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CNN Staffers Angry at Network’s Decision to Hire GOP Operative as Political Editor

CNN Staffers Angry at Network’s Decision to Hire GOP Operative as Political Editor

“upset and confused about the network’s decision to hire a partisan political operative”

https://youtu.be/TyG_EBX6sFw

CNN has hired Sarah Isgur Flores as a political editor to cover the 2020 campaign. CNN staffers and media fans of the network are upset because Isgur Flores has a long history of working for Republicans.

Maxwell Tani reports at The Daily Beast:

CNN Staffers ‘Demoralized’ by Hiring of GOP Operative Sarah Isgur to Edit 2020 Coverage

CNN staffers are upset and confused about the network’s decision to hire a partisan political operative to oversee its 2020 campaign reporting.

On Tuesday, a CNN spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast that the network has hired Republican political advisor Sarah Isgur as the politics editor helming CNN’s 2020 coverage. The move was first reported by Politico.

Throughout her decade-long career in Republican politics, Isgur has served as an advisor to Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney, and was Carly Fiorina’s deputy campaign manager for the 2016 Republican primary. Until last year, Isgur was a top spokesperson for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice.

A CNN spokesperson said Isgur will not be involved in the network’s DOJ coverage, but will guide TV and digital coverage of the 2020 election, occasionally offering on-screen analysis.

This outrage is ridiculous for many reasons. First and foremost, partisan operatives go to work for media outlets all the time. Van Jones and David Axelrod, who both worked for the Obama administration, are regulars on CNN. In this case however, it’s even more complicated.

Before joining the Trump administration as a spokesperson for Sessions, Isgur Flores was considered never-Trump. During the 2016 election she was often critical of Trump and left-leaning networks like MSNBC loved to have her on as a guest. See the video below:

According to Ballotpedia, after Fiorina dropped out of the race for 2016, Isgur Flores was very critical of Trump:

After Fiorina dropped out of the presidential race, Isgur Flores spoke with MSNBC about the potential for a convention challenge to Donald Trump, saying, “I will certainly hope for a contested convention, and if not I hope that someone will offer an alternative.”[21] According to the Daily Caller, Isgur Flores also said that her disapproval of Trump was based on her belief in conservatism: “For a lot of us, this isn’t about party. This isn’t about winning for the sake of winning for our team. This is about our country. And it’s about a belief system. And I’m a conservative before I’m a Republican.”[22]

Furthermore, are we supposed to pretend that the rest of the CNN political staff is nonpartisan? CNN’s political director is David Chalian. You may remember him as the guy who was fired by Yahoo News during the 2012 campaign for making a nasty and unfair comment about Republicans.

Politico reported:

Yahoo News fires David Chalian

Yahoo News has fired Washington bureau chief David Chalian after he was caught on a hot-mic during an online video broadcast saying that Republican convention officials had no problem with African Americans suffering as a result of Hurricane Isaac, a source familiar with the situation tells POLITICO…

“They’re not concerned at all. They’re happy to have a party with black people drowning,” Chalian said over a break during the ABC News/Yahoo News webcast, in reference to the fact that the GOP convention in Tampa is taking place as Hurricane Isaac makes landfall on the north Gulf coast.

Finally, going back to my first point, there is a revolving door between the worlds of politics and media. It happens on both sides but the left has been far more successful. See the tweets below from David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon responding to Tommy Vietor who worked for the Obama administration:

Sorry CNN staffers, but your concerns about Isgur Flores ring a bit hollow.

Featured image via YouTube.

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Comments

Those tweets are some great zings. I’d add Donna Brazille, Stephanopoulous (sp?), and others.

    rinardman in reply to healthguyfsu. | February 20, 2019 at 1:31 pm

    Man wait until he hears George W. Bush’s former comms director is chief political correspondent for ABC News.

    Oh wait, I’m sorry that would be Bill Clinton’s. Bill Clinton’s former comms director is chief political correspondent at ABC News.

    I think that’s Stephanopoulos. Who apparently just signed a new multi-million dollar deal with ABC.

    The pay’s good for a political hack.

    Rather than worry about the spelling, I just type “Step-in-awful-stuff”.

Interesting how being a #NeverTrump Republican still won’t spare you from the fury of the media. It would seem that there are very few MSM job openings available for Republicans willing to dump on Trump. Talk about being segregated to the back of the media bus!

Apparently #NeverTrumpers failed to notice that for years the media’s Only Decent Republican (TM) who was actually living was John McCain, and there was no room for anyone else.

Stelter is just pitiful. What an embarrassment.
PS: Lara Logan is available. She will be glad to take on these sissies.

This supposed story is planted ops. The subtext being how thoroughly non-partisan and fair minded CNN leadership is. Something akin to humblebragging. SEE!!! ZEE RANK UND FILE OUTRAGE!

The media courtiers are so bloody transparent. The WAPO’s faux conservative Jen Reuben weeps while SE Cupp smirks out of jealousy. Pathetic.

    CDR D in reply to Tiki. | February 20, 2019 at 5:54 pm

    Rubin got me put in twitter’s penalty box for posting something uncomplimentary about the so-called journalist (actually a Muslim Brotherhood cockroach) who was killed in Constantinople.

Don’t these dummies understand that we can pull up every public person’s history in a heartbeat, and call them out on their obvious harmful nonsense?

Gateway Pundit is asking if Isgur has been leaking to CNN and this appointment is payback

Comanche Voter | February 20, 2019 at 3:11 pm

OMG–wait until Hitler discovers that CNN hired a partisan politician! The parody writes itself.

“You just gave every Democrat in the country a reason to doubt your objectivity.”

They aren’t looking for “objectivity”, comrade…

Subotai Bahadur | February 20, 2019 at 4:25 pm

Interestingly enough, when I first heard of this yesterday, her hiring by CNN struck me as confirmation that her former boss Sessions WAS working for the enemy.

Subotai Bahadur

CNN: messing with the denial of your narcissist viewers is tricky stuff, isn’t it?

In any event, she’s harmless: she’s probably as big rino rat as Sessions.

Mike- I’m calling bullshit- you need to point out more than one staffer being upset, an unnamed anonymous spokesman for CNN is also bullshit- this falls close to the standard of AOC claiming GOP was unhinged over her dancing video based on a twitter account created the week before the video dropped.

There’s enough perpetual outrage and indignation in the world w/out stirring it further.

    txvet2 in reply to Andy. | February 20, 2019 at 7:54 pm

    It wasn’t Mike who reported that – it was the Daily Beast.

      Andy in reply to txvet2. | February 20, 2019 at 8:01 pm

      and no one is a critical thinker?

      geeze- don’t take the bait.

      Just like NO ONE is giving AOC an ounce of credit for beating Amazon up for crony capitalism…You know, the same think Palin did to the oil companies in Alaska when they were screwing tax payers. I’m not close enough to the details of the deal to say right/wrong, but no one is asking basic questions. It was too easy to just hate on AOC because…well she’s dumb and that’s the conservative narrative.

      It’s a stupid trap to fall into.

Did the Daily Beast run a similar story when NBC hired Chelsea at $600,000 a year?