Yet another example of right-wing billionaires trying to control and crush independent media and make it more like Fox News. They don't want to inform you, they want to disinform you with their propaganda so they can get away with their ongoing dismantling of our democracy, especially via buying up media, with minimal resistance.

CNN staffers enraged at CEO's move to crush internal dissent over Trump town hall: report - Raw Story - Celebrating 19 Years of Independent Journalism https://www.rawstory.com/town-hall-of-trump-voters/?

#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#TheRichHateDemocracy
#MostMediaIsNotJournalistic
#TheRichOwnTheMedia

"CNN is reeling from overwhelmingly negative reviews of last week's town hall with former President Donald Trump at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, during which he aggressively talked over moderator Kaitlan Collins, told a series of lies too fast to fact-check, and spoke to a hand-picked audience of hardcore Republicans who, while they were instructed not to boo the former president, were allowed to cheer and laugh as he mocked author E. Jean Carroll's account of how he allegedly raped her.

Now, according to The Daily Beast's Confider newsletter, CNN's chief Chris Licht is trying to force employees to toe the company line about it — and his threats and heavy-handedness are beginning to anger staffers.

The drama began after top CNN reporter Oliver Darcy publicly criticized the town hall.

"Less than a year after Brian Stelter was shown the door, Oliver Darcy’s reported dressing down is an inflection point that CNN talent, executives, and staffers who spoke with Confider over the last few days said has marked an especially dark chapter of Licht’s now yearlong tenure," reported Lachlan Cartwright and Justin Baragona. "As Puck first reported, Licht pulled aside Darcy and his Reliable Sources editor Jon Passantino to scold the pair for their newsletter’s highly critical coverage of the town hall’s 'spectacle of lies' aired by CNN—an internal version of the intensely negative reviews that incensed Licht. The meeting took place shortly after a Thursday morning editorial call in which Licht unsubtly took a swipe at Darcy. Puck’s sources claimed the media reporter was 'visibly shaken' after the meeting because Licht and other execs had 'put the fear of God into him' and told him his coverage was 'too emotional.'"

According to the report, Licht's allies then went behind everyone's back to anonymously tell other news outlets that the rest of the staff was angry at Darcy — which upset staffers because in fact, many of them agreed with Darcy.

"While CNN employees were already troubled by the CEO’s actions after Puck’s story on Friday, it was a Fox News Digital follow-up article, in which an anonymous Licht ally claimed CNN staffers were 'appalled' by Darcy, that appears to have been a bridge too far for many," said the report. "'People are really bothered,' one CNN executive told Confider, noting that their phone had been ringing off the hook from network employees 'flipping out' over the situation. 'I heard zero complaints about Darcy’s newsletter—in fact, the opposite. People were glad someone was calling this out,' a CNN on-air personality added. 'And it’s a terrible look that he’s being muzzled or intimidated simply for saying what everyone is thinking. He’s not in PR. He’s a journalist.'"

The report continued that as all this was going on, Licht is meeting with Tim Alberta of The Atlantic for a media profile: "Alberta was in the audience for the Trump town hall, which was described to Confider as 'our Chernobyl' by one CNN staffer, as network spin doctors work overtime hoping to generate a glowing profile of the boss."

Licht himself has publicly come out in defense of the town hall's format, saying that "While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping" for the mockery of an alleged rape survivor, "that was also an important part of the story" and the people who did it represent "a large swath of America.""

The Durham probe was a complete failure, because in spite of what Trump and his GOP and media enablers would have you believe, there was never any there there!! The links between Trump's campaign and the Russians were extensive and we haven't even gotten to the bottom of that. This was just an attempt to gloss over the collusion between Trump's campaign, Republican operatives and Russia. It failed, bigly!

And yet, look at the GOP leaning and favoring headlines that this report received. It is time to realize that much of the mainstream media isn't liberal, but rather owned by wealthy people who are all for the GOP, less regulations and more tax cuts and hence want to make dems look bad, confuse and disinform the electorate and keep their oligarchy going.

Journalism/media, the fourth pillar of democracy, has long been infiltrated and bought out by the wealthy who don't want democracy at all. They just want more power, control and money! Pretending otherwise, leaves us defenseless against their ongoing attack on our democracy.

Morning Joe gloats over Durham's 'humiliating' flop: 'Bad writing and bush-league posturing' - Raw Story - Celebrating 19 Years of Independent Journalism https://www.rawstory.com/durham-report-fbi/?

#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#TheRichHateDemocracy
#MostMediaIsNotJournalistic
#TheRichOwnTheMedia

"Trump-era attorney general William Barr tapped Durham to re-examine how the government investigated possible links between the Trump campaign and Russian election interference, but the $6.5 million probe failed to send a single person to jail and resulted in two acquittals, while a former FBI lawyer pleaded guilty to altering an email that a colleague used to seek court approval for surveillance of a Trump adviser.

"This guy was the longest serving special counsel, four years, and the report [issued Monday] offers us no new charges, no new revelations, not even new suggested rules for the FBI," the "Morning Joe" host said. "I mean, they were so horrible, he didn't even suggest any new rules. He also had investigations into political matters that he ended up offering no advice on, just more bad writing and more bush-league posturing to Trumpers. He relitigated cases that he lost in front of juries he faced in the last four years -- not any convictions. It's another sad, pathetic attempt to make suckers -- and we remember this because we showed their headlines -- he wanted to make suckers of pro-Trump cable news hosts and right-wing newspapers that already got burned pedaling his lies before."

"What was his goal?" Scarborough continued. "His goal was to trash premier law enforcement organizations in America and attack the men and women who serve every day at the Department of Justice. The only good news is at least his four-year taxpayer funded boondoggle, that was funded by working Americans, paying him to walk through the fevered swamps of Trumpism is over. Durham has nothing but a tarnished reputation to show for it, but it underlines, again, the fact, and if you listen to what people are saying about this report on the Trump right, it underlines the fact that, well, they hate the FBI. They've turned the premier law enforcement organization into a political punching bag that they say they want to defund. They want to defund the people that protect us from terrorists, protect us from gangs, that protect us from the people who are actively trying to kill us every day."

"It's just absolutely crazy, and this whole report, what was it to do?" Scarborough added. "It was to trash the FBI, it was to investigate the investigators. It went on longer than the underlying investigation. four years, millions and millions of dollars, and nothing to show for it but some really bad, humiliating headlines for pro-Trump newspapers.""