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CNN Dumps Contributor After She Signs On with Conservative Outlet

By Joe Setyon September 5, 2019 at 9:46am

CNN has opted not to renew the contract of a White House reporter and contributor to the network who’ll be taking over as editor in chief of a conservative news outlet.

BuzzFeed broke the news Wednesday that Eliana Johnson, a top White House reporter at Politico, would be taking charge of newsroom operations at The Washington Free Beacon, a right-leaning news site.

“I want to build on the excellent work the Beacon has done and continue to train serious reporters who have a conservative outlook and an irreverent sensibility,” Johnson told BuzzFeed.

Looking forward to my new gig, very grateful for my three years at ⁦@politico. https://t.co/HCJJQfn60U

— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) September 4, 2019

“The focus has been and will continue to be on scoops and original reporting,” she added.

Later that day, CNN told BuzzFeed that it would not be renewing Johnson’s contract as a contributor when it expires in November.

The network claimed the decision was made because she no longer will be specifically covering the White House.

“CNN has a right to tap or drop contributors at any point,” Johnson said in response.

Do you buy CNN's explanation for why the network dumped Johnson?

“None of us is entitled to a contract renewal,” she added.

Johnson is set to take over from The Free Beacon’s current editor in chief, Matthew Continetti, who is also the site’s founding editor.

“She’ll be a fantastic leader for WFB’s mix of original reporting and irreverent humor,” Continetti wrote on Twitter.

I’m happy to announce @elianayjohnson will become @FreeBeacon editor in chief at the end of September. She’ll be a fantastic leader for WFB’s mix of original reporting and irreverent humor https://t.co/08ap1ZEY3i via @buzzfeedben

— Matthew Continetti (@continetti) September 4, 2019

Continetti will be joining the American Enterprise Institute’s Social, Cultural and Constitutional Studies’ research division as a full-time resident scholar.

CNN, meanwhile, has claimed it tries to be ideologically diverse, or at least have people on the network who represents various political views.

“You can’t run a news channel and you can’t do a show if you don’t talk to all sides,” network president Jeff Zucker told The Hollywood Reporter in April.

But Johnson is not the only conservative-leaning personality whom CNN appears to have dumped.

“Former Georgia congressman Jack Kingston and Andre Bauer, a former South Carolina lieutenant governor, who are both right-leaning, did not have their contracts renewed,” National Review reported.

“Meanwhile, neither Trump campaign surrogate Steve Cortes nor Republican analyst Ben Ferguson has been seen on the network in months,” it said.

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Tags:

CNN, Establishment media, Liberal media, Media bias

Joe Setyon

Deputy Managing Editor, Editorial

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Joe Setyon was a deputy managing editor for The Western Journal who had spent his entire professional career in editing and reporting. He previously worked in Washington, D.C., as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine.

@JoeSetyon

Joe Setyon was deputy managing editor for The Western Journal with several years of copy editing and reporting experience. He graduated with a degree in communication studies from Grove City College, where he served as managing editor of the student-run newspaper. Joe previously worked as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine, a libertarian publication in Washington, D.C., where he covered politics and wrote about government waste and abuse.

Birthplace

Brooklyn, New York

Topics of Expertise

Sports, Politics