Heckenlively Kent - This Was CNN: How Sex, Lies, and Spies Undid the Worlds Worst News Network

Endorsements for Th is Was CNN

Kent Heckenlively and Cary Poarch expose the dark underbelly of CNN, with the shocking truth that describes a fall from grace since the stellar days of the 1980s and 1990s and the abandonment of the noble goals espoused by founder Ted Turner. This book describes the death spiral of Turners grand dream, caused by Jeff Zuckers violation of basic standards of journalism, shadowy relationships with intelligence agencies and an undeclared war on conservative politics. A must read.

Max Swafford, Author, Editor

This book may be about CNN, but its most shocking revelations have to do with the national security apparatus and its suffocating stranglehold on our government and our free press, through the use of social media companies and also through strategically embedded intelligence operatives.

Ryan Hartwig, Facebook Whistleblower

To state the obvious, CNN is far from the most trusted name in news. That tag-line was adopted after the networks meteoric rise in the 1980s as the go-to network for on-the-spot reporting of breaking news and programming featuring lively debates from differing points of view. What happened? How did it become one of the least trusted names in news? Finally, we can learn the answer. It is all here in This Was CNN . Everyone interested in understanding the demise of mainstream American media as sources of truth should read it.

Dennis Prager is the co-founder of Prager University, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and author of ten bestselling books, including most recently, the third of his five-volume commentary on the first five books of the Bible, The Ratio nal Bible .

Heckenlively and Poarch do a deep dive into the cable news giant, revealing an obvious and hysterical bias against conservatives, and the nightmare possibilities of mounting cyber warfare and control by our intelligence agencies. An important book!

Eric Metaxas, #1 New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio host

Heckenlively and Poarch do a deep dive into the cable news giant, revealing not just the bias against conservatives, but the terrifying possibility that they are preparing cyber warfare against their enemies, as well as being controlled by our intelligence agencies. Maybe weve been getting it wrong by calling it fake news. Maybe we should be calling it spook news.

Zach Vorhies, Google whistleblower, author, and Founder of Blastvideo.com

Published by Bombardier Books

An Imprint of Post Hill Press

ISBN: 978-1-63758-626-6

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-63758-627-3

This Was CNN:

How Sex, Lies, and Spies Undid the Worlds Worst News Network

2022 by Kent Heckenlively and Cary Poarch

All Rights Reserved

Cover Design by Matt Margolis

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

To those who hunger for objective, non-biased information.

To act upon ones convictions while others wait, to create a positive force in a world where cynics abound, to provide information to people when it wasnt available before, to offer those who want it, a choice. For the American people, whose thirst for understanding and a better life have made this venture possible, for the cable industry, whose pioneering spirit caused this great step forward in communications, and for those employees of Turner Broadcasting, whose total commitment to their company has brought us together today, I dedicate the news channel for America, the Cable News Network.

CNN founder, Ted Turner, on the networks first broadcast, June 1, 1980

Contents

It was Daniel Ellsberg who once said that to be a whistleblower is to step outside the Great Chain of Beingnot join another religion, but to enter outer space.

Whistleblowers who come to Project Veritas are no longer part of the organization they came from, nor are they employees of the news organization they present their findings to.

They are akin to space walking astronauts who bravely cut their umbilical cord from the mother ship.

To be brave. To do something. To be the answer to the age-old question, What can I do to make a difference?

In our country, to follow your conscience when many are told to sit down or forced to shut up requires an extreme amount of nerve, craziness, or courage. Maybe a bit of all three. It also requires a firmness of constitution and strong centered morality in a world where the center cannot hold.

I met Cary in February 2019, while he was covering the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. for CNN at the time. He approached me while I was signing books to tell me he worked for a 3-letter organization. At first, I thought he meant a federal agencybut would later find out he worked for CNN. He was inspired by something another brave whistleblower had done at Facebook. She had leaked internal documents within Facebook showing they were de-boosting commentary from conservatives on the platformlike Steven Crowder, for example.

From that moment up until October 2019, when the #ExposeCNN series was launched, Cary worked tirelessly to uncover what was happening within the networkat huge risk for his job, his family, as well as his mental health. Keep in mind that Cary had a baby on the way during this periodwhich added to his daily workload and stress. I recall Cary struggled with the ethics of recording a colleague at CNNPatrick Davisbecause Patrick was a good guy trapped in a bad environment. I hate what weve become. We could be so much better than we are, said the Field Operations Manager who worked at the network for twenty-five years. That momentand Carys decision to capture itbecame a staple of the Project Veritas curriculum. The publics right to know what the Field Operations Manager, Patrick Davis, said ultimately won out in the end.

As Cary said in his interview to me, it wasnt that he betrayed CNN, it was that CNN betrayed their vital mission of being the most trusted name in news. Cary strapped on that undercover camera because of his employers betrayal and served We The People.

Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the presence of fear and the will to overcome it.

Carys courage led to video recordings that exposed then-CNN president Jeff Zuckers personal vendetta against Trump, the corporate model that encourages click-bait and rating-driven journalism instead of truth telling, as well as the wide-ranging partisanship of many employees at the cable network. The four videos that were launched obtained millions of views and were widely covered by all sides of the media.

Courageous people coming out follows courageous people taking action. Carys efforts inspired the ABC News Insider who leaked the bombshell Amy Robach tapewhere the ABC anchor admitted she buried the Epstein story for three years to appease the Clintons and the British Royal Family.

Since his work with Project Veritas, Cary has flourished. He continues to devote himself to the truth and to America. He is an example to be followed.

I speak for everyone at Project Veritas when I say that Cary is admired and appreciated for everything he has done and everything he embodies. I can only hope that there are more people like Cary out there.