Hispanic Conservative Who Got Kicked Off CNN Blasts the 'Crisis' of 'Hypocrisy' at America's Major Networks

Brian Stelter

Back in August, RedState’s T. LaDuke asked the following:

Would CNN (also known as the Fredo Network) put a paid contributor on ice for defending President Trump in a safe, honest venue like a Prager University video?

Concerning Steve Cortes, LaDuke’s answer: Yes.

According to various reports around the interwebs, Trump’s 2020 advisory board member and CNN contributor Steve Cortes might have been put on ice from commentary on the network. President Trump has noticed.

Steve’s answer as of this week: Also Yes.

On Monday, Cortes — formerly part of the President’s Hispanic Advisory Council — declared that his tenure with CNN had “just ended.”

He let the cat out of the bag on his eponymous daily radio show, then he took to Fox News to discuss the ousting with Laura Ingraham.

Steve went over the PragerU situation — which regarded the tragic Charlottesville rally — as described by The Daily Caller:

Cortes told Ingraham that CNN had a problem with an August PragerU video where he defended Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” comment regarding the deadly Charlottesville rally. The former CNN commentator argued in the August video that Trump was not speaking about the neo-Nazis who attended the rally.

I addressed that very thing just recently here.

Steve said the Prager clip got him “benched” by the network. But he wasn’t — you should know — surprised.

Here’s what he told Laura:

“Unfortunately, Laura, when you look at corporate media in this country, they have overwhelmingly forsaken journalism in favor of narrative promotion, and the foremost narrative they want to promote about the President is that he is a racist, and that those of us who support him are racist as well.”

On January 15th, the pundit — who’s presently a spokesperson and senior advisor for America First Action PAC — appeared on Salem Radio Networks’ The Don Proft Show, where he gave off even more of that “Mainstream media stinks” vibe:

“In general, CNN, MSNBC, anywhere, print media — it’s unfortunate, I believe, that there’s a real crisis of journalism in this country. Far too many people who are activists and advocates are trying to masquerade as journalists. And that lack of transparency and that hypocrisy, really, has destroyed a lot of trust from the public, rightfully so, in media. And that void of real journalism, I think, is really problematic for our republic. So I’ve always been incredibly transparent. I am an activist, I’m an advocate. I’m trying to persuade people of the American nationalist agenda. A lot of my colleagues in corporate media are similarly activists, and yet they pretend to be reporters and anchors. And I think, you know, therein lies the sort of systemic problem that unfortunately plagues a lot of so-called journalism today.”

But he did throw CNN one bone: