CNN’s Russia Obsession Results in Rules Change for Russia Stories
The network’s obsession with Trump and Russia has gotten out of hand
CNN has changed rules on how the company handles stories about Russia after the network had to retract and delete a story on Friday.
BuzzFeed reported that CNNMoney executive editor Rich Barbieri sent out an email on Saturday that told employees they should not “publish any content involving Russia without coming to me and [CNN Vice President] Jason [Farkas].”
The Deleted Story
CNN deleted a story that claimed the Senate Intelligence Committee wanted to investigate a “$10-billion Russian investment fund whose chief executive met with a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team four days before Trump’s inauguration.” From The New York Post:
According to BuzzFeed, the report claimed the committee had been looking into the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) as part of its probe of President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
It said that the RDIF had been overseen by Vnesheconombank, a Russian bank, which was the target of US sanctions — along with the fund.
The report cited a meeting in January between RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev and Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital and a noted Trump supporter.
Countless people on social media declared the article “fake news” and called out CNN — saying there were factual inaccuracies. The RDIF and Scaramucci, himself, blasted the network for running the piece.
“I did nothing wrong,” he tweeted Thursday. “They like hitting friends of @potus who are loyal advocates on his behalf.”
The story disappeared on Friday with only an editor’s note:
On June 22, 2017, CNN.com published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
That story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards and has been retracted. Links to the story have been disabled. CNN apologizes to Mr. Scaramucci.
New Rules
A person at CNN described the incident as a “massive, massive f*ck up” and that “people will be disciplined.” An internal investigation at the network includes President Jeff Zucker and the head of human resources.
The blowback has forced CNN to change how it covers Russia content:
The email went out at 11:21 a.m. on Saturday from Rich Barbieri, the CNNMoney executive editor, saying “No one should publish any content involving Russia without coming to me and Jason [Farkas],” a CNN vice president.
“This applied to social, video, editorial, and MoneyStream. No exceptions,” the email added. “I will lay out a workflow Monday.”
The new restrictions also apply to other areas of the network — not just CNNMoney, which wasn’t involved with the article that was deleted and retracted.
https://twitter.com/passantino/status/879048446287552512
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Comments
CNN is finally realizing how stupid and pathetic their Russia ranting makes them look and just how little the common people care about it.
No matter, their credibility is gone for decades.
CNN is nothing more, and never has been anything other than a government “troll” operation.
The way this came down this weekend was fascinating, and implied that there was a lot of behind the scenes activity that led to this hard retraction.
The thing that really caught my eye was when Scaramucci, the Trump ally who was at the heart of this story, came out and said “oh it’s no big deal, everyone makes mistakes.” Except he only said that AFTER CNN had disavowed everything in the most public manner, and he had this air about him that made him seem like the proverbial Cat that ate the Canary. IOW, he seemed very smug and happy with himself when he “forgave” CNN.
I think – postulate – that not long after this story came out, Scaramucci produced hard evidence to prove that important elements, especially those involving him, had been intentionally fabricated, and I think he dumped some high dollar lawyer all over CNN’s management to make this point. Because CNN reacted like they were scared out of their pants, not something they usually do.
Scaramucci’s statement as to how everyone makes mistakes sounds like the kind of generic thing his legal team promised to say as long as CNN immediately jumped through every hoop that Scaramucci was demanding that they jump through.
Lesson – don’t blindly piss off wealthy people who have some of the best lawyers in the country on retainer.
President TRUMP trumps AGAIN!
More WINNING!
MAGA!!!!
Did Russia become an obsession before or after intervention in Obama/Clinton’s elective war and regime change in Syria, which happened to precede the Western-backed coup in Ukraine that created a refugee population, which would have been a crisis, if not for Russians backing (not redistributing a la Obama’s refugee crises) the refugees.
CNN is getting sanctioned….Russia got to them, too!
CNN has lost their fricking Russian mind!
Or is that “mine?” as in uranium mine?
Pulitzer-prize nominee Thomas Frank, assistant managing editor Eric Lichtblau (who recently joined from the New York Times) and Lex Haris, the executive editor in charge of investigations, are all out of CNN.
I’m telling you, Scaramucci really had something big on them (apparently hard proof that they had intentionally faked the story) in order to get this big a reaction.
Maybe he was the anonymous source? Hahahahhahahahaha! Trump punks CNN again!
In other words, the “new York times” is a government troll operation also?
Oh dear, CNN has been reduced to competing with social media.
Zuker of CNN versus Zukerberg of FB.
Are those 2 Zuking men related?
Maybe even related to Jeff Bozos of the Washington Scratching Post?
Three ways to tell if you are old.
1. You remember how pretty the 1957 Chevrolet looked when new car unveiling were a big thing.
2. You remember when flying was fun.
3. You remember when CNN was a credible news source.