In an attempt to deflect from heavy criticism surrounding the media’s humiliating streak of spreading myths and lies, CNN President Jeff Zucker defended his network’s embarrassing coverage of the Trump/Russia collusion-that-wasn’t over the past two years, telling the New York Times he’s “entirely comfortable” with CNN’s reporting, despite their numerous and well-documented bungles.
“We are not investigators,” Zucker claimed. “We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did.”
“A sitting president’s own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation,” he continued. “That’s not enormous because the media says so. That’s enormous because it’s unprecedented.”
The obvious problems with this statement are many – starting with the idea that CNN has suddenly decided it’s not their job to “investigate,” but simply “report,” given that the network literally has an entire section on their website called – wait for it – “CNN Investigates.” The section even bears the tagline, “Seek truth. Break news. Hold the powerful accountable.” An archived list of “CNN Investigates” projects includes several stories that mention or even directly accuse Trump of having dirty ties to Russia.
Secondly, Zucker’s claim might be just a tab more palatable if his network hadn’t relied so heavily on punditry and rampant speculation throughout its Russian probe “reporting,” including dragging on panels of “experts” – now-disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti, whom CNN has attempted to distance itself from, comes to mind – to offer baseless predictions on any number of ultimately debunked myths and conspiracy theories surrounding the Mueller investigation and Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.