Today it was announced that CNN hired Sarah Isgur, a Republican operative with absolutely no journalistic experience, to serve as political editor in charge of the network’s 2020 election coverage. If Isgur’s name sounds familiar, it might be from the Washington Post story in March of 2018 about how, only after she “kowtowed to Trump,” and promised him her loyalty, did the President sign-off on her becoming the spokesperson for the Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions. [It would appear that Trump had misgivings about her, given that she’d worked previously for both Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney.]
I was prepared to rant at length about Isgur’s appointment at CNN, which, by the way, apparently came as quite the surprise to the network’s staff, but then I happened across the following on the website of Media Matters, which pretty much says everything that I’d wanted to.
“…CNN’s choice of a Trump administration veteran does, however, fit in with the network’s fantastically self-defeating strategy of hiring pro-Trump mercenaries who shill on behalf of a president and administration that delight in demonizing CNN. The journalism industry does not lack for talented, experienced professionals who are desperate for work, but CNN opted to give this important job to a Jeff Sessions acolyte who has never worked as a journalist. That sure feels like the network sabotaging its own interests in order to send a conciliatory message to a political movement that will always view it as an ‘enemy of the people’…”
And this, my friends, is how authoritarian regimes come to be. As we were discussing just a few days ago, Putin didn’t start by killing journalists. No, he started by aggressively demonizing those who he perceived to be his enemies. And, over time, with that groundwork having been laid, he was able to force concessions. The owners of friendly media companies were rewarded, and the owners of those media companies that didn’t fall in line were harassed by federal prosecutors to the point where, in order to avoid lengthy prison sentences, they agreed to hand their companies over to Putin-aligned oligarchs. And, then, of course, those who still refused to toe the line, found themselves murdered.
And it’s hard not to see what happened today as yet another step down that slippery slope… conciliatory overture on the part of CNN in hopes of appeasing a president that, from all indications, delights in urging his followers toward violence against journalists. I mean, how else would you explain CNN hiring Isgur — a woman who once referred to CNN as the “Clinton News Network” — to head their campaign coverage?
This isn’t exactly new for CNN, though, as they’ve hired the likes of Corey Lewandowski, Michael Caputo, and Jeffrey “sieg hiel” Lord to be commentators on the network, in hopes of demonstrating that they too are “fair and balanced.” This, however, seems to be a massive step in the direction of appeasement, even for them. While I hate the fact that they provide a platform for known liars and conspiracy theorists like those noted above, at least, in those instances, the men in question didn’t have any real power when it came to deciding what was covered, and how it was covered. And those are the kinds of decisions that Isgur, in her new role, will be making on a daily basis.
I’m sure that CNN thought that the good, in this instance, outweighed the bad. They likely thought that, by hiring Isgur, they could claim impartiality. But at what cost? What signal does it send to the CNN staff when other, more qualified candidates are passed over in favor of a known political operative with no experience in journalism? And what does it say to the people of America, who have been living these past two years under the dishonest, criminal administration of Donald Trump? I fear that it’s a sign that Donald Trump, through his constant assault on both journalists and the truth, is gaining ground. And that isn’t good… And CNN, if they really thought that this would keep Donald Trump from referring to them as “the enemy of the people,” should know better. Nothing will stop the attacks.