Media Matters To CNN: Fire Corey Lewandowski

Last week Media Matters launched a petition calling on CNN to fire former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. This morning they renewed that call with a video compilation of Lewandowski’s on-air attacks on Hillary Clinton. Watch below. From the petition:

CNN has a Corey Lewandowski problem. Just this weekend, we learned that Republican nominee Donald Trump paid the firm of the CNN commentator and former Trump campaign manager $20,000 in July. Just 48 hours earlier, reports indicated that Lewandowski had orchestrated the forced resignation of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. As one media critic put it, CNN is essentially paying its source within the Trump campaign.

Lewandowski is likely barred from criticizing Trump. We know that other Trump employees had a non-disparagement clause in their contracts – with penalties upwards of $10 million for breaking it. There is every reason to believe that Lewandowski had one as well. And yet, to date, neither CNN nor Lewandowski has confirmed or denied whether he had such a clause in his contract with Trump.

CNN might have been able to work around one of these problems. But when you add it all up, Corey Lewandowski’s continuing employment means that CNN is abandoning any attempts to be a ethical news network. This is a journalism catastrophe. CNN is better off without Corey Lewandowski. While it is understandable that you want your news channel to be inclusive of different points of view, in this instance you have a better choice: Cut ties with Corey Lewandowski. Now.