CBS Admits Hiring Former Trump Official Was About Getting ‘Access’ To GOP

Leaked audio from CBS reveals the real reason why they decided to hire former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney: It was all about getting access to Republicans. This isn't uncommon for media outlets, as many tend to hire former Pentagon officials for the same reason, but the Mulvaney drama has left an unpleasant taste in the mouths of both CBS staffers and viewers, given his work with Trump. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

A leaked recording from CBS news executive shows exactly why the corporate media is complete and total garbage. You have CBS co-president, Neeraj Khemlani, I'm hoping I pronouncing that correctly, but either way, Khemlani was pronounced, I'm sorry, was caught on tape explaining to everybody at CBS, why they decided recently to hire former Donald Trump chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney and the answer is just as stupid as you would expect. Here is what Khemlani said on the tape. Being able to make sure that we are getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over most likely in the midterms. A lot of people that we're bringing in are helping us in terms of access to that side of the equation. Your job as a media outlet to report the news is not about access, right?

Investigative reporters, they need access, right? They need sources. They're the ones out there doing the real work. All you do at CBS is bring people on for friendly little interviews for your Sunday morning shows. You don't need access for that. You know what you need? A producer with a long list of contact people. I mean, hell, over the years, 18 years now, we've been able to get pretty much any member of Congress that we wanted on Ring of Fire. You know how we did it? We emailed them or we called their office. Pretty, pretty easy stuff. You don't need to hire this disgusting Trump's sycophant who not only admitted that Trump did horrible things while in office, but then continued to defend them. You know, saying that Donald Trump's phone call with president Zelensky of Ukraine was inappropriate and out of line, and then literally defending it with your next breath. That is what Mick Mulvaney did. And now he's got a cushy job at CBS because they want access to Republicans.

You're a major outlet with a massive audience for your Sunday morning talk shows, you, you don't have to worry about access. You can, you can get the people that you want. It's actually fairly easy to do. If you'd like to reach out to me, I'll explain to you in about three minutes how you do it because it's not hard. I was doing it when I was 21 years old, still in college with no experience in this field whatsoever. If I could do it back then, your people could certainly do it now for a professional news outlet. You don't have to hire these disgusting bottom feeders in order to get that done. But of course this shows what the corporate media's all about. It's all about access. Why do you think these networks go out and hire, you know, these former defense department officials? You know, these people that make these horrendous decisions that go out there, kill civilians all over the planet. Next thing you know, they're getting hired by CNN and MSNBC, right? John Brennan, all these people and they do it because they want that access.

They want somebody who may know somebody who may know somebody else who's gonna spill the beans on something. So maybe they can get that breaking story because they don't have real investigative reporters anymore. Now, back in the day, that's how you did it. It wasn't about access. It was about having people go through the right channels to get the information so you could expose it on the air. But today it's all about ratings and access equals ratings. You wanna bring on a Republican who might understand it's not a friendly venue? Well, we gotta hire some of their own and make it seem.