Former CNN Employee Tucker Carlson Weighs In on Undercover Video: 'The Definition of State Media'
Call it the voice of experience.
Most Americans might not have been shocked by the Project Veritas sting operation reported Monday that revealed CNN to be an organization devoted more to attacking President Donald Trump than to delivering viewers an unbiased news report, since the network’s anti-Trump sympathies have been on display since before he even took the oath of office.
But Fox News’ Tucker Carlson had a different perspective: As a former CNN employee himself, he had no problem pinpointing the source of the problem: Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide.
“As any of us can and will be happy to tell you, CNN has always been a liberal place,” Carlson said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday.
“It was founded by Ted Turner, who is an aggressive left-winger,” he continued. “But CNN was not always nakedly partisan. They used to be a news network. It didn’t always function as it does now as a political campaign. That’s a new development.
“What changed? Well, the head of the company changed. The president of CNN now is Jeff Zucker. He is responsible for the change.”
Carlson joined Fox in 2009, long before Zucker took over CNN operations in 2013. But his opinion of the CNN chief was crystal clear.
According to the Project Veritas report, Zucker has let a personal dispute with Trump dictate his network’s coverage of the Trump presidency — and that coverage has been uniformly negative.
“The recordings indicate Zucker is dictating every detail of CNN’s programming and doing so with clearly partisan objectives in mind,” Carlson said.
No one who’s been even vaguely aware of the media’s dealings with the Trump White House could be surprised at the Project Veritas report.
From CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s relentless grandstanding to the almost ludicrous fulminations of CNN anchors Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, it’s been clear for years that there’s a deliberate animus at work.
As Carlson noted, not every single employee of CNN is in on the scam, but when the man who calls the shots is, that’s all that matters.
“And there are a bunch of them who are trying to commit journalism,” Carlson said. “But the big boss, Jeff Zucker, won’t allow it. Integrity be damned. Just do what Jeff Zucker says, whether it’s true or not.
“Well, that’s not journalism, of course; it’s the definition of state media. Relentless cheerleading; relentless, never-ending shilling for the ruling class.”
That’s the same “ruling class” that had anointed Democrat Hillary Clinton to be the 45th president of the United States — and was shocked when the American people disagreed.
As a veteran television newsman who used to work for CNN, Carlson has had life experiences that few Americans share and that give him a unique insight into the kinds of abuses Project Veritas exposed.
But even viewers who don’t have Carlson’s resume have now had years of exposure to the endless leftist propaganda from once-respected institutions such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
They’ve had years to watch entertainment fixtures — from Hollywood and television stars to late-night “comedy” — debase themselves in the service of liberal politics.
Carlson might have a better seat to see it than most, but that Project Veritas “expose” really just confirmed what millions already knew: The organizations passing themselves off as “news” are operating with the deliberate goal of destroying the Trump presidency and devaluing the votes of 63 million Americans who supported him.
And that’s an experience we could all do without.
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