Nothing surprising - CNN bias

As promised, James O'Keefe released a huge tranche of audio recordings from the CNN morning briefing telephone calls with CNN President Jeff Zucker. Some bullet points:

• • CNN President Jeff Zucker: “This is a president who knows he's losing, who knows he's in trouble, is sick, maybe is on the aftereffects of steroids or not. I don't know. But he is acting erratically and desperately, and we need to not normalize that.”
  • Zucker: “You know, this is what we've come to expect for the last three and a half years, four years, but it clearly is exacerbated by the time that we're in and the issues that he's [Trump] dealing with. I think that we cannot just let it be normalized. He is all over the place and acting erratically, and I think we need to lean into that.”
  • Zucker: “Frankly, if we've made any mistake, it's been that our banners have been too polite, and we need to go well after Lindsey Graham.”
  • Zucker: “There's a ton going on. Let’s stay strong. Let's stay newsy. Let’s stay urgent. Let’s be smart. There is a lot of news out there, and Lindsey Graham really deserves it.”
  • Marcus Mabry, CNN digital VP of global programming: “Yeah, I was just going to say, if you're going to talk about the story, I think it's unavoidable that you have to talk about the naked racism of Tucker Carlson. Because that's really what drove this anti-diversity push, you know, Trump watches Tucker Carlson's show and then reacts. And just as sort of the white supremacy hour they have on Fox News every night, I think it's the --- You can't disconnect the two.”
  • Stephanie Becker, CNN field producer: “On the issue of why it's important to get the transition going right, the 9-11 report talks about one of the problems was that the trouble that was brewing that lost during the transition. So, if you want a good, concrete example of what happens when you don't have a good transition, well, look at the Twin Towers.”

Next couple of days will be interesting - O'Keefe has this vexing habit of releasing some mild stuff first, waiting for the outlets to poo-poo it, then releasing some worse stuff and he keeps going until that particular organization suffers a melt down. Saving the most egregious stuff for last.  He also releases the full media records so nobody can claim that he is cherry picking or editing out of context.