Yet another reason to know that CNN is a joke...
"Most trusted name in TV news" -my ass! 
CNN Still Welcomes George Zimmerman's Racist Defender
With George Zimmerman back in the news -- this time for facing charges stemming from allegedly pointing a shotgun at his girlfriend -- CNN and its sister network HLN are once again inviting a virulently racist convicted criminal on-air to defend Zimmerman.
In August, Mother Jones reported that Frank Taaffe, who had essentially served as Zimmerman's "de facto spokesman" during his trial for killing Trayvon Martin, was "a racist with a criminal past." Among Taaffe's lowlights: hosting a "white-power podcast"; posting racist tweets, including declaring that "the only time a black life is validated is when a white person kills them"; and having been repeatedly arrested (but not convicted) on stalking and domestic violence charges and once serving jail time for trespassing.
A Media Matters review at the time found that Taaffe's media presence was massive, having appeared on or been quoted by most major news networks, including making more than 60 (often combative) primetime appearances on HLN. As Mother Jones explained, Taaffe used his prominent media platform "to cast Martin as a drug-addled Hoodlum and Zimmerman as a community-minded do-gooder" and argue about technical details of the case in which he had no expertise.
But now that Zimmerman is back in the news, so is Taaffe. Mother Jones noted that Taaffe has appeared on both CNN and HLN this week to defend Zimmerman and argue with Nancy Grace about his friend supposedly "being oppressed by the press":
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/11/22/cnn-still-welcomes-george-zimmermans-racist-def/197022
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