Troubled CNN spent all of its prime time ignoring the John Durham investigation, which rattled the FBI for launching a baseless investigation into claims of Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia.
The broadcaster, which garnered high but still declining ratings for its controversial town hall with former President Donald Trump, was beaten in ratings by Fox News, MSNBC and even Newsmax two days later.
The network’s two most well-known evening programs — Primetime and Anderson Cooper 360 — did not mention the Special Counsel’s investigation in a two-hour show.
Cooper hosted his show tonight and discussed the war in Ukraine, while primetime host Sara Snider spoke about President Biden’s cancellation of a trip abroad and interviewed former Trump adviser Steve Cortes.
Troubled CNN spent all of its prime time ignoring John Durham’s investigation, which shattered heavily covert and deemed unfounded allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election
The network’s two most well-known evening programs — Primetime and Anderson Cooper 360 — did not mention the Special Counsel’s investigation in a two-hour show
This comes shortly after CNN’s primetime lineup was clearly beaten by Newsmax on Friday, they say The daily beast.
The channel averaged 335,000 viewers on Friday night – two days after Trump’s Town Hall aired – in prime time between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Newsmax attracted 357,000 viewers in the same time slot.
In Monday’s news, the number of channels was still a very low 485,000, despite at least surpassing Newsmax’s 420,000 in prime time.
CNN’s declines come as Fox News falls to second place and viewership falls after Tucker Carlson’s firing. MSNBC defeated the right-wing Fox in prime time on Monday evening.
The investigation brings new embarrassment for The Gray Lady and Washington Post, both of which have won Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of the saga.
And left-leaning networks and newspapers, which have picked up the fabricated stories linking Trump to the Kremlin and the salacious Steele dossier, now face renewed anger.
Durham highlights a December 2017 Times report that claimed George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump, made a “startling revelation” to Australia’s top diplomats in Britain in May 2016.
Namely: “Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton” and “Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton”.
The broadcaster, which garnered high but still declining ratings for its controversial town hall with former President Donald Trump, was beaten in ratings by Fox News, MSNBC and even Newsmax two days later
New York Times and Washington Post staff (from left: Maggie Haberman, Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, Rosalind Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Ellen Nakashima, Adam Entous, Greg Miller and Mark Mazzetti) accept the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger
Former NYT editor-in-chief Dean Baquet was slammed in a scathing critique by Columbia Journalism Review of the paper’s coverage of the Trump-Russia saga
A report by Special Counsel John Durham discredits a dossier on a British ex-spy that has been gobbled up by media outlets including The NYT and Washington Post
But the Australian diplomat in question – Alexander Downer – told the Durham Inquiry that “Papadopoulos made no mention of Clinton emails, dirt or any specific handling of the Russian government towards the Trump campaign.”
In fact, Durham found the Papadopoulos information to be so unsettling that agents immediately dismissed it.
But the NYT report was crucial in triggering the FBI investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia, which the Durham report now should never have opened.
This has led to calls for the Pulitzer Prizes to be returned after the board that awards the awards rejected calls for them to be revoked last year.
Ted Cruz, Trump’s former rival, tweeted Monday: “Accountable now – beginning with WaPo and the New York Times returning their Pulitzer Prizes for breathlessly spreading these ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ lies.”
The Durham investigation follows an angry report from the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), which the Times targeted for its coverage of the Trump-Russia saga.
The CJR, the in-house publication of America’s most prestigious journalism school, has spent 18 months examining media coverage of Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
The report contained criticism of the media as a whole, but author Jeff Gerth expressed a particular disdain for The Times.
The investigative journalist presented his findings by expressing his belief that the newspaper had damaged its credibility outside of its “own bubble”.
Noted journalist Bob Woodward told him reporting on the Russia probe was “not handled well.”
