CNN’s then-president Jeff Zucker told his staff not to investigate the “laboratory leak theory” behind the origin of COVID-19 because he believed it was “Trump’s talking point,” according to the report.
CNN’s “well-placed” insider told Fox News Digital on Monday that Zucker gave the order in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Persons are slowly waking up from the fog,” an insider told Fox News Digital.
“It’s sort of crazy that we didn’t chase him harder.”
Major news organizations including CNN, The Latest York Times, MSNBC and others have been pilloried in recent days after a recent government report concluded that the most probably explanation for the COVID outbreak was an accidental leak from a Chinese lab.
In the first weeks and months of the pandemic, distinguished media figures, public health officials, and Democratic party elected officials dismissed the “laboratory leak” theory as “disproven” – with some suggesting that even discussing the topic was racist.
The Post asked CNN and Zucker for comment.
![Jeff Zucker](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007085279.jpg?w=1024)
Considered one of Zucker’s charges following his boss’s report was Oliver Darcy, a network reporter who wrote an article in the early days of the pandemic titled, “Here’s How to Debunk Coronavirus Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories from Friends and Family.”
“While the coronavirus pandemic has isolated family and friends of their homes, it has in lots of cases increased communication online or over the phone with family members.” Darcy wrote March 28, 2020
“But in some cases, relatives and friends share bad information – whether it’s bad science related to virus prevention, debunked rumors about city lockdowns or conspiracy theories about the origin of Covid-19,” he wrote. .
![Donald Trump](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007735899.jpg?w=1024)
“While all disinformation is not perfect, disinformation related to the public health crisis has a very dangerous element.”
Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” said during the broadcast that “the far-right has now found its own virus conspiracy theory,” discussing the lab leak.
Last week, freelance journalist Tom Elliott posted a Twitter thread showing clips of MSNBC and CNN personalities dismissing the possibility of a lab leak as a “conspiracy theory.”
Under Zucker’s guidance, CNN became the news network that took the most hostile stance towards then-President Donald Trump.
![Laboratory technician in a protective suit](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000003995699.jpg?w=1024)
During press conferences, Trump was famous for sparring with CNN correspondents, especially Jim Acosta, the White House combat reporter.
Zucker was forced to resign as president of CNN last yr after it emerged that he had consensually supported his chief marketer, Allison Gollust, for years.
Zucker was replaced by Chris Licht, whose heads of corporate giant Warner Bros. Discovery commissioned the network to steer away from biased commentary and towards direct news.