CNN and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year

How does disgraced CNN have any viewers left?

CNN and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year

Network’s 2021 mishaps and gaffes go far beyond those of a typical mainstream news organization

By Fox News, December 27th, 2021

CNN had a rough year in 2021 that was filled with embarrassing scandals, ratings woes and uncertainty over the struggling network’s future.

While CNN has long been plagued with liberal bias and is often accused of appearing to present news with an agenda, the network’s 2021 mishaps and gaffes go far beyond those of a typical mainstream news organization.

Story continues below advertisement

CNN has faced embarrassment on multiple occasions over the past few years, from offering disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti regular airtime to its Trump-era pivot away from founder Ted Turner’s just-the-facts approach to news, as the network constantly generates publicity for the wrong reasons. However, the network’s 2021 saw even redder faces as humiliation popped up at every turn.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin returned to the airwaves in June for the first time since his embarrassing 2020 Zoom masturbation incident, thanking the liberal network for not firing him and saying he felt The New Yorker’s termination of him was excessive.

Toobin, who was swiftly fired from The New Yorker last year for his conduct, listened as daytime anchor Alisyn Camerota had the painfully awkward “honors” of describing what happened and its consequences. Toobin was witnessed by colleagues exposing himself and masturbating on a staff Zoom call, leading to widespread ridicule of the veteran journalist.

His return resulted in one of the most bizarre moments in recent cable news history as Camerota asked what he was thinking.

“Well, obviously, I wasn’t thinking very well or very much, and it was something that was inexplicable to me. I think one point – I wouldn’t exactly say in my defense, because nothing is really in my defense. I didn’t think I was on the call. I didn’t think other people could see me,” Toobin said. “I thought that I had turned off the Zoom call. Now, that’s not a defense. This was deeply moronic and indefensible.”

CNN has since used Toobin as a legal analyst as if nothing ever happened.

#BREAKING: Jeffrey Toobin RETURNS to CNN and will continue as their chief legal analyst despite having masturbated on a Zoom call. Speaking to Alisyn Camerota, he explains that he "wasn't thinking very well or very much, and it was something that was inexplicable to me." pic.twitter.com/898T7lbebH

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 10, 2021

CNN’s biggest star first began causing headaches for the liberal network in 2020 when he conducted a series of widely criticized, chummy interviews with his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The siblings would chide each other’s looks and bicker over their affection for their mother, but the CNN anchor also gave the governor a platform to tout his leadership amid the pandemic.

Cuomo was previously barred from covering the New York governor, a rule that was apparently lifted by the network at the beginning of the pandemic and later re-implemented as the Democrat became engulfed in a tsunami of political scandals. There were critics who called out the conflict of interest at the time, but the playful banter between the Cuomo brothers was widely embraced by fans of the governor, many of them members of the media as news organizations praised the Democrat’s response to the pandemic and obsessed over his daily press briefings.

When the calendar turned to 2021, things got worse for the Cuomo siblings when the governor was accused of sexual misconduct by an assortment of women and his baby brother put journalism ethics aside to offer a hand.

The New York attorney general’s investigation that led to the governor stepping down also revealed that CNN’s most-popular host was using his media industry connections to help his brother fight off accusations, all while hiding the truth from both viewers and CNN management.

CNN fired Cuomo as a result and reportedly learned about a sexual misconduct allegation against the anchor himself that was unrelated to the governor’s situation during the probe. It was a separate accusation from that of veteran TV producer Shelley Ross, who penned a New York Times essay in September about an incident where he squeezed her buttock without permission in 2005. At the time, they were ABC News colleagues.

As the calendar turns to 2022, Cuomo – who finished 2021 as CNN’s most-watched host – is no longer employed by the network.

Ironically, CNN’s in-house media pundit Brian Stelter famously declared Cuomo has “boundaries” during an appearance on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” before the anchor was terminated.

One CNN insider told Fox News Digital there was universal relief within the network over his dismissal. The breakup has been acrimonious, with Cuomo reportedly planning to go to court to recoup the rest of the money from his contract.

CNN’s viewership had a brief, post-election spike, but Americans quickly turned off the liberal network once President Biden took office. CNN is now on pace to finish December down a staggering 81% among viewers from the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54 compared to its January audience. CNN has also shed 73% of total viewers over the same time frame.

CNN has failed to surpass the one-million viewer average during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET for eight straight months and is on pace to finish December with its smallest audience of the year among both total and demo viewers.

CNN’s most-popular program in 2021 was the now-canceled “Cuomo Prime Time,” which finished the network’s dismal year as No. 25 among all cable news options. The liberal network’s scandal-plagued 9 p.m. ET host, who was fired earlier this month, finished behind 13 Fox News shows and 11 MSNBC programs despite being CNN’s most-watched offering.

CNN, which relied on bashing former President Trump for much of its content in recent years, averaged over two million viewers during the first three weeks of 2021 but only 690,000 since Biden took office on Jan. 20.

In October, Americans largely ignored a CNN town hall event with Biden when the Anderson Cooper-moderated event finished with a smaller audience than regular programming on both Fox News and MSNBC.

CNN fired longtime senior producer John Griffin in December after he was arrested for shocking sex crimes with young girls.

Griffin, a senior producer for CNN’s long-struggling morning program “New Day,” was affectionately referred to as “Griff” by colleagues until he was charged by a grand jury in Vermont “with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.”

The now-former CNN senior producer allegedly attempted to pay off witnesses, offered a woman $30,000 for a “mother daughter weekend with me,” and told authorities that he was “ashamed” when he was taken into custody after allegedly abusing a 9-year-old girl and enticing other minors.

WarnerMedia, the parent company of CNN, and Discovery are set to merge in 2022 and the biggest question surrounding the multibillion-dollar pact is what the future holds for embattled CNN boss Jeff Zucker.

The past 12 months have been quite the journey for Zucker, as insiders feel the CNN honcho was unhappy reporting to WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who is six years younger than him and more of an expert on streaming than journalism.

In February, Zucker reportedly told CNN staffers he would continue to oversee the liberal network for the remainder of the year but expected to “move on” when his contract expires at the end of 2021.

Many insiders quickly dismissed the news that Zucker would actually walk away from CNN, where his hands-on influence has seen the network radically transform from a straight-news approach to its more liberal, opinion-heavy self today.

Months later, WarnerMedia’s looming merger with Discovery was announced and Zucker’s longtime pal, Discovery CEO David Zaslav, was chosen to run the combined venture while Kilar would be shown the door.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here