This is CNN

After decades of platforming the most virulent racists in America, it's time to recognize CNN for what it is

I didn’t watch the rally CNN produced and broadcast for Donald Trump, because why would I? We all knew exactly what this was going to be, right?

And sure enough, things played out exactly the way they obviously were going to play out. Trump was awful; the Republican crowd CNN assembled cheered for his awfulness; CNN reporters told other reporters (off the record) how awful it was; Trump henchmen crowed about how helpful it was for him; a lot of people complained that CNN hasn’t learned anything at all from their previous promotion of Trump. There was a 100 percent chance of all of that happening. The predictability of it all is just so damn boring, even by the standards of cable news. Or it would be, if we had the luxury of being bored by something so dangerous.

Anyway, the part I want to focus on is the CNN-hasn’t-learned-anything part, because I think it’s a complete misdiagnosis of the situation. The people making decisions at CNN aren’t absolute morons. They know that if they put him on air he’s going to spew hatred and lies. They know if they put him on air surrounded by a crowd of Republican voters, his hatred and lies will be met with cheers. These are not difficult things to know, and there is zero chance decision-makers at CNN do not know them.¹

The problem isn’t that CNN hasn’t learned anything. The problem is that this is who CNN is and what CNN wants to be.

A partial list of people CNN has employed over the years:

Pat Buchanan, one of the most noxious bigots in modern American history and a man who was praising the likes of Adolf Hitler and David Duke back when Republicans generally avoided doing that (in public.)

Glenn Beck, a shameless right-wing huckster and racist who was Q before Q

Tucker Carlson, the worst person²

Lou Dobbs, long primetime’s preeminent immigrant-hater — and the racist uncle of the birther movement

Jeffrey Lord, a D-list right-wing bigot CNN eventually fired for using a Nazi slogan on Twitter

Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager who CNN hired after he assaulted a reporter.

Kayleigh McEnany, who CNN hired as a college student after she posted racist tweets about Barack Obama.

Rick Santorum, famous anti-gay bigot and misogynist who CNN eventually fired for mocking native Americans

Newt Gingrich, who CNN hired after he called Barack Obama the “food stamp president” and said Black people are “satisfied with food stamps.”

I don’t know if that’s really a saying in Germany, but I do know that if a news company keeps hiring racists, and keeps promoting a racist’s rallies, you got a racist news company.³

That’s bad enough. What’s worse is that Democrats are unlikely to hold it against them.

YouGov released a poll this week in which they asked respondents if they think various news companies — 45 in all — are trustworthy. Here are the results for CNN, broken out by party and by 2020 vote:

Among Biden voters, a total of 61 percent say CNN is trustworthy and only 9 percent say CNN is untrustworthy. Only 17 percent of Trump voters say CNN is trustworthy while 71 percent of Trump voters say CNN is untrustworthy.

And nothing that happened tonight is likely to change any of that. No matter how many racists CNN hires and platforms and promote, no matter how many Trump rallies it produces and airs, Republicans are not going to start liking CNN. And apparently there’s nothing CNN can do to alienate Democrats.

When will CNN learn? Probably never. This is who they are; this is who they want to be.

When will Democrats learn to start judging CNN accordingly?

1. That didn’t stop CNN from posting an article just a few hours before the event claiming it was part of a Trump effort to reach out beyond his voters and behave like a traditional candidate. This wasn’t ignorance; it was bullshit.

2. No link necessary for this one, right?

3. This does not mean everyone who works at CNN is racist. Some are certainly appalled and angry about CNN broadcasting a Trump rally. I have sympathy for them — jobs in the news industry don’t grow on trees, and giving one up isn’t easy — but this is who they work for.