Nolte: Everyone at CNN Serviced the Zucker-Gollust-Cuomo Affair
Disgraced former CNN chief Jeff Zucker’s inappropriate relationship with Allison Gollust proves just how ethically compromised everyone is at the far-left outlet.
Just for starters, they all knew!
Everyone at CNN knew of what we now know was an open secret.
This isn’t about Zucker cheating on and leaving his wife for another woman. No one cares about his personal life. But in this case, his sidepiece also happened to be the very same person who worked her way up to CNN’s number two spot. Good grief, there was even serious talk of Zucker moving on at the end of 2022 and the sidepiece taking over as his replacement.
I know, right?
Apparently, we’re supposed to believe that the woman willing to take a bald, middle-aged gnome into her bed just so happens to be the best person for the job.
Come on.
What’s that, a coincidence, a merit-based promotion?
Oh, yeah, I’m sure Jeff and Allison built a Chinese wall between the bedroom and boardroom because if CNN is known for nothing else, it’s how goddamned ethical everyone is.
So everyone at CNN knows Zucker’s sidepiece is not only climbing the ranks but on the verge of taking over, and … no one says a word. No one even leaks anything. This breathtaking conflict of interest is condoned by everyone at CNN through their silence.
On top of that, no one at CNN said anything — not Wolf Blitzer, not Anderson Cooper, not Jake Tapper — when CNN’s media reporter Brian Stelter smeared Radar Online, the outlet that finally broke the news of the affair. Stelter smeared a media outlet for reporting the truth, and Blitzer, Cooper, Tapper were just fine with that.
But if you want to know just how willing CNN staffers were to whore out their credibility, to do Zucker’s bidding, it goes way beyond covering up the affair and remaining silent as those who told the truth were smeared…
Let’s connect the dots, shall we?
Allison Gollust is not just banging the boss. Allison Gollust is tight with disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY). Before she went to work for Zucker at CNN, she worked as Andrew Cuomo’s communications director.
Stay with me here…
So Gollust is tight with Andrew Cuomo. She goes to work for Zucker, and immediately upon grabbing hold of the CNN reins in early 2013, one of Zucker’s first decisions is to hire Chris Cuomo, the little brother of Gollust’s former boss.
Imagine that!
Here you are, a governor filled with presidential ambition, and now your communications director (who was already super-chummy with Zucker going back a decade wink-wink-nudge-nudge-know-what-I-mean-know-what-I-mean) is working for the top guy at a cable news network, and that top guy just happens to hire your little brother to anchor what was, at the time, supposed to be the jewel in the Zucker’s crown: the New Day morning show.
Oh, but then your little brother proves to be a total failure. New Day’s ratings are an embarrassment.
What now?
What now?
Well, in a merit-based world, Chris Cuomo would have been demoted or fired. But when you are Andrew Cuomo’s little brother, and you work for the guy banging Andrew Cuomo’s former communications director, what happens is this: Little Brother Chris is allowed to fail upwards into a primetime perch.
This is happening, and no one at CNN says a word. Not a peep. Not a sound. Everyone knew what was going on. Everyone knew about the dots that connected Zucker to Gollust to Andrew Cuomo to Chris Cuomo, and everyone at CNN allowed Chris to fail upwards into a primetime perch without so much as a tweet, a protest, or a leak to a rival news agency.
Democrats sure got it good…
Oh, and that’s not even the worst of it…
Remaining silent is one thing. Joining the Zucker-Gollust-Andrew Cuomo orgy is something else entirely…
Between 2019 and 2020, everyone at CNN, every anchor, and reporter voluntarily whored out their souls to Andrew Cuomo.
Cooper, Tapper, Blitzer, Camerota, Stelter, Keiler, Lemon, Berman… They all spent a year dismissing and covering up Andrew’s Cuomo’s pile of serial scandals — sexual and otherwise. They all spent a year mythologizing Andrew Cuomo as America’s Governor. They all spent a year positioning Andrew Cuomo as a president-in-waiting to take down Trump.
Knowing all about the Zucker-Gollust-Andrew Cuomo connection, every big name at CNN still whored out their integrity and journalistic credibility to spread truckloads of misinformation in service to this jaw-dropping corruption. And this network-wide corruption to boost Andrew Cuomo undoubtedly contributed to ruining forever the CNN brand, which is now a basement-rated punchline.
They’re all tainted by this sleazy affair, all of them, they all participated, the entire network…
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
REMINDER: CNN Is a Clown Network Run By Creeps
Disgraced president Jeff Zucker's resignation yet another humiliation for low-rated entertainment channel
CNN president Jeff Zucker abruptly resigned on Wednesday after failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a subordinate. The relationship, which appears to have been an open secret that may have precipitated Zucker's divorce, was uncovered as part of the company's internal review of disgraced former anchor Chris Cuomo's tenure at the scandal-plagued network.
In an email to CNN staff, Zucker acknowledged a "consensual relationship" with executive Allison Gollust, who was Zucker's "key lieutenant for the last two decades," according to the network's media desk. Gollust was one of the first people Zucker hired upon joining CNN in 2013 and also worked with Zucker at NBC for nearly 15 years. Zucker's former colleague, Katie Couric, discussed the unusually close relationship in her 2021 memoir, Going There.
"At a certain point Jeff made a huge push to bring on Allison Gollust. … They were joined at the hip," Couric wrote. "I had to wonder why Jeff was angling so hard to bring Allison on board. She and her husband and kids had moved into the apartment right above Jeff and [his then-wife] Caryn's—everyone who heard about the cozy arrangement thought it was super-strange."
Gollust's marriage reportedly ended nearly a year before Zucker announced his divorce in 2019. On at least one occasion in 2017, the pair was observed bickering like a married couple at a cocktail party for media elites. Zucker reportedly used his influence in the industry to keep the affair from becoming public until now. "He's too powerful and holds grudges," a friend of Zucker's told Radar Online. "Everyone knows about it in business, and he's persuaded people to avoid it."
Zucker's resignation and the scandal surrounding it is yet another humiliating episode for the low-rated entertainment channel, which has struggled to attract viewers since President Joe Biden's inauguration. If CNN was pulling in the same numbers it did during the Trump administration, when the network went all out confronting Facebook grannies for posting problematic memes, Zucker's indiscretion would almost certainly be overlooked.
The announcement further vindicates CNN's critics, who have long alleged that the network is not a legitimate news channel that deserves to be taken seriously. On the contrary, according to its myriad critics, CNN is a creepy clown network run by creeps and clowns. For example:
Jeffrey Toobin returned to CNN in June 2021 as the network's chief legal analyst. Seven months earlier, Toobin was fired by the New Yorker for masturbating in front of his colleagues on a Zoom call. CNN could easily have promoted a person of color to replace Toobin, but Zucker wanted to give his friend a second chance. Before the public masturbation scandal, Toobin was best known for knocking up a colleague's daughter, pressuring her to get an abortion, and denying paternity after the child was born.
CNN fired Chris Cuomo in December 2021 after the primetime host was found to have advised his brother, disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo (D., N.Y.), in an effort to smear one of several women accusing the governor of sexual harassment. Several weeks after Andrew resigned in August 2021, Chris was credibly accused of sexual harassment by a former colleague, Shelley Ross, who said the younger Cuomo squeezed her butt in front of her husband. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CNN host routinely violated journalism ethics by conducting inane interviews with his own brother.
Michael Avenatti, one of the most celebrated guests across all CNN programming in 2018, was ultimately exposed as a fraud and convicted of several felonies. Avenatti is currently serving time for attempting to extort Nike and is also on trial for stealing $300,000 from his porn star client, Stormy Daniels.
CNN's Anderson Cooper introduced Avenatti to the book agent who unwittingly helped him commit the theft. Cooper described the obvious charlatan as "a dynamic, energetic guy." Meanwhile, CNN's Brian Stelter was asserting that Avenatti was a "serious contender" to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. Stelter, who is best known for his courageous reporting on former president Donald Trump's spelling errors, continues to lament the lack of public trust in the media.
CNN's Don Lemon, who hosts one of the lowest-rated shows on television, once invited Avenatti to a party at his mansion in the Hamptons. Speaking of which, Lemon is fighting a lawsuit filed by a Hamptons bartender who claims the CNN host sexually harassed and assaulted him in 2018. Speaking of alleged sex crimes, two CNN producers were busted late last year for sexually inappropriate behavior involving underage girls. John Griffin, who spent years working "should to shoulder" with Chris Cuomo, was indicted by a federal grand jury for attempting to "induce minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity."
Bill Weir doesn't get a lot of attention as CNN's chief climate correspondent, but he's just as much of a clown as his more prominent colleagues. In 2020, for example, Weir published a deranged letter to his son, River, who was "conceived in a lighthouse." The journalist apologized for bringing the boy into a world befouled by climate change and corporate greed. Months later, Weir refused to apologize after deploying a common misogynist trope in a Twitter tirade against a female politician.
Jim Acosta, the thirstiest man in showbiz, finally got his own show on CNN after years of heckling Trump as a member of the White House press corps. Acosta has used his platform to deliver some of the most cringeworthy one-liners and comedy zingers in the history of television.
Published under: Anderson Cooper, Brian Stelter, Chris Cuomo, CNN, Don Lemon, Jeff Zucker, Jeffrey Toobin
CNN’s Anderson Cooper Introduced Michael Avenatti to Book Agent at Center of Porn Star Fraud Trial
'He said he was a dynamic, energetic guy'
CNN's Anderson Cooper introduced Michael Avenatti to the literary agent who is now a key witness in Avenatti's fraud trial, in which the onetime Democratic frontrunner stands accused of stealing money from porn star Stormy Daniels.
Luke Janklow, the agent who arranged a lucrative book deal for Daniels in 2018, testified on Monday that Cooper introduced him to Avenatti, who was serving as the porn star's lawyer at the time. "He said he was a dynamic, energetic guy," Janklow said of Cooper, his friend since childhood.
Janklow, heir to the Warner Bros. fortune, and Cooper, a Vanderbilt scion, were just a couple of rich kids growing up in New York City who would occasionally get "reprimanded" by police for setting off fireworks in Central Park. The pair attended the prestigious Dalton School on the Upper East Side.
Cooper was among the CNN personalities who gave Avenatti almost unlimited airtime in 2018 to say mean things about President Donald Trump. They even hung out together outside of work. For example, the porn star lawyer was spotted cavorting with a number of CNN celebs at a Hamptons soiree hosted by anchor Don Lemon. Brian Stelter, the network's chief misinformation watchdog, once argued Avenatti was "a serious contender" to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
After Cooper facilitated the introduction in March 2018, Janklow worked with Avenatti to secure an $800,000 advance for Daniels's book, Full Disclosure, in which she detailed her alleged affair with Trump. Janklow, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, was responsible for disbursing the advance, which was divided into four installments.
Prosecutors allege that beginning with the second installment payment, Avenatti directed Janklow to send the money to an account he controlled. When Janklow requested authorization from Daniels, the attorney provided a fraudulent letter "signed" by Daniels, who was unaware of the arrangement. Avenatti then used the money to cover payroll expenses at his law firm, and on personal travel expenses, as well as the $3,900 monthly lease payment on his Ferrari.
After Daniels asked where her money was, Avenatti used personal funds to pay the porn star the second installment she was owed and subsequently persuaded Janklow to wire the third installment into his account several weeks before it was due. He proceeded to spend almost all of it, while repeatedly lying to Daniels about why she hadn't been paid. For example, he told her the publisher (St. Martin's Press) was "resisting making the third payment due to poor sales," insisted he was "working them and threatening litigation," and urged her not to contact Janklow or the publisher directly.
Avenatti had stolen nearly $300,000 by the time Daniels and Janklow grew wise to the fraud scheme in February 2019. Over the next several months, Avenatti was charged with multiple counts of defrauding Daniels and other clients, as well as attempting to extort Nike to the tune of $25 million. He was convicted of the latter charge in July 2021 and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
While most well-adjusted human beings instantly and accurately assessed Avenatti to be a deranged charlatan, members of the mainstream media saw him as a "dynamic, energetic guy" with a message the American people urgently needed to hear. Years later, they remain flummoxed as to why public trust in the media continues to plummet.
WATCH: That Time the Media Dubbed Michael Avenatti ‘Savior of the Republic’
Ted Cruz Goes on Gleeful, Emoji-Filled, Twitter Tear Mocking CNN after Zucker Resigns: ‘The Most Busted Names in News’
By Craig Bannister | February 2, 2022 | 4:05pm EST
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) went on a fun-filled, emoji-laden Twitter tear Wednesday, reacting to news that CNN President Jeff Zucker had resigned in disgrace in the latest scandal-prompted departure from the network.
In a series of tweets, Cruz employed emojis, ranging from “grimacing face” (2) and “man facepalming” to “down pointing backhand index.”
As NewsBusters reports, Zucker has resigned after an improper relationship with a female co-worker came to light:
“On Wednesday morning, CNN president, longtime overlord, and puppetmaster Jeff Zucker resigned effective immediately from the failing, far-left network after nine years over what he called “a consensual relationship with my closest colleague” with fellow CNN executive Allison Gollust that he had failed “to disclose...when it began.”
“It turns out he was screwing CNN’s viewers,” Sen. Cruz observed in his first post, retweeting a Hot Air post of the news.
Cruz then got creative, tweeting a graphic titled “THE MOST BUSTED NAMES IN NEWS,” featuring pictures of the resigned Zucker, current CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin (previously suspended and fired for exposing himself on Zoom), and fired CNN Host Chris Cuomo (ethics violations).
“Damn good question,” Cruz then commented, retweeting a Twitchy headline: “Megyn Kelly and Soledad O’Brien say the Zucker relationship was an ‘open secret.’ So, where were Brian Stelter and other media journos this whole time?”
Sen. Cruz followed up by retweeting a post by news satire website, The Babylon Bee: “CNN Quietly Resets 'Days Since An Employee Committed A Sex Crime' Counter Back To Zero”
Cruz’s only comment on the post is an emoji, described as “down pointing backhand index.”
The senator’s next two posts featured the “grimacing face” emoji, as he retweeted two observations about CNN, relating to Zucker’s resignation:
- A Washington Post journalist reporting “Joy Behar begins ‘The View’ awkwardly: ‘You all saw the news. Whoopi will be back here in two weeks. Ok.’ And then the show moves on...” and
- A Daily Wire tweet declaring that “CNN Chief Zucker Resigns Two Days After Brian Stelter Sneers Over People Trusting Joe Rogan More Than CNN.”
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