Colby Hall: CNN’s Predictable Hire of Adam Kinzinger Shows How Politicians and Media Work ‘Hand-in-Glove’

When former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger was picked up by CNN just hours after his time in office ended, it was more of a ‘go figure’ moment than a surprise, argued Mediaite’s Colby Hall with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert this week.

CNN has had a host of Republicans on air this week, obviously because Republicans failing to coalesce around a Speaker for the next House session has been the biggest story in politics rather than for any ideological reasons. They brought on Kinzinger as a new contributor the same week, although as a dissenter in his party who was on the January 6 committee that, too, isn’t especially ideological, as Hall and Vittert discussed on Thursday.

But it does, Hall notes, speak to the trope about how “the political side and the media side are working hand-in-glove.”

Hall also pointed out that it’s just about the on-air hires. The conversations that are going on behind the scenes between journalists and politicians are the real story, he said.

LELAND VITTERT: Now he admits he’s on the team. Frequent CNN guest, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, is now paid CNN political contributor Adam Kinzinger, which is fine. Everybody’s got to make a living. But this happened mere hours after Kinzinger left Congress, virtually assuring he was in negotiations for big money with CNN while we, the taxpayers, paid his salary as a congressman to lecture us about truth, justice, and the American way on CNN.

ADAM KINZINGER: When I went to Sunday School, it was always about telling the truth.

ADAM KINZINGER: Truth cannot coexist with lies. Truth cannot coexist with falsehood.

ADAM KINZINGER: You cannot unify with that. You’re supposed to try to unite even in divisive times. You’re supposed to, you know, encourage people’s better angels.

ADAM KINZINGER: It’s now up to every American now and in the future to stand for truth, to reject the lies wherever we confront them in our towns and our capitals and our friendships and our families and at the ballot box.

LELAND VITTERT: Of course, Kinzinger isn’t the only one to negotiate for his next job while allegedly serving the people and taking our money. Jen Psaki briefed from the White House podium during negotiations with NBC. Symone Sanders also left the Biden White House and announced an MSNBC contract with shocking swiftness. Same thing with Kayleigh McEnany when she went from Fox News, to Fox News from the Trump White House. Colby Hall is here On Balance, resident philosopher, founding editor of Mediaite, America’s premiere website for the news about the news, Colby. Look, reasonable people can agree this is business as usual. Does that make it right?

COLBY HALL: You know, I don’t know that it makes it makes it wrong. I mean, it’s fascinating. I think it’s very revealing. I think this is where the truth is laid bare here. Right. Like a moth to a flame. Adam Kinzinger went to CNN, and I’m not even sure who’s the moth and who’s the flame in this instance. I think, you know, the real story here is that CNN can say that they brought out a conservative voice.

But if you look at Kinzinger, you know, he’s just barely across the median stripe of where he is politically, and that’s the game. Like they added a conservative, like arguably the least conservative conservative on the dial. And by the way, the same thing happens on Fox News. You know, Harold Ford is is ostensibly their liberal pundit and he’s just barely across the line also.

But, you know, this, this plays into every trope that politicians and people that work in DC, they’re really just driving for a gig in the media. And this this certainly plays that trope to be true. So, you know, good for Adam Kinzinger, good for CNN. But, you know, I’m not sure that we’re going to hear anything new from from him on CNN.

LELAND VITTERT: Yeah, everybody. Everybody’s got to make make a dollar. Alright think about it. Kinzinger. Left Congress January 3rd, 2023, arrived at CNN as a paid contributor, January 4th. Did CNN owe it to viewers to be fair? A disclosure of ‘hey, this is Congressman Adam Kinzinger. He’s here. And by the way, we’re in negotiations with his agent for him to join after he leaves Congress.’

COLBY HALL: Well, if they consider themselves sort of true followers of the sort of accepted standards of journalism, the answer is absolutely yes. But as I’ve said to you a few times, it’s not really journalism that CNN is doing. It’s news that’s, it’s entertainment that’s packaged as news.

And to your point, if you go back to the sort of the leaks that came out of the J6 committee over the last year or month or so. Well, gee, I wonder I wonder where they came from and it’s okay to leak. There’s nothing illegal here. It just it just proves this sort of I don’t know, this idea that very often the political side and the media side are working hand-in-glove. And that happens across the spectrum.

LELAND VITTERT: Yeah. Especially when when there’s that much money involved. It’s surprising, not surprising where the leaks came from and where they went to. At this point, though, do we have to assume that there are certain television networks that are effectively much more a political apparatus than they are a journalism apparatus?

COLBY HALL: Well, absolutely. I mean, I mean, you look in particular I think I think it’s fair to say that Fox News and MSNBC are at opposite ends of that spectrum. And CNN is trying really, really hard to move back to the middle, though I haven’t really seen any evidence yet to date that shows that’s the case. They’ve had a lot of Republicans on air over the last week or so because the Republicans have dominated the news cycle with the speakership chaos. But yeah, I mean, look, Jen Psaki, as you said, and Symone Sanders, they went straight to MSNBC as quickly as they can.

LELAND VITTERT: Right. And Kayleigh went to Fox. I mean, I remember I remember when the Fox had to announce that they’d paused negotiations with her during the January 6 riots when she was the one who was the White House press secretary. It was pretty sort of remarkable.

COLBY HALL: And talent is the least of it. I mean, it’s the ongoing back channel conversation that we saw with Sean Hannity, with President Trump when he was in office. And the same exact thing, I don’t know if it happens with President Biden, but I guarantee you that there are individuals in the White House who are in ongoing conversation, whether it was Jeff Zucker in the past or Chris Licht now, you know, there’s, it’s a conversation that happens off the record that’s way more interesting and doesn’t get packaged in messaging on cable news for us to consume. So I think it’s you know.

LELAND VITTERT: That’s a that that is a that’s a the the off camera part is a fascinating point I hadn’t thought of, it is much more important. And you can imagine right now, as everything is happening right with the speakership, the discussions that are happening with news executives and the respective political camps of how to spin what’s happening in D.C.

Watch the clip above, via NewsNation.

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