CNN Seems Blissfully Unaware That They Are a Punchline

Written by Peter Heck

Feverishly covering the story that noted left-leaning, pro-LGBT news anchor Shepard Smith had abruptly left Fox News after 23 years, CNN’s “senior media reporter” Oliver Darcy expressed his stoic concern about what this meant for the future at Fox:

First of all, I understand the potshot at Fox. Darcy is attempting to sustain a career at a supposed news network that, far from being Fox’s rival, is struggling to even compete with the ratings of Hallmark Channel, Investigation Discovery, and TLC in primetime. You punch up, and that’s what Darcy is doing.  Fair enough.

Secondly, I personally have no affinity for any of Fox’s opinion hosts. I don’t have anything against Hannity, Ingraham, Carlson, or The Five, but I also don’t watch any of them and so I feel no need to defend their honor in this inner-cable news world urination match. That said, I do appreciate Bret Baier’s professionalism, and I think Chris Wallace does an admirable job asking tough questions of both sides.

Besides, to assert as Darcy did, that Shepard Smith was “the” (as in “the only”) host on Fox attempting to fact-check Trump or deal in reality over right-wing fantasy ignores perhaps the most obvious evidence to the contrary: President Trump’s recent rage tweet at none other than Chris Wallace himself.

But my real problem with Darcy’s Twitter spasm? Its astounding tone-deafness. Who, precisely, is CNN’s Bret Baier? Who is CNN’s Chris Wallace?

• Maybe Anderson Cooper, who recently trashed Sarah Sanders for, “lying repeatedly, daily, hourly?”

• Or perhaps it’s Chris Cuomo who has been caught more than once appearing to provide moral justification for the violence of Antifa?

• Then again, it could be Don Lemon, who “thank[ed] God for Nancy Pelosi,” dubbed the Obamas “the closest thing we have to royalty,” all while calling Trump everything from a “racist” “Hitler,” to a man with “no sanity” who has potentially committed “treason?”

Yes, that’s the same Lemon who almost a decade ago showed off his comedy chops by claiming with a straight face that CNN, “doesn’t do opinion.” “We put the story out there and we try to stay in the middle of the road,” he added unironically.

Right.

But perhaps the best part of Darcy’s Twitter jab at Fox’s supposed preference for right-wing talking points over “fact-based reality,” was that he floated it just before Project Veritas published their new undercover video sting of CNN. The video dump included this jewel from Darcy’s colleague, CNN’s Media Coordinator Christian Sierra:

“…MSNBC is tougher on Republicans, and we’re tough on the Republicans too. More than so than the Democrats. Our Democratic interviews are like softballs, compared to the Republicans… if you notice like every time, we ask questions to Republicans, like it’s always a little tougher than when we do get the Democrats.”

Now, don’t expect this particular Project Veritas exposé to make any big waves. Not that it shouldn’t, but primarily for one reason: everyone already knows CNN lacks journalistic integrity. Revealing that the network is terribly biased towards the left is like telling people Disney is remaking one of their old movies instead of coming up with a new idea. It’s just what everyone has come to expect.

Everyone, that is, except for Oliver Darcy. Here’s to hoping they let him down easy.

This article was originally published at Disrn.com.