ZUCKER: CNN Won’t Go Down the ‘Rabbit Hole of Hunter Biden’… CNN VP: Cubans Vote for Trump Because They’re ‘Very Attracted to Bullies’… ‘That’s Terrifying’ … Call Participant: ‘What in the World Are Maggie Haberman and Jake Sherman Doing Retweeting That [Burisma] Story?’
*YOU CAN WATCH THE VIDEOS HERE, HERE, AND HERE*
[WESTCHESTER, N.Y.—Dec. 2, 2020] Project Veritas’ release of the second tranche of clips from CNN President, Jeff Zucker’s, 9 a.m. editorial conference calls reveal more evidence of Zucker’s manipulation of the news to fit his own world view.
James O’Keefe, the founder and CEO of Project Veritas, said, “In these morning calls, Jeff Zucker orders his people to suppress some stories—not because they are false—but because they will hurt his political agenda.”
O’Keefe said Zucker wants to shape the news, not report it.
“When Zucker tells CNN reporters, hosts, producers and editors to hype stories because they fit his narrative, or to target public officials like Sen. Lindsey Graham, it’s because they do not toe the Zucker line.”
CNN managing director: Cubans vote for Trump because they are “attracted to bullies”
Cynthia Hudson, a CNN senior vice-president and managing director, told Zucker she had special insight into why Cuban-Americans support President Donald J. Trump.
“Trump has used the communism, socialism, rhetoric as part of his hook for the Cubans in Miami, how that has resonated and how the Biden team, has not done enough to counter that,” she said.
“This is all that, that the only reason [Cubans in Miami] are supporting Trump is because of that [Biden is socialist] narrative—and that narrative, and the fact that sadly, I have to say, there's a population that's very attracted to bullies,” she said.
No one on the call objected to Hudson’s characterization of Cuban Americans.
Hudson then said her anxiety over the issue was because it hurt the chances of former Vice President, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to win Florida.
“No one is countering it properly in Florida, the Cubans are going to vote for Trump and that's terrifying,” she said. “I think that there is a way to counter the [Biden is a socialist] narrative in Florida that is not being taken advantage of.”
Zucker spikes Hunter Biden laptop coverage
Zucker told his conference call participants he tracks conservative news outlets and he wants CNN reporters, hosts, producers and editors not to match their coverage of the images and correspondence found on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“The Breitbart, New York Post, Fox News rabbit hole of Hunter Biden, which I don't think anybody outside of that world understood,” Zucker said.
Another male participant echoed his boss’ sentiments.
“Obviously, we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Hunter Biden, which seems to be giving its marching orders to Fox News and the right-wing echo chamber about what to talk about today,” he said.
“Obviously, Hunter Biden's lawyer is quoted in the New York Post, and we'll just continue to report out, this is the very stuff that the president was impeached over, this is the stuff that Senate committees looked at and found nothing wrong in Joe Biden's interactions with Ukrainians--,” he said.
The outgoing CNN president said he agreed with the dismissive coverage from The Wall Street Journal when it came to reporting on the Biden family’s mixing of private business and public service in mainland China.
“The Wall Street Journal reported that their review of all corporate records showed no role for Joe Biden on the Chinese deal, and yes, I do put more credibility in The Wall Street Journal than I do in the New York Post,” he said.
Zucker similarly said he wanted his CNN team to steer clear of any coverage of the Biden family’s dealings in Ukraine.
On one call, an unidentified male said, “Having an email that - perhaps there was a meeting with someone from Burisma it seems, Rudy Giuliani's sort of ‘dream-a-vision’ of how to throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign.”
Another male said, “Hey, Jeff, it's just David, on the Burisma story, and we should be awfully careful about that obviously, but I do think there's a media story. What in the world are Maggie Haberman and Jake Sherman doing retweeting that story?”
Haberman writes for The New York Times and Sherman writes for Politico.
Zucker: Do not cover Project Veritas stories of election irregularities
Among the many Project Veritas reports of voter, ballot and election irregularities was the Erie, Pennsylvania U.S. Postal Service mail carrier Richard Hopkins, who came forward with a report of late ballots being retroactively postmarked to be Nov. 3, Election Day, not when they were actually mailed on Nov. 4 and beyond.
After Project Veritas posted its story, The Washington Post, using anonymous sources, wrote erroneously that Hopkins recanted his account. The Post later rewrote its headlines and stories, but CNN did not get the word.
Virginia Mosley, CNN vice president of newsgathering, weighed in on the Hopkins story on one of the morning calls. “These Erie, Pennsylvania allegations of backdating ballots were retracted.”
Zucker never failed to downplay voter fraud stories, especially when they were related to President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede until all election irregularity issues are resolved.
“Trump continuing to undermine election integrity with baseless claims of fraud. OK? And he's continuing to do it, and that leads to the question of whether or not Trump, in himself, is a national security threat, in light of what he's doing and in light of what he did in the debate,” Zucker said.
Another male participant told his boss CNN should rely on the Washington attorney Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a self-described Republican, who wrote two days before the election: “My party is destroying itself on the altar of Trump.”
Ginsberg is the final word on voter fraud, he said.
“Hey Jeff, it's David. I just wanted to make one point about contextualizing Ben Ginsburg. He's without a doubt the preeminent election lawyer on the Republican side, and probably one of the most pre-eminent election lawyers in America,” he said.
“[Ginsberg] also had a front-row seat to every Republican election issue for the past four years. If [Ginsberg] says voter fraud isn't a thing, that's kind of the end of the story,” he said. “We got to treat that as a definitive answer, as we cover the story throughout. Our refrain ought to be, ‘Ben Ginsburg was across us for 40 years and says, ‘It doesn't exist.’’”
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