isgur

=<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/cnn-sarah-isgur-flores-trump-gop">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/cnn-sarah-isgur-flores-trump-gop</a><section class="po-cnintro po-wpintro" id="ch-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); font-family: Antwerp, serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Trump has again and again shown himself to be an authoritarian, a tyrant and a bully who’s corrupt and doesn’t deserve to be in the White House,” Sarah Isgur Flores told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on May 16, 2016. Seven months later she was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ready-shoot-aim-president-trumps-loyalty-tests-cause-hiring-headaches/2018/04/29/7756ec9c-4a33-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6d4172556807" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">swearing</a> her loyalty to him and his agenda.Few things better illustrate the empty spectacle of mainstream media grandstanding in the Trump era than CNN’s recent hiring of Flores to help run their 2020 campaign coverage. It’s not just that Flores has no news experience, or that her views are objectionable, though rest assured they are: it took keen-eyed commentators no time to pull up instances of Flores spreading <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1097908708477231104" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">debunked</a> conspiracy theories about Planned Parenthood and grousing about the “liberal media,” including her new employer — or as <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/02/20/cnn-hires-trump-official-who-used-same-anti-press-rhetoric-as-man-who-sent-bombs-to-cnn/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">she calls it</a>, the “Clinton News Network.”It’s also a fact that in hiring a partisan political operative, CNN has handed the running of news operations, which presumably is still meant to be about speaking truth to power, to someone devoted to skirting ethical lines in the service of that very power.</section><section class="po-cnsection po-wpsection" id="ch-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin-top: 4em; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); font-family: Antwerp, serif; font-size: 17px;"><h1 class="po-cnsubhead po-wpsubhead" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4em; font-size: 31px;">Lies, Damned Lies, and Bad Statistics</h1>Flores was the deputy campaign manager for former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s presidential run in 2016, the most notable feature of which was the brazen way it made a mockery of campaign finance laws. FEC rules forbid campaigns from coordinating with Super PACs, the vehicle through which wealthy donors are allowed to funnel unlimited amounts of cash to candidates in the wake of Citizens United.The Super PAC supporting Fiorinia was called Carly for America, which was not only similar to the name of her campaign (Carly for President) but violated the ban on Super PACs using a candidate’s name. So they simply changed it by turning CARLY into an acronym for “Conservative, Authentic, Responsive Leadership for You.” The <a href="https://www.nhpr.org/post/nh-pro-fiorina-super-pac-tests-boundaries-campaign-ground-game#stream/0" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">logos</a>stayed nearly identical.Fiornia’s campaign <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/us/politics/as-carly-fiorina-surges-so-does-the-work-of-her-super-pac.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">skirted</a> rules against coordination by making a public Google calendar that displayed her appearances weeks in advance, and by publishing the information the Super PAC needed in a press release. The well-staffed Super PAC would then <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/when-a-super-pac-acts-like-a-campaign/455679/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">show up early</a> to every event and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/21/at-many-carly-fiorina-events-her-super-pac-covers-the-costs/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">do all the things</a> usually associated with a campaign, from staging to voter information-gathering, which her <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/fiorina-super-pac-tests-legal-limits-campaign-coordination-n428056" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">meager campaign staff</a> lacked the manpower to do. Staff from each entity would communicate, go out for drinks, and their work would intermingle. One expert called the extent of the overlap “extraordinary.”Flores herself was a staffer at the Super PAC who coincidentally ended up migrating to the campaign, which was definitely in no way coordinating its activities with the Super PAC. Ever the loyal underling, she would insist to the press it was all perfectly legal, while winking at the very obvious game being played. She praised the Super PAC’s work in emails (“from what we continue to see, Carly for America has been building one of the strongest ground games in the field”) and said things like, “We’ll continue doing our thing, but we’re thrilled that they’re doing theirs.”All the while, Flores displayed the kind of casual disregard for the truth that makes for a quality political operative, but a lousy news editor. She would put out statements like <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151221172641/https:/medium.com/@CarlyFiorina/some-thoughts-as-we-drive-through-south-carolina-today-1034db9a50ad" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">this one</a>, which, besides doubling down on Fiorina’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/30/carly-fiorina-anti-abortion-video-fundraising-irresponsible-medical-experts" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">irresponsible use</a> of the misleading Planned Parenthood “sting” video, played other games with the facts. Flores defended Fiorina’s frequent claim that she went “from secretary to CEO” — meant to evoke a rags-to-riches story that ignored Fiorina’s wealthy, well-connected parents, as well as the fact that she only worked as a secretary as a temp job before graduate school — by explaining that, yes, technically she once worked as a secretary, and then later she became a CEO. She waved away <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/21/carly-fiorina-hp-ceo-business-record/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">criticisms</a> of Fiorina’s poor business record by claiming the executive had doubled her company’s revenues, something a <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2015/05/fiorinas-selective-record-at-hp/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">number</a> of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/upshot/fiorina-grew-hewlett-packards-sales-but-not-its-profits.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">critics</a>pointed out was only true because of a 2002 merger with another company. In fact, the company’s overall profits declined.It’s this kind of commitment to painstaking accuracy that no doubt put Flores on the radar for “the most trusted name in news.”</section><section class="po-cnsection po-wpsection" id="ch-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin-top: 4em; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); font-family: Antwerp, serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="po-cnsubhead po-wpsubhead" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4em; font-size: 31px;">The Trump Pivot</h1>Once Fiorina was out, Flores jumped to Ted Cruz’s campaign, where, as a frequent MSNBC talking head, she proceeded to savage Trump while denying he was a real Republican, calling him an authoritarian who “loves executive power.” As late as June, when asked by Willie Geist if there was “any chance he can bring you around,” Flores replied, “No.”But somewhere between those appearances and the election, Flores presumably remembered she wanted a job in GOP politics. Her media talking points subtly shifted, dropping the attacks on Trump in favor of attacks on Hillary Clinton and cautious praise for things like the “wonderful job” Trump had done “sounding more like a politician,” or the way that he “speaks from the gut.” When Steve Kornacki asked her if Trump’s erratic behavior would prevent him from expanding his base, Flores pivoted to talking about “a weakness of the last eight years of the Obama administration” and of Clinton. “The Trump voters that I know are talking about how he’s highlighted the failures of this administration,” she said.On another, August 18 appearance on Chris Hayes’s show, Flores was asked about Trump’s decision to hire former Breitbart editor <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/bannon-trump-muslim-travel-ban-breitbart-generation-zero" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Steve Bannon</a>, widely viewed as the mastermind behind Trump’s campaign, and a “white nationalist” who had made Breitbart into what he <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">called</a> “the platform for the alt-right.” Flores quickly played down Bannon’s role in the campaign and talked up who she called “by far the best surrogate for the Trump campaign,” Kellyanne Conway. “Steve Bannon basically came on as a senior adviser, but Kellyanne Conway, as far as we’ve been told, is running the ship,” she said.There were other highlights from this period. Flores rightly complained about the way Democrats refused to accept Trump’s victory, before asserting that “we didn’t have recounts in 2008, saying that it was John McCain’s election and Barack Obama took it from him.” Chris Hayes pointed out this was exactly the argument underlying the birther movement, and the GOP’s successful assault on ACORN. To be fair, it’s hard to know if this is outright dishonesty or simply ignorance.On Bill O’Reilly’s show, she claimed Obama’s retaliatory expulsion of Russian diplomats was an attempt to “throw dust in the eye of the transition team” because “Donald Trump will come in and do what he promised, which to undo all of these disastrous regulations, policies, foreign policy in particular.” She declared that Obama’s legacy was as a “foe to Israel,” a common right-wing talking point based on the handful of times Obama ignored the dictates of that country’s prime minister, but one <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israeli-settlements-grew-on-obamas-watch-they-may-be-poised-for-a-boom-on-trumps/2017/01/02/24feeae6-cd23-11e6-85cd-e66532e35a44_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">completely</a> <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/obama-hands-israel-largest-military-aid-deal-history" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">divorced</a> from reality.All of this makes sense. Flores is a career operative who knew she would return to her industry once the campaign was over, and she subtly modulated her on-air talking points to comport with the GOP campaign. The trouble is, she’ll be in the exact same position while she coordinates CNN’s campaign coverage.</section><section class="po-cnsection po-wpsection" id="ch-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin-top: 4em; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); font-family: Antwerp, serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="po-cnsubhead po-wpsubhead" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4em; font-size: 31px;">Defending the Indefensible</h1>After prostrating herself before Trump, Flores was allowed to serve as the spokesperson for Trump’s new attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Her job was chiefly defending Sessions against any and all criticism.When Sessions came under fire for his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/12/02/jeff-sessionss-comments-on-race-for-the-record/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.190bf28fcbe4" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">long</a> <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/jeff-sessions-attorney-general-trump-islamophobia-breitbart-horowitz/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">racist</a> history, Flores dismissed the accusations as a “smear.” Even as <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/civil-rights-groups-blast-jeff-sessions-record" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">civil rights groups</a> uniformly came out against Sessions, and NAACP members were arrested protesting his nomination, Flores waved away criticisms as “false portrayals” that were “tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited.” When 1,140 faculty members from 171 law schools wrote to oppose his nomination, she called it “just business as usual for the same far-left academics who trot out letters opposing just about any conservative or Republican.”Flores proceeded to dishonestly defend a broad range of Sessions’s actions. When the city of Chicago pushed back on his attacks on sanctuary cities, Flores made the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/doj-chicago-police_us_5876f814e4b03c8a02d57615" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">easily</a><a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/08/actually-chicagos-sanctuary-city-policy-makes-it-safer/536085/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">debunked</a> claim that sanctuary policies lead to higher crime. She <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/politics/immigration-attack-terrorism-nyc/2017/12/12/id/831228/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">claimed</a> that “chain migration” was a terrorist threat (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/06/chain-migration-is-not-bringing-floods-of-terrorists-to-america/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">it’s not</a>) and that the system had to be changed to bring in “people with the highest likelihood to flourish in this country.”Trump’s Muslim ban, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40129190" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">she said</a>, was “well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism.” The Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-cooks-terror-stats-for-bogus-immigration-argument?ref=author" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">report</a>that attempted to link terrorism to immigration had been worked on by Sessions’s office, with Flores <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-bypassed-dhs-analysts-to-produce-bogus-terror-report" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">s</a>uggesting she herself played a role. “For those of us who were actually involved, this story is as bizarre as it is fictional,” she said in response to a <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-bypassed-dhs-analysts-to-produce-bogus-terror-report" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">story</a>alleging that the Department of Homeland Security hadn’t been involved.Other <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/contradictions-resistance-trump-sessions-rule-of-law" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">notable actions</a> by Sessions while Flores served him include his monstrous family separation policy (“The AG has been clear: We do not want to separate families,” Flores <a href="https://wtvr.com/2018/06/21/jeff-sessions-changes-tone-on-family-separations-at-the-border/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">later said</a>, even though Sessions had been <a href="http://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">very clear</a> about his intentions) and his war on journalism. Sessions tripled the number of leak investigations, and after threatening to start subpoenaing reporters, seized a journalist’s email and phone records. Now his loyal spokesperson will be driving news coverage.Flores may not have any news experience, but she does at least arrive at her position with CNN with media contacts. After lamenting in 2016 that she “couldn’t see how [Trump] moves away from the Breitbart audience,” Flores appeared to cultivate her own contacts with the outlet.According to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/oip/page/file/1097871/download" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">emails</a> released by the Department of Justice, while Sessions was in the middle of a controversy around potentially perjuring himself, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak asked Flores, “Can I help?”“Anything you can do to push back on the absurdity,” she replied. “Forwarding you our stuff so far.”The result was <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2017/03/01/jeff-sessions-fake-news-washington-post-misquote-used-target/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">this Breitbart piece</a>, presenting the Justice Department’s talking points. “Let me know if there is more I can do,” Pollak told her.</section><section class="po-cnsection po-wpsection" id="ch-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin-top: 4em; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); font-family: Antwerp, serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="po-cnsubhead po-wpsubhead" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-repeat: no-repeat; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4em; font-size: 31px;">It’s Always Been This Way</h1>For those keeping track at home, Flores is an anti-Trump GOP operative who knowingly skirted the lines of campaign finance rules and played with the truth to help her clients, before quickly dropping her opposition to Trump, humiliating herself to join his administration, and eagerly disseminating his preferred talking points once he was the one paying her. CNN, a news channel presented by both Trump and itself as the leading arm of journalistic opposition to his administration, has now hired her to run their election coverage for the next two years, presumably before she spins back through the revolving door to become a full-time party hack again.We shouldn’t be angry at Flores for her lack of principles. That’s what being a party operative is about: to fudge, dissemble, and obfuscate for the purpose of benefiting your client, who in her case has been the GOP. Rather, we should be angry with CNN, which, like much of the establishment media, feels the constant need to kowtow to the Right for the sake of viewpoint diversity, even as its bylines are almost entirely devoid of commentators anywhere to the left of Hillary Clinton.CNN’s media correspondent, Brian Stelter, defended the hiring <a href="https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1097996114022842369" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; cursor: pointer; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">because,</a> “love it or hate it, political insiders have been joining newsrooms for decades.” That news outlets have simply internalized this as normal is exactly the problem.</section>
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/cnn-quietly-backtracks-from-its-huge-mistake-of-hiring-a-republican-campaign-strategist-as-an-editor/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/cnn-quietly-backtracks-from-its-huge-mistake-of-hiring-a-republican-campaign-strategist-as-an-editor/</a>When CNN announced they would be hiring Republican campaign strategist Sarah Isgur as an editor, it triggered a firestorm. Media experts were <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cnn-taps-spokewoman-for-republicans-including-cruz-fiorina-and-sessions-to-direct-politics-coverage-2019-02-20?link=sfmw_fb" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">stunned</a> at the decision, Democrats <a href="https://splinternews.com/cnn-has-to-promise-dems-it-will-keep-its-newly-hired-go-1832778011" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">demanded</a> that she not be given any role overseeing or participating in their presidential debates, and even <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/extremely-demoralizing-cnn-reportedly-baffles-staffers-after-hiring-an-ex-trump-administration-flack-to-run-politics-coverage/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">newsroom insiders</a> were reportedly baffled and “demoralized” by the decision.<div class="p1_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To staunch the criticism, CNN <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cnn-taps-spokewoman-for-republicans-including-cruz-fiorina-and-sessions-to-direct-politics-coverage-2019-02-20?link=sfmw_fb" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">promised</a> that Isgur would not have a role in editorial policy, instead working as one of several people coordinating television and online content. Then, on Friday, Isgur announced that CNN was abandoning her appointment as an editor altogether, and will instead bring her on as a political commentator:[twit]Flores previously worked on campaigns for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and later served as spokesperson for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. She has no experience in journalism or editing. She is also a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/19/18231993/cnn-gop-operative-2020-election-coverage" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">strident partisan</a> who has compared abortion to gun violence, engaged in conspiracy theories about Planned Parenthood, falsely claimed that job losses under President Barack Obama’s first term were 92 percent women, dismissed the idea that climate change poses a national security risk, and attacked news cites for reporting that President Donald Trump claimed Obama wasn’t born in the United States. She was also highly critical of CNN itself, blasting it as the “Clinton News Network.”<div class="p6_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It is normal for cable news to hire conservative personalities as commentators, as Isgur will now be. But putting a partisan campaign strategist with no journalistic background in the chain of editorial decision-making is extremely rare and hard to defend. There are plenty of conservatives CNN could have hired who are actually qualified as editors — to name one example, they could have hired any of the people put out of work <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/12/14/18140925/weekly-standard-trump-media-shut-down" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">when the Weekly Standard shut down</a>.<div class="p7_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the end, CNN took seriously the criticism and responded. And with any luck, the decision will preserve public confidence in their newsroom.
<header style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article--header" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"><h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.3em;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-revolving-door-between-media-and-government-spins-again-with-cnns-hiring-of-sarah-isgur-flores-112159" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">revolving door between media and government spins again with CNN’s hiring of Sarah Isgur Flores</a></h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-j-socolow-458258" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Michael J. Socolow</a>, University of Maine</div></header><div class="content" data-raw="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CNN has just announced it has hired a former Trump administration official to help direct political coverage. A storm of criticism ensued. But political hacks have long found a home in journalism.</div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/extremely-demoralizing-cnn-reportedly-baffles-staffers-after-hiring-an-ex-trump-administration-flack-to-run-politics-coverage/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/extremely-demoralizing-cnn-reportedly-baffles-staffers-after-hiring-an-ex-trump-administration-flack-to-run-politics-coverage/</a>Ac<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-staffers-demoralized-by-hiring-of-gop-operative-sarah-isgur-to-oversee-2020-coverage/?via=twitter_page" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">cording</a> to The Daily Beast, CNN staffers are angry and disheartened by the news that Republican strategist Sarah Isgur was hired as political editor for the network’s coverage ahead of the 2020 presidential election:<div class="p1_10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;">The hiring was met with a negative internal reaction, especially because many CNN staffers have been largely left in the dark on the controversial decision. While other marquee hires are often announced internally, as of Tuesday afternoon the company has not circulated any guidance to staff about Isgur’s new role, leading employees to wonder how much of a role she will have in day-to-day political reporting.<div class="p2_10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“It’s extremely demoralizing for everyone here,” one network editorial staffer told The Daily Beast.<div class="p3_10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“People are generally confused,” another editorial employee said, adding that the decision to hire a partisan operative for an editorial position comes off as “very bizarre.”<div class="p4_10" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div></div></div></blockquote>Isgur has previously <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/19/18231993/cnn-gop-operative-2020-election-coverage" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">advised</a> several right-wing campaigns and organizations, including a Ted Cruz Senate run and Carly Fiorina’s 2016 presidential campaign. She most recently served as a spokeswoman for the Justice Department under former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a job for which the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ready-shoot-aim-president-trumps-loyalty-tests-cause-hiring-headaches/2018/04/29/7756ec9c-4a33-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1d3546f0a018" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reported</a> she pledged her loyalty to the Trump agenda to get.<div class="p5_10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One key thing missing from her résumé, however, is any experience in journalism.She has also been a consistently reliable right-wing partisan. Vox reported that on <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/19/18231993/cnn-gop-operative-2020-election-coverage" style="text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Twitter</a>, she has called President Barack Obama “the new Nixon,” compared abortion to gun violence, spread conspiracy theories about Planned Parenthood, lied that “92 percent of jobs lost in Obama’s first term belonged to women,” scoffed at the idea that climate change is a national security threat, and attacked the media for pointing out that President Donald Trump pushed Birther conspiracy theories. She has also repeatedly attacked CNN itself, calling it the “Clinton News Network” and attacking them for correctly reporting that an event hosted by a <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/values-voter-summit-whose-values" style="text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">right-wing hate group</a> is “anti-gay” and “anti-abortion.”<div class="p7_10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CNN is, of course, no stranger to hiring controversial far-right personalities. The network hired Jeffrey Lord, a Trump surrogate who they had to dismiss after he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/business/media/jeffrey-lord-fired-trump-cnn-nazis.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tweeted a Nazi slogan</a>, and Kayleigh McEnany, who has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2017/02/22/cnn-contributor-falsely-claims-transgender-inclusive-bathrooms-are-utilized-some-men-be-predator/215427" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">claimed</a> transgender civil rights empower sexual predators.<div class="p8_10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">But the difference is, these people were hired as commentators, to give their own opinions — for better or worse — in overtly political debate segments. It is <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-staffers-demoralized-by-hiring-of-gop-operative-sarah-isgur-to-oversee-2020-coverage/?via=twitter_page" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">extremely rare</a>, The Daily Beast noted, for a news network to hire a political operative with no background in journalism as an editor. (CNN disputes the idea that she will steer editorial decisions, <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1098029622200098820" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">telling</a> Vox’s Aaron Rupar that Isgur “is not leading, overseeing, or running political coverage” and will simply be “helping to coordinate coverage across TV and Digital.”)<div class="p9_10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The dissatisfaction by CNN staffers is a sign that the hire threatens to embarrass the network and undermine its credibility.<div>===</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>