EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG ABOUT THE DC PRESS CORPSE

George Conway went on the Cretin News Network this morning and got into an argument with Republican turd-polisher Scott Jennings on Kasie Hunt’s show. Among other things, George said:

"I mean, if you don't want to be found guilty of falsifying business records as a felony, don't sleep with the porn star, don't lie about it, don't pay her off, don't cover up the payoff, don't cover off the payoff in the middle of a presidential campaign."

"If you don't want to be indicted for overthrowing the Constitution, don't start a self-coup. If you don't want to be indicted for stealing classified documents and obstructing justice, don't take the classified documents. When the government asked for it back, give them back. If the FBI serves you with a search warrant, don't hide the documents and don't lie about it and don't have your lawyers lie about it. This isn't that hard. Donald Trump is not the victim here!"

After Conway was through eviscerating the Republican defenses of Convicted Felon Donald Trump’s felony conviction, Jennings replied that Trump's convictions would only help him politically, since they were done at the behest of a Democratic New York prosecutor.

George was not having any of that, arguing that Jennings' response is an example of everything wrong with the current Republican Party and the conservative movement as a whole.

"This is the problem with the Republican Party: They are suffused with lies. I don't know why this network is paying Scott to say those lies."

At this point host Kasie Hunt - who I would never have accused of being the brightest bulb in the drawer when she was at MSNBC - finally managed to speak up.

What did she say?

She chided Conway for calling Jennings a liar on live TV.

Yes! She did! She said, "You can’t say that. Scott is our colleague and we're going to treat him respectfully as such!"

Conway shot back with the last word: "Well, he shouldn't lie!"

And with that George Conway - who I have come to respect for his ability to see the problem (being married to it at the time must have helped), and to act on that, talking the talk and walking the walk - perfectly demonstrated the essential problem of the D.C. Press Corpse.

Kasie Hunt is just fine working with a professional liar, and will defend him as a “fellow colleague” who should be “treated respectfully” as a colleague. Scott Jennings probably went to the same or similar east coast institutions of higher learning that Hunt did, and “speaks the lingo.” It’s certain he shows up at the same parties she does. Why, he’s “one of the crowd.”

And THERE is the problem. It doesn’t matter that Scott Jennings’ job is to polish the turds that regularly fall out of Convicted Felon Donald Trump’s diapers, that his purpose in coming on Kasie’s show is to misinform, to blow smoke up her skirt, and to try and convince the viewers the up is down and in is out and day is night. He’s her friend! He’s a good guy - probably a master at self-deprecating humor, and certainly good with snark about “all those people.” All those people being the people Scott Jennings doesn’t want Kasie Hunt to take seriously.

Scott Jennings is a political propaganda manipulator. He is not a “fellow journalist” at CNN, he is not committed to trying to inform the public - hell, his job is the fucking OPPOSITE!!

If Kasie Hunt wanted to actually do her job as the journalist she claims to be, she would question Jennings’ every word, and would fact-check him in real time on the show. Other CNN presenters seem to have developed the ability to do that over the past several months; it’s not hard to do. But Scott is Kasie’s buddy, and you don’t do such nasty things to a friend, embarrassing them in public over their statements. He’s just the “other side” of the argument, whatever it is. “Scientists say world is round - others disagree.” And the “others” must be taken seriously in the name of “balance.” No matter what they say about the Earth being flat.

This sort of thing isn’t just found in the work of second-raters like Kasie Hunt. All of political Washington D.C. is a small town, where people come to know and like each other because they’re all members of the same club - the people who are always around, regardless of which administration is in the White House. Upsetting them means they won’t come on your show any more, won’t take your calls, won’t give you a tip over cocktails at the next DC salon.

When one of the club members decides - as George Conway did - to rip down the curtain and pay attention to the man standing behind it, rather than ooh and ah over the really amazing show on the main stage that the man behind the curtain is operating, the response from the overpaid sheep is “Why is he so mean to Scott? Scott’s a really nice guy!”

And that is why the Cretin News Network is the Cretin News Network, desperate to climb out of the hole they’re in, where they’re attracting fewer than 50,000 eyeballs cumulative through prime time every night last month from “the money demographic” (i.e., viewers 24-54, the ones with bank accounts). They’ve got to start showing a profit, so that the intergalactic widget-maker David Zaslav can sell CNN to the first rube who walks around the corner who still believes in the “relevance” of cable news. And hopefully Kasie will be able to keep her job this time, like she didn’t over at MSNBC.

With a few notable exceptions like Nicolle Wallace, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Chris Hayes at MSNBC, and Christiane Amanpour at CNN, I could tell a similar story to Kasie’s for any of the rest.

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