Salon.com > Stephanie Cutter

CNN’s “Crossfire” talk shows CNN still doesn’t get what’s wrong with CNN

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:15:00 +0000

CNN would like you to know that under Jeff Zucker's leadership, it will continue being as CNN-y as possible. That's the message I'm getting from the report that the struggling cable news channel is planning to relaunch political shouting program "Crossfire" and is "in talks" with Newt Gingrich and Stephanie Cutter. Gingrich! Finally, Lincoln-Douglas-style "Crossfire."

This is at this point pretty thin. "Talks" doesn't mean much. Gingrich and Cutter might be part of a whole bench of hosts. But it does suggest that CNN is going about a "Crossfire" launch in just about the worst way possible. Those hoping for a smarter version of the old show will definitely be disappointed.

Stephanie Cutter has spent her entire career as a campaign flack. Her job has been, for years, to spin reporters. (This job leads to becoming a political news media professional strangely often.) Regardless of her intelligence and her ability to speak extemporaneously on camera, she has never demonstrated an ability to be an interesting, independent thinker, and it is fair to predict that as a TV pundit she'd be representing "The Democratic Party" and not "liberalism."

CNN to bring “Crossfire” back … with Newt Gingrich?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:11:00 +0000

Still dealing with a major journalistic failure on its hands, CNN has managed to distract the nation from its sloppy reporting with news that it may bring political talk show "Crossfire" back -- with Stephanie Cutter and Newt Gingrich as hosts.

Although a source told Politico that CNN is only having talks with the Obama adviser and former speaker of the House, Twitter ran with the rumor:

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GOP’s new punching bag

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:10:00 +0000

Top political aides on any presidential campaign are bound to end up in the line of fire on occasion. But no official on either side of the aisle has taken more heat this year from blogs and pundits than Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign director.

According to Google Trends, Cutter has been more searched than top Obama aides David Axelrod or David Plouffe, despite their relative seniority. Among the top searches for her are "married" and "husband," Axelrod is mostly sought out by people looking for his Twitter handle. And while Axelrod and Plouffe catch plenty of flak from the right, unlike her male colleagues, Cutter's attacks are often personal and vicious, occasionally with gendered undertones.

According to a Romney aide anonymously quoted by BuzzFeed this summer, Cutter is "some hack political adviser from Chicago who has nothing to point to in her own life." The comment came during a row over Cutter's factually accurate claim that Romney could have committed a felony by filing conflicting reports with two government agencies about when he left Bain Capital. Why the aide had to suggest Cutter's life is pointless to respond to a factual claim is unclear.

Dumb tweet: Dumb comments are dumb

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:42:00 +0000

President Barack Obama's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter has accused GOP nominees Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan of turning the Libyan consulate attacks into a “political topic.” Fox News and conservatives immediately shot back at Cutter, calling her "despicable" and "disgracefully dishonest."

Regardless of how Cutter's comments may have seemed, however, one Twitter user defeated his own point:

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Obama campaign deputy adds to Libya partisanship

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:39:00 +0000

In a furthering of partisan politicking over September's Libya consulate attack, Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager for President Obama, blamed Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for making the attacks in Benghazi a "political topic."

During a CNN appearance Thursday, Cutter said that "the entire reason that this has become the, you know, political topic it is is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan ... It's a big part of their stump speech." She went on to lambaste Ryan for making the tragedy a "political circus."

Critical responses emerged on Twitter within minutes. Fox News analyst Monica Crowley tweeted, "can't get much lower than the despicable [Cutter]." RNC Spokesman Tim Miller wrote that Cutter's comment belonged "in the annals of people believing their own BS." Meanwhile, journalist and author Jeremy Scahill lambasted "partisan cogs" in general:

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For weeks now, as Salon has noted, partisan spats have characterized the discourse in Washington over the embassy attack in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.