Politico did a podcast with Joe Scarborough. Glenn Thrush writes about it…
Scarborough sees the real culprit of Trump-enabling not at his own desk but at a rival network’s – and he related an off-air conversation with Trump about CNN boss Jeff Zucker that he believes to be revealing, and not in a good way. “He and Zucker are very close. Zucker personally calls Trump,” Scarborough said. “[Zucker] books Trump. “And Trumps laughs and calls Zucker ‘my personal booker’ because Zucker will call Trump. He hasn’t said that publicly, but he’s said it. I’ve said it publicly now. Trump will laugh every time Zucker calls.”
Related: Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher sheds further light on the subject…
A source at CNN with direct knowledge tells us that Zucker “personally books all the candidates and big gets, and doles them out to whichever anchor he wants,” adding that individual shows’ producers “are barred from calling our own contacts personally” to book guests like Clinton and Trump.
According to this source, even if a candidate wants to appear on a different show, they are almost always steered to either the network’s Sunday tentpole State of the Union with Jake Tapper, their morning show New Day, or the Anderson Cooper-hosted AC360. “He wants to prop up the Sunday show and the morning show and the 8 pm show,” the source says.
Talk about micromanaging…
Filed under: CNN, MSNBC
