The key figure caught up in a Project Veritas exclusive on CNN’s coverage of President Trump, a series named American Pravda, is a senior producer named John Bonifield. As the story has unfolded online and in pockets of the mainstream media, I find myself laughing a little.
John and I first met in our sophomore year of high school in Maize, KS. My initial impression of John at that time was that he was smart. School came very easy to him, and he was very well spoken. We enrolled in drama classes and performed in a couple of shows together. We were acquaintances, maybe friends, for a short period of time. After high school our paths never crossed again.
John was a proud member of the school newspaper staff. He had a keen sense for journalism even in high school and it certainly doesn’t surprise me that he is a producer for a major cable news organization. I remember John once wrote an editorial for the school newspaper encouraging students at Maize High School to broaden their college searches beyond Kansas. In his mind, if you were going to really make it in life, you needed to get out of Kansas. He was probably right, but his editorial was so cynical condemning, and so well written, that a building principal thought it necessary to write a response to John’s editorial that appeared in the next issue of the paper.
The American Pravda series attempts, and succeeds in many ways, to reveal some truth behind so much news coverage that seems to be going nowhere. In several instances everyone, from John to former Obama Administration official turned CNN panelist Van Jones, has admitted there is nothing behind the Trump/Russia collusion story. Yet, CNN, and other networks struggling for relevance, continue to talk about conspiracies without any substantial proof.
As I watched the first video featuring several minutes of conversation between John and the Project Veritas reporter, I noticed that John mentioned that he, and many of his colleagues, are quite cynical. They believe journalism ethics are “cute” and they have declining opinions of their viewers. The search for higher ratings, it would appear, has replaced the pursuit of news.
Something else I noticed in the short video clip is that John mentions he “loves” the news business. So, for all the cynicism he has shared I am hopeful that my once and former friend will one day find joy in his work again. Maybe this undercover shakedown of CNN will encourage the top brass at the network to let creative, intelligent and hardworking people like Mr. Bonifield to produce news worthy of the once revered reputation of the worlds leading name in cable news.