Heard the meeting between Jason Kilar and CNN DC staff did not go well. One source described it as a “shitshow,” another person said Kilar was pressed repeatedly on whether his poor relationship with Zucker played into his departure. He confirmed he previously did not know about the relationship between Gollust and Zucker, and said CNN’s new owners at Discovery were not involved in Zucker’s not-so-willing resignation.

politico.com/news/2022/02/0…

New: Teen Vogue staffers released a statement tonight saying they "fully reject" new editor-in-chief Alexi McCammond's college tweets mocking Asians. The tweets recirculated this weekend after Condé Nast announced McCammond was the new Teen Vogue EIC. thedailybeast.com/teen-vogue-sta… It's referenced in the statement, but I'm told staff sent a letter to Anna Wintour and CEO Roger Lynch expressing concerns about the hire thedailybeast.com/teen-vogue-sta…

NYT's star COVID reporter Donald McNeil was reprimanded after multiple people complained that he used racist language, including the n-word, while accompanying a 2019 trip the NYT hosted for high school students to Peru.

thedailybeast.com/star-new-york-… Two students on the trip said he did not believe in the concept of white privilege; three other participants alleged that McNeil made racist comments and used stereotypes about black teenagers.

thedailybeast.com/star-new-york-…

There's been some internal pushback to Ben Shapiro authorship of Playbook today. A few messages that were shared and upvoted in Politico's internal Slack today:

thedailybeast.com/politico-faces… Politico EIC Matt Kaminski briefly addressed the concerns today, saying the decision to have Shapiro guest author Playbook was part of the publication's commitment to reflecting a range of views

thedailybeast.com/politico-faces…

I profiled Arthur Schwartz, the aggressive Trump-world operative who has become known for waging war on reporters thedailybeast.com/how-trump-jrs-… In recent years, Schwartz has threatened to sue a reporter at the Daily Caller, shopped dirt about reporters at outlets like Page Six, GQ, and Politico, demanded journalists defend him from mean tweets, and gotten into a bar argument with a CNBC staffer: thedailybeast.com/how-trump-jrs-…

In an interview with David Remnick, James Comey dodges a question about Rudy joining Trump’s team: “I don’t know what to make of it....There’s no doubt he’s a smart and skilled attorney.” Remnick asks Comey why he didn’t investigate Trump’s businesses when Comey was a US attorney in NY. Comey did not really have an answer.