Nick Fondacaro broke a story on how debate moderate Jake Tapper's show aired a nasty hit piece that spurred a defamation lawsuit from a man named Zachary Young working to evacuate people out of Afghanistan. Internal messages show profane malice from reporter Alex Marquardt and others. It's no one's idea of idealistic investigative journalism. It sounds like Gotcha journalism.

In messages found by Young's lawyers, Marquardt said he wanted to “nail this Zachary Young mfucker” and thought the story would be Young’s “funeral.” On that declaration of wanting to “nail” Young, CNN editor Matthew Philips responded: “gonna hold you to that cowboy!”

When Marquardt notified Young that CNN would be publishing a story about him, and gave him only two hours to respond, he was upset when Young replied. Marquardt messaged a colleague, “fucking Young just texted.” CNN did not respond to our request for a response.

A judge ruled that CNN can be sued for punitive damages, making it possible CNN could face a punishment to rival Fox News in the Dominion Voting Machines case. Young's lawyer Vel Freedman told Fondacaro: "CNN claims to be the 'most trusted name in news,' but their internal documents show that the only thing you can trust CNN to do is ignore the facts, push an agenda, and hurt innocent people. We’re looking forward to trial."

Plus: On Monday morning, CNN morning host Kasie Hunt abruptly cut off Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt and ended the interview because Leavitt asserted that debate moderators Tapper and Dana Bash have an established record of bias against Trump. Why end the interview when she's unmissably correct on the facts here? 

Monday's edition of The View carried Whoopi Goldberg's bizarre assertion that "The media has pretty much always been fair to each side," and "we have to tell you both sides. That's why Alyssa's here. That's why Ana's here, because we don't all think the same way." Any exposure to this show demonstrates that Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro aren't serious Republican dissenters. Meghan McCain added real dissent and a measure of difficulty for liberal and Democrat guests. 

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