Conservative commentator Scott Jennings sparked a heated debate during a CNN panel after he called X the ‘most ideologically balanced’ social media platform.
Panelists on Monday’s NewsNight guest anchored by Audie Cornish discussed billionaire MAGA darling Elon Musk flirting with the idea of buying MSNBC.
Cornish questioned Jennings on whether or not the billionaire, who will co-head the new Department of Government Efficiency, purchasing media would turn it into propaganda.
‘I mean, is the concern that certain media outlets would become propaganda arms of political ideologies? Don’t we already have that in this country at a large scale? Also, I hear what you’re saying about X, I saw a survey this week, it’s now the most ideologically balanced user platform,’ Jennings said.
CNN contributor Cari Champion interrupted saying, ‘Scott, Scott, stop, it’s too early. I just sat down. I’ve only been here for two minutes, you cannot say that. Who’s the source?’
He replied, ‘We’ve reported on this network.’ Champion said, ‘It’s not accurate and you know it.’
Jennings’s was referring to report from CNN data guru Harry Enten that said X users are made up of an even split of Democrats and Republicans, according to Mediaite.
‘Look at where we are today. Just a completely different picture now. It’s basically split between Democrats at 48 percent, Republicans at 47 percent. And what I should note, Mr. Berman, is this. now, this new overall makeup matches the overall electorate far better and more than that,’ Enten told anchor John Berman on November 19.
Republican commentator Scott Jennings sparked a heated debate during a CNN panel after he called X the ‘most ideologically balanced’ social media platform
Guest anchor Audie Cornish questioned Jennings on if billionaire closely linked to the government purchasing media would turn it into propaganda
Earlier this month, Jennings poked fun at his colleagues for describing President-elect Donald Trump as ‘Hitler’ and a ‘fascist’ during the presidential campaign.
After playing clips of Trump and Biden criticizing each other on the campaign trail, the CNN panel discussed the successful meeting between Biden and Trump at the White House.
Meghan Hays, a former Biden White advisor, said that Biden did not traditionally hold grudges and was ultimately a dignified statesman in the end.
‘I’m shocked,’ Jennings said, holding up a copy of the Wall Street Journal featuring a picture of the two men together. ‘I mean, did you ever think you’d see literal Hitler in the Oval Office – with the President United States?’
‘C’mon, Scott,’ Hays protested.
‘It was the underpinning of the Democratic campaign, that Donald Trump is a fascist,’ Jennings continued. ‘And what I see in this is I’m glad it’s happening … but what it tells me and what it ought to tell Democrats is they didn’t mean any of it. It was all campaign rhetoric.’
After Trump’s landslide election win, CNN chairman and CEO Mark Thompson reportedly hosted an all-hands meeting to tell staff not to obsess over drama surrounding the incoming president for the next four years.
Thompson reminded staff that there are ‘a lot of other stories out in the U.S. and around the world’ and ‘it was clear that audiences were sick of the way the media covers politics’ according to Puck.
‘I’m shocked,’ Jennings said, holding up a copy of the Wall Street Journal featuring a picture of the two men together
He also said he wanted to get more ‘people we don’t normally hear on CNN’ – perhaps alluding to more right-wing pundits like Jennings, who was recently praised by viewers for his commentary on the election which stunned his fellow panelists into silence.
As CNN desperately tries to move away from the constant Trump bashing that has turned viewers off, they announced on Tuesday that darling Kaitlan Collins will resume her old role of Chief White House Correspondent.
It means splitting her time between New York City to host her show The Source and Washington, DC, and returning to her old stomping ground in the White House briefing room.
Collins, who makes $3 million a year, is one of the few CNN success stories of the last few years.
She rose to notoriety during the first Trump administration with bold line of questioning in the White House briefing room.
She and Trump clashed regularly. She was eventually banned from events for her relentless grilling of him about his friendship with Putin.
