How To Get Your CNN Contract Renewed: Sexism, Anti-Muslim Rhetoric, McCarthy-Like Smears

Just-Renewed CNN Analyst Jeffrey Lord Pushes Smears That The Network Once Demanded An Apology Over

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord has spent the past five months attacking ethnic and religious minorities, defending sexism, and pushing inaccuracies that necessitate corrections from colleagues. After all of that, CNN just rewarded him with a new contract.

Washington Post writer Erik Wemple reported on January 4 that CNN “recently re-upped Lord's deal, extending him through the end of 2016, Lord tells the Erik Wemple Blog.”

CNN hired Lord as an on-air analyst in August 2015 -- a puzzling decision given his recent body of work and relative obscurity. Lord did once serve as a Ronald Reagan's political director nearly three decades ago. But he has lately been confined to the fringes of the Internet as a contributor to NewsBusters.org and a contributing editor to The American Spectator, an outlet that peaked during the Clinton administration and is now exclusively online after publishing its last print edition in 2014.

Lord's most notable recent work prior to Trump cheerleading had been publishing a series of bizarre and “profoundly ahistorical” articles claiming that an African American relative of former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod -- who was the focus of a 2010 smear campaign by conservatives -- wasn't actually lynched. Lord's commentary was so idiotic that his own colleagues disowned it and were “rendered speechless.”

Prior to his hiring, Lord was apparently not really on CNN's radar. According to Nexis' archives of CNN transcripts, before 2015, Lord appeared on CNN just once as a guest in 2009 and was cited once in 2007.

So what changed? As PennLive reported, Trump -- who has frequently tweeted praise of Lord, received an American Spectator award from him, and communicated and met with the pundit -- “likely helped Lord get his job at CNN,” complaining that “the network only featured commentators who didn't get him”:

And while he made it clear that he in no way works for Donald Trump, it was the billionaire who likely helped Lord get his job at CNN. Lord said Trump complained to CNN execs that the network only featured commentators who didn't get him, so CNN asked The Donald who in the world of conservative media he would suggest, and he said Jeffrey Lord, who was by that point a contributing editor of The American Spectator and a columnist for NewsBusters.

“The phone starts exploding from requests from CNN,” he said.

Brian Walsh, who was the National Republican Senatorial Committee's communications director, tweeted that “Anyone involved in national GOP politics for the last 20 years wonders what Jeffrey Lord has been doing since he showed up on CNN for Trump ... Lord hasn't had any role in GOP politics since the late 80's but shilling for Trump gives him a spotlight.”

The Wrap reported in September that CNN producers have “complained about the obsessive coverage the network has given the GOP frontrunner.” Trump has said he thinks he gets “covered better on CNN than I do on Fox.”          

Lord, through CNN, has made his pro-Trump activism pay off. The Post's Wemple wrote that “in one of cable news's more exotic setups, Lord gets paid, essentially, to say pro-Trump things on air. He does it well, too, at least by the standards of Team Trump.” Conservative publisher Regnery will also release a pro-Trump book by Lord this month called What America Needs: The Case for Trump.

Lord's CNN tenure has mirrored the Trump's campaign's penchant for sexism, anti-Muslim and anti-Hispanic claims, and false information. Lord:

  • claimed it's “a simple statement of fact” that America has a “Muslim problem.”
  • falsely claimed that President Obama “never said anything” about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which drew immediate rebukes from CNN colleagues.
  • said “there is in fact a very high crime rate with illegals in this country” -- a claim that was corrected by a colleague and contradicted CNN's reporting.
  • attacked Trump critic and journalist Jorge Ramos for allegedly engaging in “race card playing” even though Ramos is a “blue-eyed, light-skinned” “European Mexican.”
  • defended Trump's sexist attacks on Carly Fiorina, claiming criticism of Trump “is hyper political correctness.”  
  • defended Trump's sexist attacks against Megyn Kelly by calling Trump's critics Nazis and sexists. 
  • claimed Hillary Clinton going to the bathroom during the December Democratic debate was “endemic of her personality.”
  • suggested there are Muslim “training camps” in upstate New York -- a claim that New York State Police disputed.

Lord's recent claim that it's been “documented” by a “reputable” source that top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has “ties” to the Muslim Brotherhood through her family shows how low CNN's standards have fallen in the wake of Trump. 

In 2012, top CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer admonished those pushing the Abedin smears. Blitzer, who Politico noted is “one of the most stoic, unemotional anchors on cable television,” said the charge is “an outrageous, McCarthy-like charge, to be sure” and those who push it “owe Huma -- who I know well -- an apology.”

More than three years later, CNN isn't asking people like Lord for apologies -- it's giving him a contract extension.