Thursday, February 21, 2019

Systemic hackery for we, not for ye

Whenever news networks have a panel discussion regarding political headlines, their goal in assembling the talking heads is to give off a vibe of being ideologically diverse. But when the token "Republican" or "conservative" is selected for a given panel, they are often in the motif of a Rick Wilson or Ana Navarro, both of whom are fervently critical (even snarky) when discussing President Donald Trump. And that's the way "progressives" like it in that they get to virtue signal when claiming their favorite left-leaning networks are diverse while also being able to indulge in the obligatory hate-fest of the President.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that CNN's most recent hire has resulted in proggies flipping their collective gourds.

The Democratic National Committee has sought and received assurances from CNN that the network’s new politics editor, Sarah Isgur, will not be involved in the debates that the channel hosts and moderates for the Democratic primary.

The assurances were provided after the committee expressed reservations to CNN over Isgur’s history in Republican politics and after officials at the committee raised concerns over her alleged connections to a now-retracted Fox News story on the debunked Seth Rich conspiracy theory.

CNN announced this week that it had hired Isgur to help oversee the network’s coverage of the 2020 election. Until late last year, she had served as Jeff Sessions’ top spokesperson at the Department of Justice after previously working on campaigns for Carly Fiorina and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Her hiring set off a round of recriminations from journalists, who argued that the longtime Republican operative had no prior experience in the news industry, and from Democrats, who believe she brings a clearly established ideological agenda with her to her new post.


Combine that with the following headline which popped up on Variety.com literally hours after the news of Isgur's hire:


ABC News Renews George Stephanopoulos for Four-Year Deal


Yes, that George Stephanopoulos, the guy who was a high level staffer in the President Bill Clinton administration. Oh, and guess what? He also moderated a debate in the 2012 GOP presidential primary where his seemingly out-of-left-field question regarding contraception was the catalyst for the "War on Women" narrative hung around the Republicans' necks that cycle.

This whole leftist tirade regarding Ms. Isgur's hiring is Pauline Kael syndrome at its finest. They just can't fathom that someone would want to hear from a politico who might actually be neutral (to say nothing of expressing tacit approval) of Trump.

-----------------------------------

No comments: