Raymond Arroyo- Mild panic has set in at CNN

Raymond Arroyo- Mild panic has set in at CNNNow, CNN says, that it forced Jeff Zucker out for an undisclosed office romance. But the fact is, he should have been forced out for a different affair. His relationship with fake news on Russiagate; the casual smearing of figures like DeSantis; and all the COVID fearmongering. Well, Zucker's team didn't just flirt with damaging lockdowns, they fought for them.

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SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We might be opening early. And a lot of people, Chris, are frightened about this.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: It's far too early to let down our guards right now; far too early for states to be reopening.

MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: It seems premature and even dangerous to reopen the country.

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INGRAHAM: Now, from the start of the pandemic Jeff Zucker, CNN, fed its audience a daily menu of fraudulent COVID narratives. They didn't do real reporting. They simply repeated as gospel whatever Fauci said, rarely questioning his logic, or challenging his conclusions.

CNN kind of became the cult of Fauci, relishing ever perceived contradiction between him and President Trump.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Dr. Anthony Fauci is on the cover of the new issue of Time Magazine. There it is as one of the 100 most influential people of 2020. Well deserved from my perspective. He does amazing work.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Couple of viewers emailed in saying, they're worried about you. You look tired. I'm sure you're exhausted. We appreciate you taking the time.

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INGRAHAM: And all the while, Zucker oversaw CNN coverage that dismiss promising COVID therapies, and of course, the doctors who are successfully using them with patients. Republican governors who rejected the Fauci mantra were cast as anti-science kooks.

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MATTHEW DOWD, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL ANALYST: Governor DeSantis and Governor Abbott of Texas have caused more unneeded deaths in those two states than any immigrant ever has done.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Shame on Governor Noem, who has a terrible COVID problem in her state.

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INGRAHAM: But now, two years later, the general public is finally told that whoops, the lockdowns that turned their lives upside down, they didn't work. States like California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, they kept their restrictions in place for far too long, didn't do any better at preventing COVID deaths than those that opened up or stayed open all along.

Now, of course, you didn't need Johns Hopkins to do the study to know that lockdowns were a disaster, because you were told the truth from the beginning.

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INGRAHAM: If we wait for Dr. Fauci's seal of approval to reopen America, we may not have an America to reopen. At least not one we recognize.

The schools could be shut down for years. Lockdowns don't work. The damage they cause is catastrophic to our economy, our children's education. We're all seeing that, mental health and our safety.

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INGRAHAM: But CNN's branch Covidian sold you panic and lies. They sold them by a public health sector that hated Trump and love the idea of using COVID to create a new normal. A medical superstate to control the little people.

So of all of Zucker's transgressions, his hiring of arrogant, sanctimonious anchors and contributors was among his worst. And of all their COVID blowhards, pushing the lockdowns, one particular host really enjoyed his leading role.

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CHRIS CUOMO, FORMER CNN HOST: Look at these fools. Fools. I know they want to be out there. Fools.

Things will get worse. I don't care how you reopen. What are we rushing back to? Think about what you are so anxious to get back to in terms of normal, and what you're going to lose that we've gained in this pandemic? OK. Think about it. Be careful what you wish for. The time with family, the time together, pictures of what we see in Venice of clearer water and clearer skies that they're showing us all over the world. I know we can't do nothing forever. But we can think about how to be together, better.

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INGRAHAM: Of course, night after night, Zucker cheered the Cuomo double-box routine. Chris and his Governor brother, Andrew, chewing over the pandemic fat and yucking it up as the love gov was sending effective seniors back to their convalescent homes.

The mission of Zucker's branch Covidians was to ignore or smear any medical opinion that questioned their cultish outlook on lockdowns and mandates. Now, among their targets were doctors who authored the Great Barrington declaration, who appeared regularly on the 'Angle'.

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JAY BHATTACHARYA, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, STANFORD: Denying herd immunity is like denying gravity. Even if you have a vaccine, it's still herd immunity that protects people against the virus. Lockdown costs will in law - in even in the short and intermediate term have larger or longer health consequences.

MARTIN KULLDORFF, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL PROFESSOR: The school closings, rich parents or middle class parents can do to a higher tutoring. The working class children, they don't have those options. So they're the ones who are suffering the most.

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INGRAHAM: They were right then and they are right now. But Zucker sent out the zombie squad to tear them all down.

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WILLIAM HASELTINE, FMR PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: I'm extremely concerned that the President is being advised by people who speak of herd immunity. Herd immunity is another word for mass murder. That is exactly what it is.

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INGRAHAM: Naturally, they were all following the cues of branch Covidians' supreme leaders and longtime friends of CNN. Internal NIH email show that the devious duo of Francis Collins and Tony Fauci were scrambling for a plan to smear the few doctors brave enough to stand up to them and the entire medical establishment.

In one email, Collins wrote about the work of three fringe epidemiologists that seems to be getting a lot of attention. He then called for a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises.

And Fauci's network Covidians, well, they gave him airtime in order to laugh off the fringe doctors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: When we should be doubling down in implementing the public health measures that we've been talking about for so long.

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INGRAHAM: At a time of crisis when everyone needed the opportunity for a full and fair airing of the options, all of them that were available to us, Zucker's CNN took every opportunity to call for extreme lockdown measures that hurt millions of American families and wrecked our economy.

They trashed scientists and doctors, who simply wanted Americans to hear the other side of the story. They launched ugly attacks against President Trump and his team who eventually helped obtain the very vaccines that CNN now celebrates.

So from beginning to end, the Zucker Covidians saw the pandemic not as a tragedy to be managed, but as an opportunity to be exploited. It is one of the most shameful periods in the history of American journalism. Maybe, just maybe post Zucker, CNN will begin to escape the cult it built. And that's the 'Angle'.