CNN’s Relationship with Bill Taylor: More Than Meets the Eye

Many Americans continue to be unaware of just how contrived the Ukraine-fueled Trump impeachment scandal is. That's bound to happen when major media outlets are actively partnered with the network of career diplomats that is front-and-center in this Deep State charade.

Did you know that acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, the Democrats' "star" witness at the impeachment theater, has extensive ties to a rabidly pro-NATO Swamp think tank that openly works with ostensibly neutral big-box media outlets CNN and Reuters? The Atlantic Council, a pro-interventionist and stridently anti-Russia foreign policy Swamp think tank, is financially sponsored by and partners with those two MSM titans. Taylor has a long and cozy relationship with the Council and has written "Ukraine policy pieces with the organization’s director and analysis articles published by the Council,” Breitbart reported on Oct. 23.

Circle of Hostility

Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company at the center of the impeachment tornado, heavily funds this D.C. think tank which is tied at the hip to the career diplomats now appearing as the face of the "damning" testimony against Trump. Yes, the same firm that paid former vice president Joe Biden's son, Hunter, $83,000 per month when he had no experience in the energy sector whatsoever also is a top donor to the Atlantic Council.

Breitbart's Aaron Klein also detailed how Taylor has served for years as a senior adviser to the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, "which has co-hosted events with the Atlantic Council and has participated in events co-hosted jointly by the Atlantic Council and Burisma," Klein reported.

One might think this information would cause responsible media organizations to hesitate from unquestioningly accepting the Democrat narrative that Taylor is an esteemed government servant whose motives are beyond reproach. Such has not been the case at CNN. The network's political commentator Chris Cillizza penned a Nov. 14 article for CNN's news site titled "Bill Taylor is Donald Trump's impeachment nightmare." The item was served up as an immediate review of Taylor's testimony before congressional legislators. "Bill Taylor was everything Democrats hoped he would be. And everything Republicans feared he might be," Cillizza wrote as his opening salvo. Taylor "was credible, serious, frank and deeply specific," Cillizza continued. He "was deeply credible. Not just for what he said but for who he is – a lifelong diplomat appointed by presidents of both parties to senior diplomatic circles."

The glowing acclaim for Taylor's performance had been set up long in advance. On Oct. 11, when House Dems requested a deposition from Taylor, CNN used named and unnamed former State Department officials to describe Taylor as  "a person of high character and professionalism" and a "very quiet guy" who would be loath to involve himself in any kind of partisan struggle. Taylor was "deeply respected in the diplomatic world and seen as more likely to put sound foreign policy before politics," CNN informed its readers.

Concerted, Contrived Coverage

What CNN has not told its readers or viewers is that the network is a financial supporter and media partner of the same Atlantic Council that Taylor frequently joins forces with and which staunchly opposes President Trump's foreign policy on Ukraine. On the think tank's website is a 2018 "Honor roll of contributors." Under the $100,000-$249,999 category can be found the name CNN.

The Federalist's Sean Davis on Oct. 24 reported that CNN interviewed a former top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine who strongly defended Joe Biden's interactions with that nation without ever disclosing his Atlantic Council ties. John Herbst is the Eurasia Center director for the Council. The group even posted the interview on its website.

And so we had a cable TV media network that is a six-figure donor to a Swamp think tank that hotly disagrees with the Trump administration's non-interventionist foreign policy, especially as it may affect dealings with Russia and Ukraine, interviewing a member of that same council and failing to disclose to its viewers either of those important factors.

CNN is not the only active Atlantic Council collaborator. Google and Twitter are top donors as well, and Thomson Reuters is listed as a "corporate partner" on the council's website. Keep that in mind as you perform online and social media searches on impeachment or find yourself directed to a wire service report on the matter.

At the end of 2018, the Atlantic Council produced an article titled "Top 10 Risks of 2019," in which it highlighted what it saw as the biggest looming potential calamities for the coming year. "Mueller probe precipitates a crisis" was number one. "With the Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives, US President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment is a real possibility if Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s charges are convincing and pertain to collusion between Trump’s team and Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign," the group stated.

It must have been an enormous disappointment for these Swamp creatures to see their Mueller hopes evaporate into nothingness. They pressed on nonetheless and found a new avenue via Ukraine. And thanks to their partners in the Democratic Party and the media, these Deep State stalwarts have been able to label themselves as committed diplomats above the fray even as they pursue a flagrant coup against a sitting president elected with the votes of over 60 million Americans.

~

Read more from Joe Schaeffer.