CNN’s Jessica Yellin is responding to her comments last night on Anderson Cooper 360 in which she talked about “corporate executives” who tried to make sure “that this was a war presented in way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation.”
On the AC360 blog Yellin writes:
…let me clarify what I said and what I experienced.
AdvertisementFirst, this involved my time on MSNBC where I worked during the lead up to war. I worked as a segment producer, overnight anchor, field reporter, and briefly covered the White House, the Pentagon, and general Washington stories.
Also, let me say: no, senior corporate leadership never asked me to take out a line in a script or re-write an anchor intro. I did not mean to leave the impression that corporate executives were interfering in my daily work; my interaction was with senior producers. What was clear to me is that many people running the broadcasts wanted coverage that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the country at the time. It was clear to me they wanted their coverage to reflect the mood of the country.
And now I’m going back to work covering the Puerto Rico primary from San Juan.
Really? Any MSNBC senior producers care to respond? (wait a minute, I was a senior producer at MSNBC at the time.)
>Update: MSNBC VP of communications Jeremy Gaines responds to TVNewser:
Jessica Yellin was a freelance overnight news reader at MSNBC for one year who was not renewed. She had little to no contact with editorial decision makers, and certainly was not a part of the editorial process on a daily basis. Given how her story has changed so dramatically since her appearance on CNN — her current employer — less than 24 hours ago, we find it hard to believe that anyone would take this disgruntled former employee’s comments seriously.