CNN’s Town Hall Fallout, and Justice Kagan Narrowly Avoids a Breakfast Ethics Scandal

However, we learn from Oliver Darcy that one group that has reacted to the appearance has been CNN employees. And they are not pleased. At all:

Twenty-four hours after CNN's town hall, it's all anyone is talking about. Throughout the day, in fact, we heard from dozens of network staffers — ranging in seniority and positions across the organization — who all expressed dismay by what they saw transpire on their television screens.

24 hours after CNN's town hall, it's all anyone is talking about. Throughout the day, we heard from dozens of network staffers — ranging in seniority and positions across the org — who all expressed dismay by what they saw transpire on their TV screens. https://t.co/11m7ZsCV8u

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 12, 2023

Demo-lition Project – CNN

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• The question becomes, what was actually accomplished Wednesday evening?

It would appear that a realization has come over CNN that they may have made a grave error by hosting Trump. Anderson Cooper opened his program by addressing the blowback directly, a sure sign that the response to this point has been overwhelmingly negative.

Coop makes a number of declarations to justify the town hall, all while sophomorically never alluding to Trump by name. (He resorts to using "someone" or "this person," as if the former president is Voldermort.) Most telling is that Anderson actually mentions that people are fleeing the network in the wake of this event:

You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again.

"If you're angry or upset, I understand, but you have the power to do something about it." Listen to CNN's @andersoncooper discuss the CNN Republican presidential town hall with Donald Trump, as Manu Raju and Jessica Dean share the GOP reaction to the former president. Watch: pic.twitter.com/wzcrUoHEt1

— CNN (@CNN) May 12, 2023

First Amendment Strike Force – THE WHITE HOUSE

• Those threats to our democracy appear to be a fluid standard.

Flashback, if you will, to the time when CNN's Jim Acosta had his White House credentials stripped after he acted in a rude and offensive manner during a White House event. There was quite a loud bit of wailing from the press corps about how it was a First Amendment violation and our nation was going to be rendered as a result. 

Now listen in on the silence you hear this week. Earlier, we learned how the administration refused to allow the New York Post to have their correspondent attend an event. Next came word that the White House would institute new rules of conduct on the press, with the announcement that press credentials could be revoked if journalists are declared to act in an unprofessional (read: Acosta-like) fashion.

New White House press rules: Reporters can be kicked out if they're not 'professional.’ Latest by me: https://t.co/Lc6vIF4Jnd

— Paul Farhi (@farhip) May 9, 2023

Presentation Paradox – CNN

• Contradiction starts with the letter "C."

There go those Republicans trying to kill Big Bird once again! 

In Oklahoma, Governor Kevin Stitt vetoed a spending bill that was going to fund the state-supported public television organization. Oliver Darcy delivers all of the familiar outrage, such as saying Stitt is waging a war, but he delivers something else unintentionally.

In the course of his condemnation, Oliver provides the funding numbers in Oklahoma, and we can see that they receive far greater amounts than defenders of PBS and the like care to admit. Recall last month, all those who announced that NPR and PBS only receive about 2% of their budgets from the government. 

In Oklahoma, the state alone provides nearly one-third of the funding, which is before the federal money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is rolled in. 

Thanks, Ollie! 

CNN’s Oliver Darcy Tries Defending PBS, Inadvertently Proves It Depends On Public Funding
https://t.co/tQMuOSgMuP

— RedState (@RedState) May 12, 2023

Pulitzer Prize Nomination – THE FORWARD

• A liberal Justice avoids a breakfast scandal!

The desperation of the press to attack the Supreme Court has turned from desperate to downright hilarious. As the media outlets attempt to have Justice Clarence Thomas delegitimized over financial gifts, they continue to bypass Justice Sonia Sotomayor possibly having worse ethics issues. But that is not to say they are ignoring the liberal justices entirely. 

In a desperate dose of contrasting stories, the Jewish outlet The Forward has a report – one pushed by MSNBC – that Justice Elena Kagan faced her own financial ethics question; the only difference is she passed. Some high school friends of Kagan wanted to send the Justice a gift basket of bagels and lox from a New York deli, but Kagan demurred over the possibility of there being a problem ethically – by accepting a breakfast basket.

The writer Sarah Schulman, who also went to Hunter, posted on Facebook on May 6 that the care package for Kagan was envisioned 'as a sign of support for the nightmare of having to go to work with Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch every day. Compare that to Thomas, Schulman added, with “his real estate, fancy travel and cold hard cash. Lox!'

Is it OK for a Supreme Court justice to accept bagels and lox from her high school friends?https://t.co/wWBNSNIAP6

— TheForwardFeed (@TheForwardFeed) May 9, 2023

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