Yesterday, our Tim Graham called out the New York Times' double standard when it came to the paper's descriptions of Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon. The former "Gray Lady"—now the home of red-hot wokeism—branded Carlson "far right." But when it came to Lemon, the Times merely called him "fiery," and "spiky," with no mention of his consistently left-wing views.
That same sort of double standard was on display at CNN itself today. In a CNN This Morning segment on Fox's firing of Carlson, repeated mentions were made of an alleged culture of misogyny and sexism at his show.
Fair-'n-balanced journalistic standards would have made it incumbent on CNN to discuss serious allegations of sexism and misogyny against its own fired host, Lemon. But not a peep about Lemon's transgressions out of his former co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, or from CNN media reporter Sara Fischer. The focus was exclusively on Carlson's alleged misdeeds.
However Carlson might have transgressed respectful norms, it would appear to have occurred behind the scenes. In contrast, Lemon unleashed some of his feminist-frown material on the air, for all to see and hear.
Thus, Lemon explained away the higher pay for members of the US men's soccer team compared to that of the women's team, despite the women having more success, by claiming that the men are "more interesting to watch."
And Lemon notoriously claimed that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is not in her "prime" because she is 51 years old. Lemon thus earned himself the dubious distinction of being the only cable news host to be rebuked for sexism by an Oscar winner in her acceptance speech!
And then there is the Variety investigative article, "Don Lemon’s Misogyny at CNN, Exposed," which detailed several other alleged incidents.
During the segment, CNN played a clip of Nicolle Wallace's interview yesterday of Abby Grossberg, a former producer on Carlson's show, who is suing Fox News over bullying, antisemitism, and sexism she allegedly endured while working on the show.
During the interview, Grossberg accused Carlson and executive producer Justin Wells of "breaking me. And making my life a living hell."
The only two incidents Grossberg cited to Wallace in support of those claims was that in the show's offices, posters of Nancy Pelosi in a bathing suit were displayed, and that she had been asked if Maria Bartiromo, on whose show Grossberg had previously worked, had an affair with Kevin McCarthy. Not the most outrageous allegations imaginable, but, but Poppy Harlow was impressed, responding with a "wow." Fischer touted she allegedly has "90 tapes" of evidence.
CNN This Morning making repeated mentions of allegations of sexism and misogyny against Tucker Carlson, without mentioning similar allegations against Don Lemon, the show's former host, was sponsored in part by Verizon, Ring, and La Quinta.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
4/26/23
6:34 am EDTPOPPY HARLOW: New this morning, the Wall Street Journal, obviously owned by the same parent company as Fox News, is reporting that Tucker Carlson's disregard for management and his vulgar messages about colleagues were a big factor in Fox News' decision to part ways with its prime time host.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned paper reports that in that Dominion defamation lawsuit, Fox's lawyers thought they were telling Carlson good news. They persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time when Carlson called a senior Fox News executive the c-word. But apparently, Carlson wasn't impressed. He told his colleagues he wanted the world to know what he said about that executive in a private message.
And this report comes on the heels of an interview given by Abby Grossberg, a former Fox producer, who's suing Fox now over what she described in the lawsuit as a "sexist, hostile work environment" at Tucker Carlson's show.
ABBY GROSSBERG [in interview with Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC]: Tucker, and his executive producer Justin Wells, who was also fired, really were responsible for breaking me. And making my life a living hell. So, there is a feeling of justice, but it's only partial.
[In answer to the Wallace's question as to when the hostile environment started for her.] Immediately. I show up, first day of work. And I know that this is a popular one. It's been widely publicized.There are literally pictures, like, this big of Nancy Pelosi, in a bathing suit in Europe, plastered all over.
Within a few days, I was called into Justin Wells' office with Alex McCaskill, who was a senior producer as well. And, asked if Maria [Bartiromo] was having an affair with Kevin Mccarthy! It was just -- I was shocked. I couldn't even believe it.I was floored.
HARLOW: Wow. She says she has 90 tapes. CNN media analyst Sarah Fischer joins us now, also media reporter for Axios. That was a very long, long, in-depth interview. What is the biggest take away?
SARA FISCHER: The biggest take away is that she has 90 tapes. Which is a huge deal, because obviously the legal fallout from her lawsuits, the two complaints filed in March, is still ongoing. So the more evidence out there, that's a big deal.
I think, she detailed about the culture of misogyny at the show matters a lot. Because part of what she is alleging in these filings is that it was a culture of misogyny, etc. that was rampant throughout the show and the network.
