists), but most of Forest Park did not get totality. The former location of the Lee statue did not get totality.

    In the statue, there was a time-capsule buried in the base.

    https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2017/06/29/time-capsule-retrieved-from-base-of-st-louis-confederate-monument

  3. earlofhuntingdon says:

    If the NYT can hire Bret Stephens – for, um, balance – why can’t CNN hire another rancid talking head who agrees with Trump that there are good people on both sides of the Nazi debate? And why is “balance” enough? The Times already had the vapid David Brooks and jejune Ross Douthat, just for starters, but it seems to have needed Stephens to comfort the owners lounging on the North Shore.

    Honestly, you’d think major news media were hell bent on manufacturing passive consent rather than on reporting on a harsh reality.

    • Mitchell says:

      What I say elsewhere: The entire corporate media are, to put charitably, worthless. Times on down.

  4. Rugger9 says:

    One suspects whether some of this kid-glove policy is due to some Sinclair Media arm twisting.  Even if they do not own all of the cable companies, I’m sure they have pull over which channels will be sent behind pay walls, among other quietly done discriminations.

  5. Peterr says:

    The most charitable explanation I can come up with is that Zucker wanted to give his more serious reporters a lightning rod. Lord and now Caputo can be guaranteed to say something outrageous, and you can cue the eye rolls from the rest of the staff. It’s the Video Clickbait model of journalism.

    Fortunately, Teen Vogue is stepping up their game to fill in the void that CNN is creating (internal links omitted below):

    On Saturday morning, Teen Vogue published an op-ed by Lauren Duca titled “Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America.” The tone and message of the piece, which compared the ways in which the president-elect talks about his record to the ways abusive spouses psychologically manipulate their partners, struck a notable chord with readers on social media, garnering almost 30,000 retweets from Teen Vogue’s account, and getting shared by personalities from Patton Oswalt to Dan Rather. Many people tweeting the story did so with an incredulous tone, seeming surprised that a teen-oriented magazine was publishing incisive political coverage rather than makeup tutorials or One Direction interviews.

    But the tone of Duca’s piece was representative of a larger shift Teen Vogue has made over the last year. In May, 29-year-old Elaine Welteroth took over as editor from Amy Astley, who helped found the magazine in 2003. Welteroth, the digital editorial director Phillip Picardi, and the creative director Marie Suter have moved the magazine more aggressively into covering politics, feminism, identity, and activism. Together, the three have shepherded a range of timely, newsy stories, including an interview exploring what it’s like to be a Muslim woman facing a Trump presidency, a list of reasons why Mike Pence’s record on women’s rights and LGBTQ rights should trouble readers, and a video in which two Native American teenagers from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe discuss the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

     

      • Mitchell says:

        Teen Vogue has been interesting post-Donald.

        And, yeah, I would characterize life under complete Republican rule as an abusive relation. And the only acceptable response to being in an abusive relationship is ending it. (And for any sociologist out there, here’s an idea for study: Republican voters compared to Democratic voters: a comparison of the percentages who are or have been in abusive relationships. Betcha that there’s a clear, significant spread.)

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      I can get round CNN’s insistence that its female commentators wear the Barbie look in hair, makeup and clothes – or black lace shoulders when covering Harvey.  But dumbing down to infotainment, geez, why don’t they just hire Tucker Carlson and be done with it.

  6. Mitchell says:

    I wouldn’t say the corporate media is complete sh!t when it comes to journalism, just that such flakes of gold within the reportage that might be found within the news-like product (which is what it is) isn’t worth the effort.
    And what I’m realizing in my dotage: Probably the best reporters emulation-wise are IF Stone and Sy Hirsch — corporate outsiders who dig up facts and present what’s relevant and important. It’s on us news consumers to find reliable sources; but none are among the corporate media — now more than ever.
    Or put it this way: F#ck CNN and all the rest of them. Repeat: All.

  7. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Oh, and Donald, please stay the fuck out of Houston until the mayor and governor give you the all clear.  Apart from saving a few lives, you’ll save the Secret Service a bundle (they no longer have) in APCs and boats they won’t have to hire, SEALs they won’t have to repurpose, and floating golf carts they won’t have to invent.

    If you find any moral leadership lying round the White House, you can pick it up and tweet it from dry land.  Or you can put on a sweater, sit in front of your favorite blue screen image, and read it on the short wave radio.

  8. RUKidding says:

    Color me unsurprised.

    I dispensed with my tv many long years ago and do my best to avert my eyes from the screens that are ever-present in our daily lives – aka Big Brother – in such places as Doctor’s/Dentist’s offices, the airport, my gym, etc.

    This is but one in a very very very long string of offenses. Our 1% Overlords can’t be bothered with fnords anymore. It’s out there in your face, where you’re supposed to somehow “agree” that Nazism is just A-OK.

    My uncle didn’t die in a bomber over Germany for this bullsh*t, and I shouldn’t have to even marginally pretend that such talk is “deserving” of time on our M$M to present their “side” as if it has ANY merit whatsoever. GAH.

  9. Mr. Eric Praline says:

    You are the lawyer in this “gang” Bmaz?

    https://youtu.be/-BUm9FRZSms

    Check your cut. Cleveland is disappointed.

    Nothing personal. Stick to football or get the fuck away from yourself.

    nothing’s to somethings is not something.

    Cheers and all but STFU!

    Yes, you kinda sorta have a kinda sorta. But you don’t have what is needed here.

    Cheers for not pushing it.

    Try different, different.

    Or commit and learn?

    Here under the radar.

    Nothing personal.

  10. fitley says:

    Do you ever wonder how Zucker gets tips on repugnant people he can hire? He has a regular seance with Roger Ailes.

  11. Teddy says:

    What happens to the studio CNN built in Jeff Lord’s mother’s basement so he could head home mid-afernoon to her Pennsylvania manse to be by her side every evening whilst still appearing on nightside CNN? Does he get to keep it? Is Zucker removing it and storing it for his next mama’s-boy Nazi commentator? Or is it now a resume line item for J. Lord: “Have broadcast-quality TV studio in home.”

    Inquiring minds, and stockholders, want to know….

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