Bombshell Video: CNN Producer Admits Russia Narrative is a Witch Hunt, Good For Ratings
Cassandra Fairbanks
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In a bombshell video released by Project Veritas, CNN Producer John Bonifield is caught on a hidden camera admitting that the network’s narrative about President Donald Trump being involved with Russia is “mostly bullshit,” and admitting that instructions to spread the fake news comes straight from their CEO, Jeff Zucker.
The hard-hitting video comes one day after it was announced that three people resigned from CNN after the network was forced to retract a fake news story based on an anonymous source about Anthony Scaramucci, a close ally of Trump, having ties to a Russian investment bank.
Speaking generally about the Russian hysteria, which is heavily peddled by the network, Bonifield admits that they do not have any “giant proof” of wrongdoing.
“I mean, it’s mostly bullshit right now,” Bonifield says. “Like, we don’t have any giant proof.
Bonifield goes on to mock ethics in reporting.
“It’s a business, people are like the media has an ethical phssssss…All the nice cutesy little ethics that used to get talked about in journalism school you’re just like, that’s adorable. That’s adorable. This is a business.”
The network, unlike MSNBC or Fox News, still pretends to be unbiased — yet are quick to point the fingers at others for reporting “fake news.”
“Trump is good for business right now,” he admits.
It doesn’t end there.
Bonifield explains that orders for CNN reporters being ordered to relentlessly cover the “mostly bullshit” Russian narrative comes straight from the top, telling an anecdote about Zucker ordering reporters to keep covering the alleged collusion.
“Just to give you some context, President Trump pulled out of the climate accords and for a day and a half we covered the climate accords. And the CEO of CNN (Jeff Zucker) said in our internal meeting, he said good job everybody covering the climate accords, but we’re done with that, let’s get back to Russia,” Bonifield says.
Bonifield also admits that he believes President Trump is correcting in calling a witch hunt.
“I haven’t seen any good enough evidence to show that the President committed a crime,” Bonifield states. “I just feel like they don’t really have it but they want to keep digging. And so I think the President is probably right to say, like, look you are witch hunting me. You have no smoking gun, you have no real proof.”
In a 2015 post titled ‘What Happened to Journalistic Ethics at CNN?’ by Dr. Timothy Wheeler, the director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, he detailed his experience being interviewed by Bonifield, and how it was immediately clear that he was there to push an agenda and not just get the story.
“Let me say this, CNN, in front of the whole country. Your reporters faked that story today. In a wide-ranging, hour-long interview [Elizabeth] Cohen and Bonifield grilled me, couching their own biases in the form of loaded questions to me. It felt more like being interrogated on a witness stand by two hostile lawyers trying to wring a confession out of me,” Wheeler wrote.
Wheeler added that CNN management should be ashamed, as “these two presented themselves to me as reporters, but are in fact unabashed political advocates.”
Investigative journalist James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has been working to expose the mainstream media for what they are. During a press conference from CPAC in February, he offered a $10,000 reward for content exposing media malfeasance.
“Project Veritas is determined to expose malfeasance, corruption and wrongdoing,” O’Keefe said during the release. “We want to become a destination where citizen journalists can come forward, work with us and make a real impact. That’s why today, we’re announcing a $10,000 reward for anyone that comes forward with legally obtained materials exposing media malfeasance. If you have hidden audio recordings, video tapes or documents inside of a newsroom or media institution–and the material is good enough–I will pay you $10,000.”
Though there is a reward being offered, the latest release came from an undercover journalist — not a leaker, Project Veritas Communications Director Steve Gordon told Big League Politics.
O’Keefe also released 119 hours of secretly recorded raw audio from a source within the Atlanta CNN headquarters at the time of the reward announcement.The recordings, which were released in a Wikileaks style dump, was captured in 2009 by a source identified only as “Miss X.”
Richard Griffiths, who is now CNN’s Vice President and Senior Editorial Director, was caught in those recordings explaining that the role of journalists is to “aid the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” instead of just fairly and accurately reporting the news.
“Tell a story. Tell what’s going on. There’s a secondary corollary to that, right? Aid the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. To a degree, right? Is that not part of the traditional role of a journalist,” Griffiths is heard saying. “It’s actually one of the things I can be most proud of as a journalist. You know we try to show the ugly side of humanity so we can do something about it. It’s hard, very hard.”
Other clips from the recordings included discussions openly speaking about the network’s profound liberal bias.
“To report not on facts, but instead on narratives that yield high ratings, is exactly the definition of fake news,” James O’Keefe said in a press release. “We said we are going after the media, and there is a lot more to come.”
Following their recent scandal over the fake news about Scaramucci, the network has put in place a new set of rules for covering stories about Russia.
“No one should publish any content involving Russia without coming to me and Jason [Farkas],” CNNMoney executive editor Rich Barbieri said in an email to staff.
https://twitter.com/passantino/status/879048446287552512
“This applies to social, video, editorial, and MoneyStream. No exceptions,” the email added. “I will lay out a workflow Monday.”
The video was originally scheduled to be released at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, but was released nine hours early after being leaked.
https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer/status/879566122466631682
O’Keefe told Rebel Media journalist Laura Loomer that the leak was “all part of the plan.”
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