Fox contributor names alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella on-air despite network ban
Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway named the alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella on-air following a network ban on doing so. Appearing on Sunday's Media Buzz, Hemingway, who is also a senior editor for the Federalist, discussed whether or not the press should identify the whistleblower at the center of impeachment proceedings against President Trump. Despite Fox News banning employees from doing so, she said his name.
"The media should be in the business of sharing information that is in the public interest," she argued. "We're not seeing this kind of concern that the media has for this whistleblower that they have had for other people. You had CNN doxxing a grandmother because they didn't like what she put on Facebook ... you have had the New York Times out a CIA station chief in Iran. You don’t see concern when it doesn’t match their political motivation."
Host Howard Kurtz then turned to Sen. Rand Paul's calls for the press to out the whistleblower, asking the panel why the Kentucky Republican is asking the media to "do his dirty work." Hemingway pointed to the fact that some media outlets have not only named the alleged whistleblower but also shared other revealing information about the person. "The New York Times did all but reveal his name in September," she said. "And RealClearInvestigations has identified a man named Eric Ciaramella as the whistleblower, so it’s already out there." Kurtz then abruptly stepped in to say, "I just want to clarify that I don't know that that is the person." "I don’t know whether this is actually the person or not, and I don’t want to speculate about that," he added. "But there have been a few conservative outlets and commentators that have floated that name."
Ciaramella, 33, a career CIA analyst, was named as the potential whistleblower by RealClearInvestigations. He was the Ukraine director on the National Security Council during the end of the Obama administration and remained there during the early months of the Trump administration while briefly acting senior director for European and Russian affairs. On Oct. 7, the Washington Examiner reported that Ciaramella is now a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council under the director of national intelligence. Earlier this week, Fox News sent a letter to its staff barring hosts from naming the alleged whistleblower on the network. Likewise, production staffers were told to "not fulfill any video or graphic requests" in connection to the whistleblower's identity. However, a guest on the network mentioned Ciaramella just days later.
