Jay Weber Show transcript 6-8-23 6:10am
On yesterday’s show, we relayed the news on CNN’s new boss being pushed out after less than a year-shortly after it broke on social media....
Well.
The rest of the day was spent on news and cable insiders dissecting Chris Licht’s firing...and what it means for CNN, now, and who’s the next person put in charge of ‘fixing it’.
Folks- CNN cannot be fixed.
I argued this when Licht took over and refused to do the one thing that might ‘fix’ this fake news outlet: you need to fire everyone at CNN. At the very least-Licht needed to fire every show host and the lead producer on every show-
Because those are the two people who decide the show’s content and tone-and what they are going to cover every night. And when Licht took over, he was given the mission by his ‘higher ups’ at warner brothers to return it to being a credible news network again.
Well-the only way to do that is to fire -everyone-in a position of power or influence over CNN’s content...because...as i explained at the time: news credibility is like a person’s virginity: you can only give it up once.
And once you’ve given it up-you cannot get it back.
I realize this, better than anyone, as someone who started out their career as a straight news guy who-did- work every day to be a credible, unbiased journalist. I took is so seriously that I didn’t vote when I was a journalist, and intentionally didn’t get chummy with either side, or any individual lawmakers.
And then I decided that I’d rather do issue-oriented talk and had to decide: do i give up my credibility as an unbiased news person-and I knew- once I did- there was no going back.
Either as someone ‘viewed’ as a credible, unbiased news source by the audience- or-
Just as importantly- as someone who could be trusted to put their personal opinions and views aside, and report a story honestly, or with no biases.
Because-once you get used to injecting your own opinion into things, or making decisions on coverage based on your own opinion or interests- you’re no longer an unbiased journalist, are you?
Therefore, I said: everyone needs to be fired. Because, even if they started out their careers at CNN as ‘straight’ journalists and at least tried to play it straight on the air, well, when the trump era hit, they all turned into rabid partisans, didn’t they. Their hosts who had always leaned left- did Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, etc...but even their so-called ‘straight news guys’ turned into clear partisans and left-wing tools- like Jake Tapper and John King, Wolfe Blitzer, dana bash. They all let their biases show-as CNN became the 24/7, never ending, trump bashing channel for five years.
Right?
Well- so, how then, could Licht have expected to slide in-keep virtually all those people- but tell them to...okay...let’s just go back to doing straight news now.
Not only were they incapable of getting their credibility cherry back from the viewers...
Not only could they get their credi-ginity back from the viewers.... but there was no way they could put their now-routine editorializing back in the box.
Right? You’ve got to fire them all.
And so-
What was the ‘revelation’ by some insider pundits yesterday when Licht was fired?
Well, it turns out that -he- and warner execs wanted CNN to return to doing straight news-but none of CNN’s staff did!
No kidding. What a shock. I called this a year ago, when Licht took over: you got to fire them all.
They’ve got a taste for opinion now, and they like it too much.
In CNN’s case- the hosts and crew are like bears who got a taste for human food and are going to keep wandering into the campground now. The only choice we now have is-to shoot em’ dead- or relocate them to a remote location-because they’re ‘damaged bears’ now. They are used to human food. They are motivated by human food. And they are no longer safe for humans.
Well-
CNN’s staffers got a taste for opinion. They got caught up in the notion that their trump bashing and GOP smearing ‘mattered’. They even diluted themselves into thinking it was necessary: if we, the credible, smart, careful elites with a megaphone don’t destroy Donald Trump and protect America- who will?
Right?
They get a taste of glory and satisfaction out of this new ‘activist’ journalism that they are doing now and don’t want to go back to eating berries in the woods.
Licht needed to fire them all. He didn’t. And until there’s a clean sweep at CNN-this network can’t be fixed. At least not in the way Warner execs want it to be.
Which brings us to the next step: will the warner exec who-by God- wants CNN to do straight news again-
A guy named David Zas-Lav- do the house cleaning, himself?
Fire them all. Not just Cuomo and don lemon. Fire Anderson, and poppy, and poopy, and dopey, and sneezy-and every one of their lead producers-
And put the fear of God in the lower-level staffers and then get them all on zoom call and ask them: are we going to do straight news now? Or would some of you like to resign and move on-before we do? How committed are you to being left wing activists masquerading as journalists...versus.... simply keeping your job?
That’s what I’d do, because that’s what needs to happen at CNN.
Apparently, after he took over at CNN, Licht spent hours calling republican lawmakers and leaders trying to cajole them to start coming on the network again. He insisted- our host’s producers are going to start calling you more regularly and inviting you on. We are really trying to be fair, again.
He spent hours doing this.
The problem is-he apparently never told the producers.... or insisted they do it.Instead, they and the hosts dug in and insisted- dammit- this is a leftist network fighting for the cause....
They refused to cooperate with Licht in most ways, and now he’s gone. They think they’ve won.
So, let’s hope that the hammer of Thor-
Or at least Warner Brothers execs- comes down hard on CNN’s crybully employees.
And as for regaining credibility- My former classmate at K-M and now Breitbart writer, John Nolte nails it:
CNN might have a chance if it fired its disgraced on-air staff responsible for all of this…
- Russia Collusion Hoax
- Hands Up, Don’t Shoot Hoax
- Jussie Smollett Hoax
- Covington KKKids Hoax
- Very Fine People Hoax
- Seven-Hour Gap Hoax
- Global Warming Hoax
- Russian Bounties Hoax
- Trump Trashes Troops Hoax
- Policemen Killed at Mostly Peaceful January 6 Protest Hoax
- Rittenhouse Hoax
- Eating While Black Hoax
- Border Agents Whipping Illegals Hoax
- NASCAR Noose Hoax
- The Georgia Jim Crow 2.0 Hoax
- Trump Assaulted Secret Service Agents and Grabbed Steering Wheel of Beast Hoax
- Frame MAGA for Alleged Paul Pelosi Assault Narrative
- The COVID lab leak theory is racist
- Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinformation
- Joe Biden will never ban gas stoves
CNN participated in, amplified, and in some cases, created, all those Trump smears and more.
Their reporters stood in front of flaming buildings with looters trashing stores behind them...and described the ‘mostly peaceful’ Black Lives Matter protests that the country was seeing...
I mean- you can’t make it up: the legacy media outlets are-broken. Journalism doesn’t exist in America, anymore. It’s all activism. Couched as fact. It’s all spin and lies out of these newsrooms-
And if you think anything has changed...
Think again.
Just this week, as the house republicans discovered that a very credible accusation of corruption by Joe Biden when he was vice president exists- what did the mainstream news outlets do? Including CNN?
They amped up and got invested in ‘debunking the truth and protecting Joe Biden.’ they leapt to start the gaslighting....
Oh. That’s related to an old Rudy Giuliani claim that’s already been investigated...etc.
False. False! But every mouthpiece on CNN and elsewhere was forwarding it as ‘the truth’.
No-I said it when I blasted Donald Trump for agreeing to do a CNN town hall: we finally have CNN exactly where we want it: discredited and irrelevant. So don’t help it get off the mat.
photo credit: Getty Images
story credit: Breitbart