“We are not investigators.”
CNN President Jeff Zucker defended his network’s coverage of the Russia investigation in the New York Times Tuesday, telling the paper he was “entirely comfortable” with their reporting.
“We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did,” Zucker told the Times. “A sitting president’s own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation. That’s not enormous because the media says so. That’s enormous because it’s unprecedented.”
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However, not everyone was as charitable toward the job done by CNN reporters.
After CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter tweeted Zucker’s quote, it sparked criticism from many commenters on social media.
Reuters journalist Matthew Keys was one of the first to react, saying part of a journalist’s job description is holding “people in power accountable” by “investigating what they do and say.”
Part of a journalists's job is to hold people in power accountable, and you do that by, among other things, investigating what they do and say. Jeff Zucker is a showman, a carnival barker; he is not a journalist and he does not care about journalism. https://t.co/FHEJgdyThi
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) March 26, 2019
Writer Josh Jordan pointed that Zucker had previously admitted to ratings being the primary reason for their extensive Russia coverage.
“We’ve seen that, anytime you break away from the Trump story and cover other events in this era, the audience goes away. So we know that, right now, Donald Trump dominates." – Jeff Zucker, 2018
I don't have much sympathy for anything Zucker says when defending their coverage. https://t.co/WBq9uaDvgc
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) March 26, 2019
Federalist editor David Harsanyi accused the network of making “dozens of mistakes” in their reporting.
There are dozens of stories that CNN got wrong — some of them treated as huge scoops. Every one of those mistakes skewed in the same direction. That's not an accident. https://t.co/UmQ7EGLIbj
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) March 26, 2019
Some accused the network of lacking self-awareness.
like for real… to claim that they ONLY reported the facts… I mean, wow. I can't fathom how he felt comfortable making that claim.
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) March 26, 2019
Other users mused that CNN has an entire section on their website dedicated to investigations.
CNN has an entire specials section on their website called “CNN Investigates” https://t.co/WWsoTa0f9Y https://t.co/346KC0BJPK
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) March 26, 2019
In the aftermath of the Mueller report finding no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, many have been critical of the media’s coverage of the investigation.
In the days since former Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report to the Department of Justice, CNN has devoted coverage to Democrats’ demands for the full document to be released and claims that Attorney General William Barr is biased.
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