When Gallup released its latest poll on the media, a lot of people were surprised the press had any scrap of credibility left to talk about. But despite all of the bias and fake news, an astonishing 41 percent of Americans still trust the media. Well, one thing's for certain, James O'Keefe would say, they must not be watching CNN.
The Project Veritas founder and president, who launched the Be Brave campaign for industry whistleblowers, is giving Americans plenty of reason to doubt the network news. A new undercover video, the same one O'Keefe teased at VVS, is blowing the lid off of the culture of anti-Trump hatred that rules at CNN. To most of us, the idea that CNN -- or any mainstream media outlet -- is slanted against conservatives isn't exactly a groundbreaking revelation. What is shocking, however, is that the president of a network is so violently opposed to this administration that he's "aggressively" deciding what the public hears.
And that isn't just offensive to conservatives, James explains. Cary Poarch, who worked at the network's D.C. bureau, isn't a Republican by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, in the primaries, he voted for Bernie Sanders. But he was so "disgusted" by CNN, James explained on "Washington Watch," that he felt compelled to expose it. "He was just grossed out by what he saw," O'Keefe remembers. So much so that he wore a camera for five months, recording dozens of meetings with President Jeff Zucker as he pushed his far-Left political agenda. "Most of the colleagues that he recorded were basically saying [that] it's the Jeff Zucker show... And they're not doing legitimate newsgathering. And while we all suspected this, while we maybe knew it or at least could use our intuition to know this, none of us ever have been able to prove it." Cary did, and he lost his job.
"These are the sort of anonymous heroes inside of our institutions who want to blow the whistle," James explained. "And that's not an easy thing to do, right? Because you have to you have to betray the confidence of your colleagues for the public's right to know. And that's what journalism is."
What Cary found was just how deeply entrenched Zucker's animus is. "The president of CNN is [literally] whispering into the ear of people while they're on the air." He's telling them to "knock off" their friendliness to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), to prepare "softball interviews" for Democrats, they even allude to an "anti-Trump crusade." That's hardly the stuff of journalistic integrity.
"There's one irate moment in this tape," James shares, "where Jeff Zucker in his editorial meeting... says, 'Forget about that. Just focus on impeachment.' ...He's telling people to focus on a certain thing. And that's a little surprising as the head of a massive media company not to let journalists bubble up what the story actually is, but to kind of tell them as if you're running 'The Apprentice...' One of the employees... called it a game show -- a joke."
Unfortunately, none of this is isolated to CNN. Increasingly, what we're seeing is a media who isn't reporting the story -- they are the story. These are agenda-driven opinion channels masquerading as real news. That's why it's more important than ever for Christians to look for information in alternative sources that share their worldview.
A good place to start is "Washington Watch." If it doesn't air on your local Christian or conservative station, call them and ask them to carry "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins." In the meantime, download the Stand Firm App, so that you can listen each day at 5:00 p.m. (ET).
