CNN quietly backtracks from its huge mistake of hiring a Republican campaign strategist as an editor

When CNN announced they would be hiring Republican campaign strategist Sarah Isgur as an editor, it triggered a firestorm. Media experts were stunned at the decision, Democrats demanded that she not be given any role overseeing or participating in their presidential debates, and even newsroom insiders were reportedly baffled and "demoralized" by the decision.

To staunch the criticism, CNN promised that Isgur would not have a role in editorial policy, instead working as one of several people coordinating television and online content. Then, on Friday, Isgur announced that CNN was abandoning her appointment as an editor altogether, and will instead bring her on as a political commentator:

Flores previously worked on campaigns for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and later served as spokesperson for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. She has no experience in journalism or editing. She is also a strident partisan who has compared abortion to gun violence, engaged in conspiracy theories about Planned Parenthood, falsely claimed that job losses under President Barack Obama's first term were 92 percent women, dismissed the idea that climate change poses a national security risk, and attacked news cites for reporting that President Donald Trump claimed Obama wasn't born in the United States. She was also highly critical of CNN itself, blasting it as the "Clinton News Network."

It is normal for cable news to hire conservative personalities as commentators, as Isgur will now be. But putting a partisan campaign strategist with no journalistic background in the chain of editorial decision-making is extremely rare and hard to defend. There are plenty of conservatives CNN could have hired who are actually qualified as editors — to name one example, they could have hired any of the people put out of work when the Weekly Standard shut down.

In the end, CNN took seriously the criticism and responded. And with any luck, the decision will preserve public confidence in their newsroom.