OPINION:
If you’re a journalist in Washington, D.C., the quickest way to get a promotion is to be aggressively combative with President Donald Trump’s administration.
How else can you explain CNN hiring American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan as a political analyst?
The Wrap confirmed Ms. Ryan’s hiring on Monday. Ms. Ryan has made a name for herself taking on the Trump administration.
Last month, Ms. Ryan got in press secretary Sean Spicer’s crosshairs after asking how the Trump administration was looking to “revamp” its image amid its suspicious ties with Russia. Mr. Spicer told Ms. Ryan to stop shaking her head at him — which the mainstream media immediately took as a racist and sexist comment.
After the exchange, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told a women’s’ group in California: “April Ryan, a respected journalist with unrivaled integrity, was doing her job just this afternoon in the White House press room, when she was patronized and cut off trying to ask a question.”
The hashtag blackwomenatwork started trending. Salon wrote that Mr. Spicer owes Ms. Ryan an apology. Twitter went crazy, with commenters saying Mr. Spicer needs to learn some respect, and that he’s “obnoxious.”
Three days ago, The New York Times wrote a feature on Ms. Ryan with the headline: “For April Ryan, clashes with the White House bring a new kind of prominence.”
She first gained notoriety when President Trump in a press conference asked her to arrange a meeting with him and the Black Congressional Caucus.
“Does [Trump] think that all black people know each other and she’s going to go run off and set up a meeting for him?” Jonathan Capehart, The Washington Post opinion writer, told The New York Times. “When she is belittled, she rises above it.”
It all seems a bit overly dramatic to me. Mr. Spicer is known for his combative presence with the press; Ms. Ryan, if she’s truly an equal, shouldn’t garner any special treatment just because of her race or gender. That would be demeaning.
But, she’ll help CNN along with their anti-Trump line-up. On Monday, the network announced that Lisa Monaco, former homeland security and chief counterterrorism adviser to former President Barack Obama, was added as its senior national security analyst; and former Obama State Department spokesman John Kirby was named as CNN’s military and diplomatic analyst.
This is all in addition to Laura Jarrett — Valerie Jarrett’s daughter — being brought on by the network to cover Mr. Trump’s Department of Justice in January.
Nothing like a solid group of anti-Trump reporters to add to CNN’s anti-Trump reporting. Objectivity in journalism seems to be something of the past.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.