‘If you’re MSM and telling lies, we’re watching you’ – investigative group on CNN sting videos
Amid the scandal over two sting videos with CNN employees saying that the Russia narrative is “bull**it” and “a big nothing burger,” a representative of the group that published the videos told RT any mainstream media “telling lies” could be next.
In the first video, CNN Health Supervising Producer John Bonified said, referring to the Russia stories and grounds for the accusations thrown at Moscow on daily basis, “Like, we don’t have any big giant proof. I just feel like they don’t really have it, but they just want to keep digging.” The producer added that the channel’s ratings “are incredible right now.”
Project Veritas Communications Director Stephen Gordon told RT that the second video was released to force CNN to face the consequences and admit something is wrong.
Gordon emphasized that in the first video, Bonified says that the CEO of CNN wants to switch from environmental issues back to Russia, because it’s “about money, ratings, that’s all we cover.”
“So we knew they were going to come back and say, well, you know, this guy is just a health producer, he has nothing to do with the political side of the CNN. So we released, in response, another video, because no one can argue that Van Jones is not a political commentator for CNN.”
The group ultimately wants to expose other media outlets. “We made a lot of other pundits eat their words,” Gordon said.
“It’s not just CNN; I want to make that clear. If you’re mainstream media in America and you are telling lies, you are defending people, you are gatekeeping stories, you’re keeping the public from knowing the truth, you’re on our list. We may be in your board room right now, we are watching you,” Gordon said.
When asked if CNN journalists feel any regret about the potentially groundless coverage, Gordon said, “Obviously they do, because this weekend they changed their policy. We know from the video they presented that the policy was ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ and then there was that memo leak that BuzzFeed picked up which said that you needed to get all of the stories on Russia approved by the VP.”
“So this has changed very, very recently, and this is just one of major controversies going on over the last 72 hours,” Gordon said.
Following the release of the first video, CNN issued a statement emphasizing that the medical producer’s views were his personal opinion, not reflecting the company’s stance. Gordon said, however, that not everything in the video can be justified as private judgment.
“[CNN CEO] Mr. [Jeff] Zucker’s thoughts are the policy of CNN, that’s how I understand this, maybe they do things differently there, but if my president tells me what to do, I do it.”
Reaction to the sting videos “was mainly positive except for the mainstream media. It took [them] until the end of the day to come up with something, because it’s very hard to comment on the truth.”
READ MORE: 3 CNN journalists behind retracted Russia-Trump story resign
This is not the first awkward moment for CNN this year. A few days ago, three journalists quit after CNN retracted the story of an alleged Senate investigation into what they claimed were connections between a Russian investment fund and a confidante of US President Donald Trump.
In January, CNN broke a story claiming Russia had compromising personal information about President Trump. The article was based on a dossier penned by an ex-spy from the UK. Later, the media outlet had to admit that the document was flawed and filled with unverified allegations.
