EXPLAIN SOMETHING, JAKE

What is it about CNN that turns decent journalists into slobbering, corporate ass-kissers?

When I was told over a year ago that I would be attending CNN’s “townhall” on the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I knew it would neither be a journalistic endeavor nor a genuine townhall meeting where anyone would be permitted to speak. CNN’s own title said it all: “Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action.” So this was an advocacy event, not a journalistic undertaking, which makes the Walter Cronkite Award the news channel received last week for the program utterly undeserved. 

The producers, a couple of whom I’ve known from other networks, seemed nervous. So did Jake Tapper, who approached me in the greenroom to thank me for participating – but who also seemed sheepish about the format, which unfolded with Scott Israel speaking onstage for about a half-hour before the televised event began.