Monday, as Paul Manafort and others were indicted, the CNN and MSNBC had the following rules for covering the indictments and other matters relating to the Robert Mueller-led investigation into Russia and the 2016 election: 1) Thou shalt only cover matters relating to President Donald Trump and Russia; 2) While doing so, thou shalt ignore Russia's interactions with Bill Clinton and Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton; 3) Thou shalt not report on any other news stories while on-air.
The CNN Media blog reported that a few leftists at the more open-minded Fox News are furious their network didn't fall in line, both in saturation and tone.
This afternoon, CNN's Oliver Darcy set out to do what this CNN Media team tries to do every day, which is make Fox look bad. However, his write-up exposed his colleagues at CNN and those at competitor MSNBC as totally obsessed de facto partisan hacks (bolds are mine):
Some employees at Fox News were left embarrassed and humiliated by their network's coverage of the latest revelations in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling, according to conversations CNN had with several individuals placed throughout the network."I'm watching now and screaming," one Fox News personality said in a text message to CNN as the person watched their network's coverage. "I want to quit."
"It is another blow to journalists at Fox who come in every day wanting to cover the news in a fair and objective way," one senior Fox News employee told CNN of their outlet's coverage, adding that there were "many eye rolls" in the newsroom over how the news was covered.
The person said, "Fox feels like an extension of the Trump White House."
On Monday, it was revealed that President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and another associate Rick Gates had been indicted by a grand jury on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States. Unsealed court records also revealed that another Trump associate, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI weeks ago.
The revelations jolted through the news media, and Fox News -- the highest rated network in the country -- did cover it as its top story. But in contrast with CNN and MSNBC, which aired non-stop rolling coverage throughout the day, Fox News found plenty of time to cover other topics, like the NFL protests, North Korea, and tax reform.
So CNN and MSNBC were all Manafort, Mueller et al, all the time, while Fox actually covered other stories.
Fox isn't the network which should be embarrassed. No one can rationally claim that the other topics Darcy identified didn't have newsworthy developments yesterday. Each had visibility at noon yesterday at the Drudge Report, which, along with Google and MSN, is one of the three most trafficked news sites in the nation. Throw in the trial of sitting U.S. Senator and Democrat Robert Mendenez and there's another story that should matter to viewers, but not according to the CNN Media team.
This is also worth noting given that Mueller's legal filings against the three men involved didn't illustrate any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia (which is, presumably, the Swamp's Holy Grail).
Besides, we all know how things worked out for CNN when they went all-in on Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. The fact that we can still mention that shows how ludicrous that was and reflected poorly on the network. Grand CNN master Jeff Zucker could try to spin it otherwise, but these attempts are just disgraceful
Meanwhile, lefty whiners at Fox also acted as if the network's evening opinion shows shouldn't be allowed to, well, express their opinions:
Fox News journalists took significant issue with their network's opinion hosts, who deflected from the news and, in Sean Hannity's case, characterized Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt," a term Trump used on Sunday in a angry tweet to describe the probe."That segment on Outnumbered [questioning Mueller's integrity] was absurd and deserves all the scorn it can get," a Fox News employee told CNN, referring to the network's noontime talk show.
The person added that it was "laughable seeing Hannity and [Laura] Ingraham," two Fox News opinion hosts who are openly supportive of Trump, "tripping over themselves saying [Mueller's team has] found nothing thus far."
Well if by nothing, one means "evidence of collusion," as of now, there is none.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but it's hard to imagine that CNN's and MSNBC's one-dimensional imitations of Court TV didn't cause a lot of channel-changing, once many viewers figured out that the Trump-Russia-Manafort story was all they would see, all day and all night.
At the end of the day, people probably have a hard time seeing how Russia affects their lives. North Korea, one of their Senators possibly going to jail, and taxes certainly matter. But in the minds of CNN's media team, they're probably just mindless "Fox-friendly topics."
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
