CNN tried to claim on Friday that rampant shoplifting and its economic consequences are finally receding, but even the outlet’s own article couldn’t back up that claim.
CNN—owned by Warner Bros Discovery, a company led by Democrat donor David Zaslav—published a Sept. 13 article trying to minimize a major weakness for the left ahead of the 2024 election: rampant crime.
CNN Business Reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn announced that a retail industry category called “shrink,” which included shoplifting but also at least four other inputs, was decreasing in reality and in retailers’ earnings calls. Meyersohn then admitted in paragraph 31 that the only element of “shrink” the public really cares about, shoplifting, was in fact increasing.
Meyersohn wrote, “In fact, the shoplifting rate during the first half of 2024 in major cities was 24% higher, on average, than the same period last year, according to a recent analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan criminal justice policy organization. The shoplifting rate in the first half of 2024 was also 10% higher than in the first half of 2019.”
Meyersohn penned this misleading beginning followed by this stunning admission for a media outlet ultimately run by a major democratic donor, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Zaslav had donated $240,854 to Democrat candidates, traditional political action committees (PAC) or other affiliated groups in 2020-2021, according to Harvard University’s “Future of Media Project.”
As reported by The Federalist, Zaslav’s “contributions skew overwhelmingly to Democrats, with $66,800 to the Hillary Victory Fund in 2016, $100,000 to Nancy Pelosi’s Victory Fund in 2019, and more than $100,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in recent years.” Moreover, Zaslav and his wife even gave $10,000 each to former then-Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2013, according to The Washington Post.
These donations are very relevant because hiding an admission like this in paragraph 31 may make it all but invisible to the average reader. MRC Vice President for Research and Publications Brent Baker has emphasized that a significant number of readers only read the headline, while there are further drop-offs from the first paragraph, to the first two paragraphs to later in the piece.
For example, even an economics columnist for The New York Times could be fooled by an article with such a strong bias by placement if he didn’t read far enough. Partisan cheerleader and economics columnist for The New York Times Paul Krugman posted the article on X, absurdly writing, “OK, so immigrants aren’t eating pets, and murder rates are way down. But what about the huge wave of shoplifting? Well, it’s either fading fast, or was exaggerated. It may not even have happened.”
OK, so immigrants aren’t eating pets, and murder rates are way down. But what about the huge wave of shoplifting?
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 13, 2024
Well, it’s either fading fast, or was exaggerated. It may not even have happenedhttps://t.co/A8629mNiaD
But burying the increased shoplifting statistics in his reporting wasn’t the only bone Meyersohn threw to the left. The article also strongly implied that the retail theft crisis was overblown in the first place. In a paragraph that packaged “shrink” and theft together, Meyersohn cited a claim that retailers had “‘overexaggerated’ the impact” of “shrink” and theft.
Finally, in the same section where Meyersohn admitted that shoplifting was up, Meyersohn also owned up to the inadequacy of the “shrink” term that littered the top portion of the article that most readers might actually see. “Shrink is just one part of the story … and does not factor in other concerns stemming from theft like violence against workers, physical damage to stores and customer and employee perceptions of store safety,” he conceded.
CNN and Warner Bros Discovery did not respond to a request for comment about Zaslav’s political donations.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact CNN at 404-827-1500 and demand the outlet tell the truth about how soft-on-crime policies have devastated businesses.
