What kind of corporate culture have they got over at CNN? Judging by the behavior of some of the media company’s staff, it’s a culture conducive to employing sexual degenerates.
Exhibit A occurred in Oct. 2020, while COVID-19 corporate Zoom-mania was at its peak. CNN had to put legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on leave because he whipped it out and spanked it during a live video conference with his colleagues at The New Yorker. Toobin wasn’t a paragon of moral virtue prior to the incident, either: a little over a decade ago, his out-of-control libido got him into trouble when he fathered a child with the daughter of his one-time CNN colleague, Jeff Greenfield. The child’s mother had to get a court-ordered paternity test before Toobin would take responsibility for his progeny.
Last summer, CNN appalled many when it returned Toobin to the network. I guess there must be a massive shortage of people who are able to do the incredibly complex work he performs, or something. For what it’s worth, New York State penal (lol) code says that exposing oneself is punishable by up to 15 days in prison and a fine of up to $250, while public lewdness is a Class B misdemeanor and punishable by up to 3 months in prison and up to $500. But as you know, laws are for us little people.
Then there was Chris Cuomo, who might even have been able to survive the scandal of abusing his work connections to help his brother, accused woman-molester and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, except that CNN seems to have discovered additional problems when it investigated the anchor. “Based on the report we received regarding Chris’s conduct with his brother’s defense, we had cause to terminate,” CNN stated at the time. “When new allegations came to us this week, we took them seriously, and saw no reason to delay taking immediate action.”
The new allegations turned out to be from a former colleague of Cuomo’s who claimed that, back when they both worked at ABC, the racy reporter grabbed a handful of her buttocks at a party in 2005. But then again, the accuser is represented by Debra Katz, who famously pushed Christine Blasey Ford’s specious allegations against then-SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Katz apparently specializes in vaguely feminist, dimly-remembered gropings at long-ago drinking parties, so who knows?
Not a week went by after Cuomo’s departure when yet another sleazy alleged sex crime emanated from the payroll of the Most Trusted Name in News. This time, Chris Cuomo’s pal and colleague, producer John Griffin, was carted off by the feds. The Vermont DA’s office released a Dec. 10 statement, saying Griffin: “was arrested today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after a federal grand jury in Vermont charged Griffin with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.”
You can read more about this unsavory case in my PJ Media colleague Megan Fox’s report: FBI Arrests CNN Staffer for Enticing Minors for Sex
Related: CNN Films Child Trafficking Transaction and Does Nothing to Stop It
Not a week has gone by since that bombshell, either, and now guerrilla journalist organization Project Veritas has released a report alleging that yet another potential pedophile is lurking on CNN’s staff.
“This is one of those stories you never want to hear or report on, because it’s so unconscionable,” said Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe in his intro to the video report. “It should never happen in civilized society. But tragically, it does.”
The report takes the form of an interview with Veritas’s source, Janine Bonanni. Bonanni, a former sex worker, is now a case manager for human trafficking victims and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She claims to have had an ongoing relationship with a CNN producer for over ten years. She says they first met when she herself was being trafficked, and he hired her for sex.
Lately, claims Bonanni, her producer friend has begun saying deeply disturbing things. He apparently lives with his fiancé and her three young children, the eldest of which is a 14-year-old girl. And this girl has her future stepdad on fire.
Bonanni explained that she was abused at about the same age as the fiancé’s daughter, and thus she was deeply disturbed by what she was hearing. Worried that the girl might wind up being a minor victim, like she was, Bonanni took advantage of her long-term relationship with the producer to encourage him to talk about his sick obsession.
WARNING: EXPLICIT, ICKY CONTENT
“He thinks he can confide in me with everything because of my past and the things that I’ve been through. He thinks it’s, like, no big deal telling me, but it’s the complete opposite. Hearing — hearing the things that he was saying, reading the things he was saying — even about my daughter, he’s asked for things — and it has infuriated me.” Bonanni’s own daughter is 15. The CNN perv has asked for mother-daughter nude pics several times, according to texts Bonanni preserved.
The Veritas report plays snippets from a phone conversation Bonanno recorded with the sleaze bag, where he describes what he wants to do to his fiancé’s daughter. “… I’m gonna walk up and put my crotch very close to her face, slowly unzip my zipper, and just guide her head a little closer … “; it gets worse from there.
“She was wearing very closely cut bottoms at the pool,” texted the perv on another occasion. “Could see the outlines of her *****. Definitely wanted a Picture.”
Bonanni is positioned to benefit financially from her allegations. Project Veritas helps publicize fundraisers for its sources who come forward and put their names and faces to their accusations, because they often lose their jobs and social networks in the process. She also admits at one point that the man she is accusing has sent her money fairly recently, so it’s not impossible to imagine that she was perhaps goading and recording him with the idea of blackmailing him at some point. But even if that were the case, the fact is that, unless there’s some masterful forgery going on, the guy said and texted really creepy, vulgar things about a minor girl with whom he lives.
“If he’s talking about this girl, he’s talking about my daughter; what other things is he doing? I want this girl to be safe,” stresses Bonanni. She says she went to law enforcement with her evidence first, hoping at least to get a welfare check on the situation, but she was told that no crime had been committed. While technically this may be true, Bonanni also has a point that the situation should be watched carefully. “I just want this kid to be safe.”
Maybe CNN should set aside a portion of whatever it’s spending on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” consultants and spend some of it on “Morality, Dignity, and Basic Human Decency” experts instead.
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