Chris Cillizza — the former CNN everyman pundit who specialized in ex post facto political analysis — never seemed to get things right even when he was employed by a major media conglomerate.
Now that he’s no longer tied to one, things have predictably taken a turn for the worse in that department.
In the space of just 24 hours, Cillizza claimed he’d never said he’d been fired when he literally said he’d been fired. Then, he literally said one of the top talking points about blue-collar workers losing their jobs that leftist politicians and journalists loved to trot out as an always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life feel-good bromide was never actually a talking point.
The former CNN pundit and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day began on another bad day for establishment media types, as the Los Angeles Times — one of America’s most prominent conservative-baiting news institutions — announced it was laying off more than 20 percent of its newsroom staff because of a “financial crisis.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and/or those who didn’t follow Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID-19 prescripts to the letter were often targets of the Times’ wrath. (Sample column title from January 2022, for example: “Mocking anti-vaxxers’ deaths is ghoulish, yes — but necessary.”)
Thus, DeSantis’ press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, wasn’t exactly struck with a case of the feels over the newsroom layoffs.
“The LA Times is not having a good day, and I’m at peace with that,” he posted on X Tuesday.
Cillizza, who now publishes independently on Substack, summoned up all that good ol’ CNN rage to take it to Redfern.
“Will never get people who celebrate when other humans — with families, mortgages, medical bills etc — lose their jobs,” he said in a quote-post.
Will never get people who celebrate when other humans — with families, mortgages, medical bills etc — lose their jobs https://t.co/uAsqPbnUEx
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) January 24, 2024
Redfern had zero sympathy for this, either, responding, “Wasn’t there a thing about telling miners losing their jobs because of leftist policy that they should learn to code? Did you learn to code after being fired by CNN?”
Wasn’t there a thing about telling miners losing their jobs because of leftist policy that they should learn to code?
Did you learn to code after being fired by CNN? https://t.co/rRd0k26ICm
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) January 24, 2024
Cillizza wasn’t having it. “Dude, you can try to bully me all you want. (CNN didn’t fire me but anyway….),” he began.
“I didn’t say anything to miners about anything,” he continued.
“I don’t celebrate when people lose their jobs. It’s a very tough thing. We should be able to agree on that.”
Uh, the first problem with that: In response to a November post on social media asking, “When are you coming back to CNN. You were awesome!” Cillizza responded, “Well they fired me. So probably not!”
Huh. How about that?
Dude, you can try to bully me all you want. (CNN didn’t fire me but anyway….)
I didn’t say anything to miners about anything.
I don’t celebrate when people lose their jobs. It’s a very tough thing. We should be able to agree on that. https://t.co/7rqJyt1NLN
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) January 24, 2024
Well they fired me. So probably not!
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) November 9, 2023
So, was he fired? Well, as an Ivy League president might say, it depends on the context.
But there was another issue here: The “learn to code” thing. Another user mentioned it, too.
“Kind of like journalists cheering people getting laid off over COVID shots,” he wrote. “Zero sympathy here. The journalists now need to hustle and get real jobs. Hey, maybe learn to code. Enjoy.”
“It just didn’t happen,” Cillizza responded. “And, again, no journalist said ‘learn to code.’ And neither did Biden.”
It just didn’t happen.
And, again, no journalist said “learn to code.” And neither did Biden. https://t.co/Tkd6lpvEnt
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) January 24, 2024
Uh-oh: Somebody was about to discover that the internet is forever!
Oh really? https://t.co/QclMvavIpp pic.twitter.com/xPuiArwQn5
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) January 24, 2024
“Learn to code” has been A Thing™ for roughly a decade now.
As for Biden: “Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well,” he said on the campaign trail in December 2019, according to The Hill. “Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!”
Should laid-off journalists “learn to code”?
This isn’t really surprising for Cillizza, who was long known as one of Washington’s most facile lukewarm-take journalists with a working memory that didn’t extend back more than a few news cycles.
(The Columbia Journalism Review, no hive of reflexive conservative media distrust, titled a 2017 profile of him, who they described as “long a punching bag for fellow journalists,” thusly: “Enthusiastic, prolific, simplistic Chris Cillizza reaches new heights.”)
However, you’d think he’d remember getting fired and “learn to code” — one a major event in someone’s professional life, another practically a shibboleth of the left when venturing into “Hillbilly Elegy” territory.
One he was lying about, either way you slice it. The other explains why enthusiasm and prolificness didn’t save the thoroughly simplistic Cillizza from the chopping block.
And I bet DeSantis’ press secretary is at peace with that, too.
