I am certainly not in the business of praising competitors, but sometimes things are just so rotten that I can't help myself from speaking up. See the headline below.
That headline is designed to send you the subliminal message that CNN's head, Jeff Zucker, is giving Trump special treatment on his network in exchange for $150k. If you think CNN's coverage of Trump is imperfect in any way, it is not because of this contribution.
Trump sent his kids to this school so it is not weird that this rich man -- Trump -- gives money to the school. It was his foundation and it is unclear whether Trump even knows his foundation gave this money.
And as a parent of students at this school, it is not unusual for Zucker's wife to be actively engaged in the school. Good for her! More parents should be active in schools.
Not only is this headline an unfair smear of Zucker (and thus CNN), it risks discouraging people from giving money (here, Trump) and volunteering (here, Mrs. Zucker). Is that really what we want? I think not.
As we do our jobs in journalism, we need to use good judgment. Not everything should be turned into a gotcha or an implied gotcha.
The personal ties between Donald Trump and Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of CNN, extend beyond the reality TV hit they created together into a far more personal realm: the expensive Manhattan private school where they have both sent children, and where Zucker's wife was until recently a member of the board.
Trump's foundation has contributed more than $150,000 over the past three years to the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, a nonprofit school on Manhattan's Upper West Side also known as Columbia Prep. Caryn Zucker is listed as a board member for the school in tax documents covering July 2012 through June 2014.
Zucker has drawn criticism inside and outside of CNN for the cable channel's coverage of Trump, including charges that CNN has turned its platform over to a demagogue and hasn't been sufficiently skeptical of Trump's routine campaign falsehoods. Zucker has brushed off these charges, saying that it's only natural for a political frontrunner to receive outsize attention. Neither party has referred publicly to this family connection.
In February 2015,
Cross-posted from GretaWire.