Capital New York reports CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker won’t allow CNN to be “shamed” into covering special committee hearings on the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
“We’re not going to be shamed into it by others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums to shame other news organizations into covering something,” Zucker told the New York Times‘ Bill Carter at last night’s Deadline Club awards dinner. “If it’s of real news value, we’ll cover it.”
The “others” Zucker was likely referring to were his competitors at Fox News and MSNBC; both networks rededicated coverage to the Benghazi story earlier this month when new emails were uncovered showing White House adviser Ben Rhodes providing former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice talking points before her Sunday show interviews several days after the attack.
And while continuing to defend his network’s Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 coverage, Zucker acknowledged one regrettable moment.
“He was being facetious, but it did not come off that way,” Zucker said about anchor Don Lemon asking a guest if a black hole possibly sucked in the plane. “And he knows that if he could do it over again, he wouldn’t quite present it that way.”