CNN: Bring in the Clowns

With CNN taking a lot of flak for mocking 63 million Americans, Inez Stepman of The Federalist reports on Don Lemon “moderating” a discussion with “strategist” Rick Wilson and Wajahat Ali. The self-labeled elitists “viciously mocked American voters as idiots and rubes.”

CNN and other media outlets might want to meditate on why trust in the media is in the toilet – and was so long before Trump ever came down the escalator – before they unwittingly create any more perfect Keep America Great commercials. Also, if you’re going to make super-offensive jokes, you should at least ensure that they’re funny.

Jim Lehrer’s 10 Rules of Journalism

• Assume the viewer is as smart and caring and good a person as I am.
• Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
• Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
• Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
• Assume the viewer is as smart and caring and good a person as I am.
• Assume the same about all people on whom I report. . . .
• Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories and clearly label everything.
• Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should be allowed to attack another anonymously.
• I am not in the entertainment business.

Jim Lehrer died last week at the age of 85.