# CNN announces hire of GOP spokesperson with no journalism experience to head 2020 election coverage



## Xzi (Feb 20, 2019)

Sarah Isgur was the spokesperson for the justice department under AG Jeff Sessions:

https://www.vox.com/2019/2/19/18231993/cnn-gop-operative-2020-election-coverage

So I guess basically...expect CNN to be the Trump show 24/7 just like it was the last election cycle. This really isn't surprising given how much they love reality TV/social media ratings buzz nonsense, but it will be interesting to see how many of their current anchors decide to stick around. Their tone will be taking a hard right turn, regardless.


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## LightyKD (Mar 19, 2019)

Well.... Fuck that!


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## granville (Mar 21, 2019)

The truth is that behind the facade of "leftism" they pretend to adhere to, CNN is really just another profit driven mega corporation controlled by insatiably greedy executives. In spite of what their news programs and anchors may say, the executives don't actually care who the president is or whether what they say and do is immoral or illegal. Behind closed doors, they're probably pretty happy that Trump exists because he creates drama that they can exploit for ratings, this makes them lots of money. A lot of the wealthier anchors are probably like this too. If they looked at their ratings charts and saw a sharp decline seeming to correlate with promoting left ideas, they'd just start pushing the network further right. Which is kind of what they're doing when they attack true liberal candidates. They'll have an argument ready like "we respect both sides" to justify it, but it's all about the money.

But I think a move like this is probably significantly motivated by politics rather than just ratings. Some of the popular up and coming liberal politicians should have them running scared. Especially the current frontrunner for the Democrats in the 2020 presidential election. CNN and other major media corporations should be quite terrified.

Among the announced liberal candidates, Bernie Sanders is wrecking all the others at the polls (Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand etc). Only unannounced Joe Biden (who is almost certainly running) is polling about on par with Bernie. And polls are prone to manipulation. CNN's recent poll shows Biden leading Sanders by a significant margin, whereas almost every other poll has showed them pretty much tied, or with one of them having a single point lead over the other. It's very early and anything could change (Biden incidentally tends to put his foot in his mouth when put on the spot or in debates, whereas Sanders does not). But as of current trends, Bernie's polling performance probably hasn't gone unnoticed by CNN and other media corporations.

Bernie's polling performance no doubt has CNN and other "liberal" media corporations terrified. They hate him, and with good reason. Bernie Sanders represents an enormous threat to their profits AND their political power. His career and track record in the economic side of politics has been centered around anti-corporatism. Keeping big corporate money out of politics, levying heavy taxes against billionaires, regulating wages and working conditions, and (if necessary) breaking up corporations into smaller entities when they become too large. Etc etc. Ironically these are policies once briefly held by the Republicans back when Teddy Roosevelt was President.

CNN executives and even some of the wealthier anchors don't like these policies at all. I actually think they would much prefer Trump. Trump hasn't posed any serious risk to them, and reporting on his corruption and shenanigans rake in the ratings. It would be very interesting to see how CNN would treat Bernie Sanders if he DOES get the nomination and goes on to challenge Trump. Would CNN (being a "liberal" network that claims to oppose Trump and Republicans) throw their support behind Bernie, or would they begin moving their network to the right?


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## Xzi (Mar 21, 2019)

granville said:


> Bernie Sanders for example is the highest polling officially announced liberal candidate. He's destroying Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand etc. Only Joe Biden (who is unannounced but almost certainly running) is polling about on par with Bernie. And these polls are subject to bias towards neo-liberal candidates as well. It's very early and anything could change. But as of current trends (and if the DNC plays fair), Bernie Sanders has a very good chance of winning the nomination.
> 
> I'm sure his polling performance hasn't been lost on CNN, and it has almost certainly terrified CNN and other "liberal" media corporations. They hate him with good reason, Bernie Sanders represents a massive threat to their profits AND political power. His career and track record in the economic side of politics has been centered around anti-corporatism. Keeping big corporate money out of politics, levying heavy taxes against billionaires, regulating wages and working conditions, and (if necessary) breaking corporations that have become far too big up into smaller entities when they. Etc etc.
> 
> CNN executives and even some of the wealthier anchors don't like these policies at all. I actually think they would much prefer Trump. At least he hasn't been able to pose any serious risk to them and reporting on his corruption and shenanigans rake in the ratings. It would be very interesting to see how CNN would treat Bernie Sanders if he DOES get the nomination and goes on to challenge Trump.


All very good points.  The more corrupt and incompetent the president is, the more he makes for good ratings and the less he does to combat corporatist greed.  Also helps their cause that Trump himself is nothing more than a neo-conservative, akin to GWB, parading as a neo-fascist.


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## yuyuyup (Mar 21, 2019)

Her role has been downgraded to just another talking head a little while after this controversy blew up


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## Xzi (Mar 21, 2019)

yuyuyup said:


> Her role has been downgraded to just another talking head a little while after this controversy blew up


I was unaware.  That's good to hear.


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## zfreeman (Mar 21, 2019)

While these kinds of hires aren't too common, politics and journalism have somewhat of a revolving door.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/dec/12/abc-news-hires-stephanopoulos

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...ournalist-go-work-obama-administration/310928


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