Compare the legal backgrounds of Harvard's Alan Dershowitz versus sleazy porn lawyer Michael Avenatti. Who has the more distinguished career? Yet CNN chose Avenatti over Dershowitz for the go-to person for legal analysis of the Trump-Russia collusion probe. Why? Well, despite Avenatti falling way short in legal background compared to Dershowitz what qualified him to be an almost daily guest on CNN for a long period last year was that he promised the imminent demise of the presidency of Donald Trump.
Alan Dershowitz described to Howard Kurtz on Fox News' MediaBuzz on Sunday how CNN which characterizes itself as the the network of "apple" facts slipped on the Avenatti banana peel of its own making since his prognostications all proved wrong.
HOWARD KURTZ: Throughout this investigation when you frequently did defend the President, your integrity was attacked. Your critics wrote you off as kind of a Trump shill. You even said you were shunned by some of your former friends, last summer at Martha’s vineyard. How do you feel now?
ALAN DERSHOWITZ: I think I always try to be objective. I am neutral, I am nonpartisan when it comes to analyzing the law and every single one of the predictions I have made over the past two years has come true.I predicted for example this report would be very critical of the President. But would not find evidence of either collusion, illegal collusion or obstruction of justice. I made probably a dozen predictions over the years. Every one of them has been true because I’m not smarter than anybody else, but I do not let my politics influence my legal analysis. I don’t allow wishful thinking to substitute for careful legal analysis.
What happened as a result of that, is that, for example, CNN which used to have me on all the time, on Anderson Cooper, on Cuomo, on Lemon as an analyst, as a centrist analyst, decided no, no, it is okay to have extreme Trump supporters because people just use them as kind of stick figure exhibits and then everyone else will do the narrative of CNN. What they didn’t want was a centrist liberal that went against their narrative.
Must stick to the narrative even if it means putting sleazy Michael Avenatti on the air for 121 CNN appearances in 2018.
KURTZ: You have said that CNN president Jeff Zucker essentially ordered you banned after you took these positions but do you know that for a fact or is that a supposition?
DERSHOWITZ: I do know that for a fact. I’ve been told that by several people within CNN. He told me the opposite when I met him in the elevator one day and I asked him how come I am not on anymore and he said said oh no no no, you will be on but since the summer I’ve never been on a single time. I've been on all the other networks repeatedly.
But clearly they made a decision. They didn't want my kind of analysis. They had a choice. They had a choice of a Harvard law professor for 50 years who has been getting it right who is a centrist liberal and who has credibility or Michael Avenatti. And they picked Michael Avenatti. One night I got a call from CNN saying we have to cancel you. We have Michael Avenatti, he is coming on tonight. He became their go-to guy. Every one of his predictions turned out to be false....
He promised us that Trump would be out of office soon and that his lawsuit would be the downfall of Trump. And all of that, he was proved wrong on every occasion. I really think the networks have to be held accountable for their predictions. I would love to see on your show or other shows just systematically, showing with what the pundits on the networks predicted and how they came true or not true so we can evaluate the credibility of various pundit.
Kurtz asked Dershowitz to grade the media, and he flunked them: "A flunk. Even with the grade inflation, I just think the media comes off awful, terrible...I think we are seeing an elimination of the distinction between the editorial page and the news pages...and that’s a shame."
