CNN Fails To Disclose That Contributor Jason Miller Is Still Advising Trump

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

In a May 18 interview, CNN anchor John Berman failed to disclose that contributor Jason Miller, who formerly was a top communications aide to President Donald Trump during his campaign, is advising Trump once again, even asking Miller what he would do if he was “still advising him officially.” Politico reported  on May 17 that Miller “slid back into the president’s group of advisers” and that he “has visited the White House multiple times and regularly talks with Trump by phone.” The report also noted that he is now one of Trump’s “favorite surrogates and informal advisers.” CNN hired Miller after Trump spent months trying to delegitimize the network and repeatedly called it “fake news.” Berman failed to mention this reporting, instead asking Miller to give hypothetical advice to Trump.

From the May 18 edition of CNN’s CNN Newsroom:

JOHN BERMAN (CO-HOST): Jason, if you were still advising [President Donald Trump] officially, would you tell him that tweets like this the morning after a special counsel was appointed are a good idea?

JASON MILLER: Well, good morning. I would tell the president that to do this once, I think, is good to remind people that there is a bureaucratic state that's never going to stop attacking the president and leaking information. But after putting this out once, that's all he needs to do. The president and the administration needs to focus on this foreign trip that's coming up and those core messages of taxes, trade, immigration, defeating ISIS. These are really the core principles that the president ran on and won this past fall in a decisive victory. There's great news that the administration is making, and he doesn't need to keep talking about this.

BERMAN: Would you warn him to steer clear of anything that sounds like criticism of [special counsel] Robert Mueller himself?

MILLER: Well, I think what the president is probably speaking to, and I obviously have not discussed this with him directly, is this broader double standard that we saw from the previous administration and the lack of following up on some of these things. And then now what we're seeing where a number of these, like I said, the deep state and the administrative state that are constantly going out there and trying to undermine this president in a way that we've never seen previously.