Is Avenatti using Stormy to wage a political war with Trump?
Liberal media gush over Stormy Daniels's attorney. Former Bill Clinton adviser, Mark Penn, gives his take.
One of the reasons liberal journalists hate the term “fake news” is that it undermines their ability to intimidate Americans into the notion that the “news” is whatever journalists decide it is. They think Americans can’t see their agenda, or understand implicitly that the “news” often represents how the media want information organized and where they want the political discussion to go.
In the Trump era, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to intuit that the liberal news media want President Trump removed from office. They can’t wait until the next election in 2020. President Trump needs to be dumped. It’s why the network evening news shows have aired about 1,500 minutes since Inauguration Day trying to pin down their theory that the president colluded with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary Clinton.
As that well has gone dry, the media have switched to the $130,000 hush-money payoff in October 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had a one-night affairs with Donald Trump in 2006 (a claim he denies).
Since Daniels is not what one might call a “character witness” against Trump – in part because of her profession and in part because she took money to shut up and then talked all over TV – the porn star’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has become almost omnipresent on television news shows.
On Wednesday morning, Rich Noyes and Bill D’Agostino of the Media Research Center reported that from March 7 to May 15, Avenatti has been interviewed on national television an amazing 147 times. By dinner time, CNN and MSNBC each added another interview.
On Wednesday morning, Rich Noyes and Bill D’Agostino of the Media Research Center reported that from March 7 to May 15, Avenatti has been interviewed on national television an amazing 147 times. By dinner time, CNN and MSNBC each added another interview.
More than half of those interviews (now 74) were on CNN, which almost certainly makes Avenatti the most ubiquitous guest in CNN’s history. MSNBC is close behind with 58 segments.
On May 3, MSNBC interviewed Avenatti seven times. CNN’s "Anderson Cooper 360" and MSNBC’s "The Last Word” with Lawrence O'Donnell were the most smitten with Avenatti, interviewing him the most of any programs (20 times in the case of Cooper, 16 in the case of O’Donnell).
CNN's “New Day” with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota came in third with 13 interviews, just beating out “CNN Tonight” with Don Lemon and MSNBC's “Deadline: White House,” which hosted Avenatti 12 and 11 times, respectively. The porn star’s lawyer only made one stop on Fox News, with Shannon Bream back on March 20.
Perhaps the most shocking interview was with Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” on CBS, when Cooper dared to tell viewers Avenatti used to work for Democratic operative Rahm Emanuel, who worked for President Clinton in the White House and who is now mayor of Chicago.
“I haven’t done anything political in 20 years,” Avenatti claimed. Not only was this a lie – he donated to a pile of Democrats from 2004 to 2006, including three presidential candidates – this whole Stormy Daniels campaign is transparently political.
Cooper said: “You’re talking about deposing the president. That sounds political.”
Avenatti shot back: “No, it sounds righteous.”
But don’t blame Avenatti. He’s merely trying to perform the same Jedi mind trick as the liberal media. He claims his is not political, just righteous, working for democracy and seeking out facts.
In one of his many appearances on CNN, Avenatti last week boasted to his new buddy Anderson Cooper that the media’s over-generous donation of airtime was helping him: “There’s been some criticism about our media strategy and how often I’ve been on CNN.... Here’s the bottom line, Anderson. It’s working. OK? It’s working in spades.... Because we’re so out front on this, people send us information. People want to help our cause.”
CNN and MSNBC and their liberal colleagues are obviously the main reason why the porn star and her lawyer have been able to use a crowd-funding site to raise about a half-million dollars to fund their anti-Trump lawsuits, with thousands of anonymous donors citing the Avenatti interviews as they make their gifts.
“I watch all the TV interviews you do. You are both so amazing and I am rooting for you every day!!!!” one donor wrote to Avenatti on the site, Crowdjustice.com.
It's always amusing to tune in to CNN and the other liberal networks and remember they used to be outraged that candidate Trump said he might not accept the election results. After all this time, the No. 1 Trump scandal is that he somehow emerged victorious in 2016 despite all their punishing carpet-bombings of "news."