On Tuesday’s edition of New Day, co-hosts Alisyn Camerota and David Gregory demonstrated the biased nature of CNN by devoting an entire segment to the promotion of an anti-Trump book that hasn’t even come out yet. The book, titled Fear, is set to come out in early September and is written by The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame.
Because the book has not been released yet, there is very little known about the contents other than the interviews Woodward conducted and the general topics the book might cover. Thus CNN Special Correspondent, Jamie Gangel could only give her impression of what will be in the book:
I have not seen the book yet. I think we're going to hear a lot about national security. I'm told that there is new information about the Russia investigation. But my sense is, this book is 448 pages. I think we're going to see lots of different topics.
This is not news. It becomes harder and harder for CNN to claim they are an unbiased news network when they run segments like this. Maybe the book is damming to the President. Maybe there’s nothing there. But because the book has not come out yet, we don’t know what it contains. Thus, there is no news to report. This segment is nothing but book promotion of an obviously anti-Trump book that hasn’t even come out yet.
If CNN would admit that it is not an object news source and has an agenda, there would be no problem with this segment. However, until the cable channel does that, reporting of non-news stories should not be tolerated. CNN should decide what type of media organization it wants to be and make that clear to the American people.
A transcript of this segment is below.
New Day
7/31/18
6:38:35 AM - 6:43:00 AM
CAMEROTA: Legendary Watergate journalist Bob Woodward is about to release his first book on President Trump. It is called "Fear" and it features reporting from dozens of interviews that provide first-hand accounts of life inside the Trump White House. CNN's special correspondent Jamie Gangel joins us with more. Jamie, this sounds intriguing.
JAMIE GANGEL: Well, Donald Trump is about to get the Bob Woodward treatment. About eight months ago, Bob went dark and he really went back to his Watergate roots. He went knocking on doors, White House officials and sources, at night, sometimes unannounced, and dozens of people, people who were first-hand in the room for critical meetings with Trump, talked to him. It was on background, so we don't have one deep throat here, we have dozens of deep throats here. But each person agreed to have the interview recorded. So it is all on the record.
CAMEROTA: That's interesting. But are names used?
GANGEL: Well, we haven't seen the book yet, so I assume -- my understanding is that we will see scenes unfold. So you will see Donald Trump in White House meetings, Situation Room, Air Force One, even the White House residence. So we'll know who the people in the rooms were. Some of the things we'll hear about are Russia, China, North Korea, Middle East, Charlottesville, Virginia.
DAVID GREGORY: Yeah.
GANGEL: So it's going to be very wide ranging.
GREGORY: But what's interesting is that normally Woodward gets cooperation from administration officials because they make a determination he's speaking to so many people, we have to be kind of, you know, orchestrated about how we do this.
GANGEL: Right.
GREGORY: But we also know this White House leaks to such a degree and there's so many competing agendas among those people who have worked for Trump so far who may no longer be there --
GANGEL: Right.
GREGORY: Presumably who he spoke to that he'll going to get a lot of detail.
GANGEL: I think he's getting extraordinary detail. And it's not just the interview. They brought him documents. He said, bring me proof. Bring me paperwork. He has memos. He has files. He has diaries. He has notes. And some of them are handwritten by Trump. So I'm told it's authoritative and well documented.
GREGORY: Well --
CAMEROTA: And do you know what the revelations are or some of them that he might reveal?
GANGEL: I -- I have not seen the -- I have not seen the book yet. I think we're going to hear a lot about national security. I'm told that there is new information about the Russia investigation. But my sense is, this book is 448 pages. I think we're going to see lots of different topics.
GREGORY: Well, it's interesting, too, what we've learned so far about how he went about it, too, is in and of itself an answer to the question of how he'll try to inoculate himself from the Michael Wolff treatment. You know that was -- book was a sensation, got a lot of dirt, but there were also some mistakes, inaccuracies in that book that exposed Michael Wolff and, of course, President Trump went after him hard.
GANGEL: Right.
GREGORY: But, of course, Woodward's used to that.
GANGEL: Michael Wolff took some literary license with it.
GREGORY: Right.
GANGEL: Bob Woodward does not -- you know, he's a meticulous fact checker. I think that recording these interviews was one way. Having the documentation was another. I just want to also say, the title of the book, "Fear," it comes from Donald Trump himself. The last interview Bob Woodward and Robert Costa did was in March, 2016. And Trump said to them, real power is I don't even want to use the word, fear. So that's where it comes from.
CAMEROTA: That's really telling.
GREGORY: And it's coming out September 11th, right?
CAMEROTA: Coming out on September 11th.
GREGORY: So in the run-up to the -- the run-up to the midterm elections is now essentially.
GANGEL: Right before the mids.
GREGORY: But, yes.
CAMEROTA: But also, I mean, obviously, that date carries such an ominous feeling for all of us and the title is called "Fear." And so we are starting to get the impression of, I guess, what Bob Woodward's -- the gist of it is.
GANGEL: Bob was thinking about writing a book for quite some time. He hadn't made up his mind. My sense is he wouldn't have written this if he didn't think he had something big.
CAMEROTA: Jamie, fascinating preview.
GANGEL: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for all that reporting.
