Once again it is only wrong when others do it.

Yesterday, it was revealed that FoxNews had formalized a contract with Lara Trump to be a regular contributor. The announcement was made by the family member and campaign worker on the Fox & Friends broadcast, and it did not go unnoticed by the news channel’s biggest fans over at CNN. Brian Stelter caught the segment, leading to his commenting on the decision.

Fox is now directly paying the Trump family — specifically Lara Trump https://t.co/nGUbDs9nvx

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 29, 2021

Also diligently on the case was Stelter’s cohort, his Boy Wonder, Oliver Darcy. Ollie commented on the hiring in the Reliable Sources newsletter, displaying dismissive contempt for the partnership. 

Oliver Darcy writes: “A member of the Trump family is now officially on the Fox payroll. The right-wing channel announced Monday that it had signed Lara Trump as a contributor. Lara has been a constant on Fox for years now, even joking during her first segment as an employee that ‘I sort of feel like I’ve been an unofficial member of the team for so long.’ That Fox would hire Trump poses an ethical dilemma beyond the inherent dishonesty in her commentary.

Hmmm, it seems that the media experts at CNN are bothered by a network that hires family members of politicians. These journalists, after all, seem to find an ethical problem with a news network entering into a business agreement that could be viewed as a conflict of interest or, worse, providing an ethical dilemma for what is supposed to be an unbiased source of news.

I would be curious to hear Chris Cuomo’s opinion on the matter.

Yea, I appear to have been writing in error there, as Stelter and Darcy do not seem to find problems and fail to see the dilemma in such a hiring when it occurs under their own roof. 

Here is the truth. It has long been a concern seeing former and even current operatives from administrations joining on with news outlets to serve a journalistic position. There is a validity to some of it, if they are appearing in a guest capacity to lend some insight into the inner workings of D.C. — much like former players and coaches lending color commentary on sports broadcasts. 

The issue is when they acquire full-time slots in more of a news capacity. But this goes both ways, and CNN feigning some type of outrage here is rather hilarious. David Axelrod has been a fixture at the network. Jim Sciutto has become CNN’s chief national security correspondent after working in the Obama administration, and he is hardly alone. John Kirby serves as the channel’s military analyst, Valerie Jarret’s daughter serves as their justice reporter, despite no prior journalistic work. Van Jones still has plenty of airtime on the network.

As for ethical dilemmas, CNN is really unbothered by them in-house. James Clapper signed on as an expert analyst — after he was suspected of leaking from his position as Director of National Intelligence. He was found in some intel reports of having spoken to Jake Tapper about details with the infamous Steele Dossier. Andrew McCabe was signed following his firing from the FBI, and there have been numerous other names from The Bureau hired on as well. 

When it comes to former Democrat officials there is also something of a revolving door at CNN. Former Obama administration figures Tony Blinken and Jen Psaki had to quit their CNN gigs in order to rejoin the Democrats in the White House. Think Brian and Ollie — the Unambiguously Biased Duo at CNN — are concerned over the ethical issues with their network and all of the tendrils connected to the administration?

Hardly. The very fact that Andrew Cuomo was allowed on the air repeatedly to be stroked by his brother over his heroic response to the pandemic shows the lack of concern they harbor on the matter of integrity. Burnishing the image of a predatory governor who was committing policy atrocities was pure journalistic malpractice, but Stelter and Darcy are more hysterical over what Lara Trump’s hiring might lead to. It is performance deflection.