CNN rewards its partisans
Incentives
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CNN became the unofficial anti-President Trump network after the 2016 election, possibly more so than even MSNBC.
Now, CNN is rewarding the good company men and women who did their part these past four years to “resist” the administration, announcing on Monday a series of promotions for some of the network’s most obnoxious and often sloppiest anti-Trump staffers.
White House correspondent Jim Acosta, for example, whose histrionics and self-serving theatrics during the Trump years landed him a book deal, is being rewarded with a weekend anchoring gig.
“Acosta, CNN's chief White House correspondent during the Trump years and a frequent target of the outgoing president,” the network announced, “will become chief domestic correspondent along with a weekend anchor role. His time slot will be announced soon.”
This should be good. CNN’s viewers can probably expect more poetry readings, uncritical parroting of Chinese state figures, hilarious self-owns, and outright dishonesty. Acosta, you may remember, is the same person who White House Correspondents’ Association President Jonathan Karl once implicitly accused of behaving like a member of a “political party or like a resistance." Acosta's handling of the anchor desk is almost certainly going to be as low-grade as one would from a journalist whose ability to perform the news elevated him into the lower rungs of B-grade stardom. But, hey, he put in his time following the company line on "resisting" Trump, so here’s his reward.
Then, there is CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip, who will anchor the network’s Inside Politics Sunday show starting on Jan. 24.
That’s a hell of a thing for anyone who remembers Phillip’s big moment in the 2020 Democratic primary, back when she ambushed independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont with an unverified anecdote alleging he had told Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts that a woman cannot win the White House.
“Why did you say that?” Phillip asked Sanders.
The senator responded unequivocally, “I didn’t say it.”
“Sen. Sanders,” the CNN reporter continued, “I do want to be clear here: You’re saying that you never told Sen. Warren that a woman could not win the election.”
“That is correct,” said Sanders.
Amazingly, as if Sanders's denial meant nothing, Phillip then turned to Warren and asked, “What did you think when Sen. Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?”
Get that reporter behind an anchor’s desk!
There are other less-egregious network moves, including the promotion of Kaitlin Collins, who once spent an entire afternoon at the White House mask-shaming the attendees of a ceremony celebrating the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, to the role of chief White House correspondent.
Dana Bash and Pamela Brown, meanwhile, are being named to anchor positions. Manu Raju, who spends most of his time chasing after Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Capitol building and demanding they answer for things they didn't say, will be CNN's chief congressional correspondent.
John Harwood, who dropped whatever pretense of objectivity he had when he made the jump from CNBC to CNN, becoming one of the most partisan shills in the business, will remain on the White House correspondent beat.
So, at least there’s that. At least Harwood’s particularly nauseous brand of partisan commentary has not been rewarded. Yet.