Shed No Tears for Jeff Zucker, Trump's Great Enabler

[Kid Berwyn]

At NBC and CNN, Zucker was key to Trump’s rise

by Eric Alterman
The American Prospect / Altercation, Feb. 3, 2022

I have to say I’m amused by all the crocodile tears being shed for Jeff Zucker’s forced resignation from CNN. Obviously, he is gone for reasons other than the ones being given; that was a slap-on-the-wrist sort of violation for a network president. (My out-of-the-bleachers guess would be that it is directly related to Chris Cuomo’s suit against CNN.) CNN whiners should be ashamed of themselves for defending him. Yes, he’s not as bad as the criminal whorehouse operator, Roger Ailes. (That’s how they get you: "Defining Deviancy Down" …) But his reign at CNN had one crucial world historical impact: the promotion of Donald Trump and his brand of entertaining fascism to the U.S. and the world. As for CNN, it was the network’s refusal to distinguish between what its journalists know to be true and what they know to be a lie for the benefit of those who depend on it for news.

The following paragraph is drawn from my 2020 book Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie—and Why Trump Is Worse:

Trump’s fame was mostly confined to Manhattan-based gossip writers and broadcasters until 2004, when he teamed up with the television producer Mark Burnett to create The Apprentice. Jeff Zucker, an NBC executive who later moved on to CNN in time for the 2016 campaign, gave the program the green light. "The show was built as a virtually nonstop advertisement for the Trump empire and lifestyle," according to a 2016 Trump biography. Naturally, it was a lie from start to finish. The Apprentice was filmed in his offices in Trump Tower, but, as one of the show’s producers told a reporter from The New Yorker, "We walked through the offices and saw chipped furniture. We saw a crumbling empire at every turn. Our job was to make it seem otherwise." According to a supervising editor on the show, the producers’ "first priority on every episode … was to reverse-engineer the show to make it look like his judgment had some basis in reality."

Trump entered the presidential race in November 2015 at a moment when the always tenuous line between "entertainment" and politics was rapidly and purposely being erased. And it was around this time that the same Jeff Zucker landed the top job at CNN. "The idea that politics is sport is undeniable, and we understood that and approached it that way," he told a reporter. And just as sports broadcasters hire hosts who can make boring games sound interesting, and keep the audience entertained regardless of their level of expertise, so, too, Zucker chose pundits with no discernible qualifications save their willingness to sing the praises of Donald Trump. He hired Jeffrey Lord, a journeyman conservative author who repeatedly compared Trump to Martin Luther King Jr., and Kayleigh McEnany, an attractive young law student who consistently argued that Trump "doesn’t lie," but that instead, "the press lies." (McEnany was rewarded for these arguments with an appointment in 2017 as the Republican National Committee spokesperson, and, two years later, for the same position in Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, before becoming Trump’s presidential press secretary, also in 2020.) According to Zucker’s preferred metric, these hires were more than justified. "Everybody says, ‘Oh, I can’t believe you have Jeffrey Lord or Kayleigh McEnany,’" he said. "But you know what? They don’t know who Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany are"—as if this somehow justified their lies and the lunatic conspiracy theories they passed along to viewers.

Zucker even proved willing to hire Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, in June 2016, not long after an incident in which Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery following his physical attack on a female reporter whose question he did not like. (The charges were later dropped, though not before Lewandowski was accused by another Trump supporter of sexual assault.) Lewandowski had lost an internal power struggle within the Trump campaign, and with it his job. Such a hire would not normally be considered unusual in the incestuous world of cable TV commentary, but in this case, Lewandowski had signed a nondisclosure agreement that contained a nondisparagement clause before leaving the campaign. That meant he was legally enjoined from saying anything that might reflect badly on Trump—even if it was truthful. Zucker did not care. Truth was not the metric: Ratings were. (In September 2019, Lewandowski testified before the House Judiciary Committee investigating impeachment and admitted, "I have no obligation to be honest to the media because they’re just as dishonest as anybody else." He was booked on CNN that same night.)

Owing to the strong ratings that Trump-themed programming earned the network during the election season, Zucker constantly pressured his staff to keep the focus on Trump’s campaign. CNN was happy to broadcast the candidate’s lies unmediated and uninterrupted, whether they were offered on the phone, in live interviews, or during rallies. According to the nonpartisan fact-checking site PolitiFact, which investigated 158 statements Trump had made on the campaign trail before June 2016, 78 percent of those statements were false, mostly false, or "pants on fire." Only about 3 percent of the statements it investigated were judged to be entirely true. The other 19 percent were half true or mostly true.

Continues…

https://americanprospect.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=ab1a4d0dd4d48a2ba1077c4494791306.1331&s=bb6bef2a4b7e3fbe7fcc8d721fca4907

And going by past experience: Whoever comes at CNN next will be worse.

[Hugin]

1. "We saw a crumbling empire at every turn."

Why do so few understand this? I would posit that it was never an empire to begin with, instead, smoke and mirrors from day 1.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. NBC Comcast foisted a fraud upon the USA

Corporate McPravda isn't there to inform, but to manipulate.

The guy who taught Chomsky and Herman: Alex Carey.

Details and the memo, courtesy of Greenpeace:

The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy

Additional important history to know...

Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda

The Attack on Democracy

The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.

John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.

Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.

This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.

Source: TUC Radio

Part 1: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-one-of-two/

Part 2: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-two-of-two/

[Boomerproud]

2. No tears here

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Corporate McPravda failed to follow the story in February 2016...

How Jeff Zucker Turned Donald Trump From a Reality Star to a Frontrunner (Video)

The CNN boss and The Donald have both benefited from a relationship some of Zucker’s friends find troubling

Sharon Waxman and Brian Flood
The Wrap | February 25, 2016

The rise of Donald Trump has stunned almost everyone in the media and political establishment — except for a TV executive who can take more credit for Trump’s media success than almost anyone:

CNN President Jeff Zucker.

Zucker has given Trump so much play on his network — sometimes airing Trump rallies end to end — that it has shocked some colleagues and media observers. For the once-lagging network, the Trump play has paid off wildly: Its ratings have skyrocketed this election cycle.

SNIP…

Privately, friends of Zucker suggest that he is both aware of his unusual role in Trump’s rise, and reveling in the ratings success.

Zucker declined to comment for this story, but discussed the issue in a public chat with Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith late last year.

Smith: Do you feel like you’re giving this guy who is running a really demagogue campaign a huge platform?
Zucker: There have been people who have asked about the amount of coverage that Trump gets [on CNN]. And you know, I don’t think it’s our role to editorialize the way you are in asking me the question.
Smith: Do you think it’s editorializing to call him a demagogue? Or a bigot?
Zucker: I think it’s our role to report what he says. What he does. It’s really not our role to build up a campaign or take down a campaign. It’s our role to be skeptical of what every candidate puts out there.

CONTINUES…

https://www.thewrap.com/donald-trump-cnn-jeff-zucker-turned-from-reality-star-frontrunner-presidential-race/

Knowing Dimdonnie’s myriad mental limitations and sordid sociopathic history, the guy and his network looked the other way for profit and power. Makes us cry for our country.

[halfulglas]

3. First thing I think of when Zucker is mentioned is the empty podium waiting for Trump.

During the campaigns, primary and general, that said to the public "We are using this valuable expensive air time because this is important. This is the most important news in the world, waiting for this New York clown." They preempted live coverage of other events, just waiting for Trump to get his shit together to do his schtick. Memories of that still make my stomach churn.

The other thing I think of when his name is mentioned is his statement of Trump being bad for the country but he's good for CNN. HE KNEW he was bad for the country. This is why the Trump enablers are all traitors. They know he's bad for our country but they do it for Money and Power.

[True Blue American]

4. First MSNBC, then CNN!

How Zucker elected Trump, destroyed CNN!

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jeff-zucker-complicated-cnn-legacy-175437416.html

[Budi]

5. Zucker was apparantly advising Gov Cuomo on one hand, while feeding it back to his headlines.

Playing both sides for ratings.
Zucker was both Friend & Saboteur at the same time.
Chris Cuomo should be dragging Zucker into court.

[Budi]

7. White men in media who shaped sexist coverage of @Hillary in 2016 -- as she ran against a sexu

Last edited Fri Feb 4, 2022, 01:44 PM - Edit history (4)

Link to tweet

Jeff Zucker, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Mark Halperin, Glenn Thrush, Les Moonves, etc. White men in media who shaped sexist coverage of @HillaryClinton in 2016 — as she ran against a sexual predator. All subsequently connected to sexual misconduct scandals. Not a coincidence.


*************

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews joked about his ‘Bill Cosby Pill’ before interviewing Hillary Clinton

Link to tweet

Remember how the White Male Media brushed this off as 'dumb' & never spoke of it again. & buried the 1962 story by then 30 yr old Bernie Sanders.
No big deal.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/5/28/8682503/bernie-sanders-rape-fantasy


Still waiting for any progressive Women & orgs to speak of this, as they all watch Roe eing 'burned down'
Celebrity Activist Sarandon too, stayed silent.
Where were you, Nina Turner?
One of our own was being buried under white Male Media sexism, & you said nothing.
********

Especially Hillary. Did you ever see anyone so maligned?

[Klaralven]

8. Joe Rogan and Donald Trump

CNN Probe Eyes Jeff Zucker’s Ties to Andrew Cuomo

In 2000, Zucker became president of NBC Entertainment and quickly pulled off a series of splashy deals, including signing Donald Trump to host The Apprentice and Joe Rogan to host Fear Factor. He ascended the corporate ladder, and in 2006, became president and CEO of NBC Universal. One year later, he moved into an ultra-expensive Upper East Side co-op with views of Central Park. According to public records, Gollust moved into the same building with her then-husband and children a year later.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/jeff-zucker-cnn-investigation-affair-cuomo-1294608/