CNN has become a self-serving propaganda mill for journalists the past few months, reaching a new level of shamelessness. Wednesday’s New Day ran the headline, “TRUMP WHITE HOUSE INTENSIFIES WAR WITH MEDIA,” with reporter Clarissa Ward (filling in for co-host Alisyn Camerota) worrying that by labeling the media as fake and such, that the White House is putting the lives of journalists in danger:
Chris, at what point does this become dangerous and I'm not just talking about dangerous as in tearing at the social fabric, I'm talking about dangerous in that a journalist gets hurt, because I can tell you working overseas in war zones, people are emboldened by the actions of this administration, emboldened by the all-out sort of declaration of war on the media, if I'm getting it in the neck, Chris I can only imagine what someone like you is dealing with. At what point does this become reckless or irresponsible, Chris?
The media’s new hero (Vox actually called his actions "heroic"), Brian Karem, who yelled at Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during Tuesday's White House briefing, claimed: “We are past that point...We've had, we've had threats.” Karem claimed journalists are just doing their job. That job, of course, is to support the agenda of the left.
Unsurprisingly, co-host Chris Cuomo applauded Karem: “You’ve got a home here, Brian. We always like people who want to speak truth to power on the show...”
Nobody is claiming that the on the scene, “war zone” reporting is fake news. Yesterday and today, Karem has been whining that journalists put their lives on the line to report the news and don’t deserve to be treated as fake news. Yeah, war correspondents and such put their lives at risk, not Washington Reporters, Brian. The truth is that the media is actually reporting inaccurate information and Newsbusters exposes this sad reality every single day.
Every public figure gets threats, Brian. I am old enough to remember way back, like a few weeks ago, when GOP congressmen were targeted and shot at (not just threatened) by a leftist nut job. The narrative is rich considering it is the media that is pushing false or misleading stories and at times hateful narratives. Yet I don’t recall the media being worried when journalists were prosecuted by the Obama administration. As Andrew McCarthy points out in National Review:
The administration’s targeting of journalists, including (a) attorney general Eric Holder’s approval of the seizure of personal and business phone records of Associated Press reporters en masse (i.e., not a particularized search targeting a specific journalist suspected of wrongdoing); and (b) Holder’s approval of a warrant targeting the e-mails of Fox News reporter James Rosen in a leak investigation — based on an application in which the government represented to a federal court that the journalist could be guilty of a felony violation of the Espionage Act in connection with a leak of classified information (in addition to purportedly being a “flight risk”).
Nor did the media cry when that administration sought to ostracize Fox News, claiming it was illegitimate.
Hennion & Walsh and the Laser Spine Institute ran ads following the segment.
See the more complete transcript of the June 28 conversation below:
8:10 AM ET
CLARISSA WARD: Chris, at what point does this become dangerous and I'm not just talking about dangerous --
CHRIS CILLIZZA: Oh, we're past that point.
WARD: -- As in tearing at the social fabric, I'm talking about dangerous in that a journalist gets hurt, because I can tell you working overseas in war zones, people are emboldened by the actions of this administration, emboldened by the all-out sort of declaration of war on the media, if I'm getting it in the neck, Chris I can only imagine what someone like you is dealing with. At what point does this become reckless or irresponsible, Chris?
CILLIZZA: I mean I don't want to say we're past that point.
BRIAN KAREM: We are past that point.
CILLIZZA: I think it is already dangerous what the Trump administration is doing, which is defiance points--
KAREM: We've had, we've had threats
CILLIZZA: they are trying to take an honest mistake or not even a mistake, and turn it into the norm as opposed -- the rule opposed to the exception, which is a very dangerous thing because that's wilfully misleading, frankly...
(...)
CUOMO: You’ve got a home here, Brian. We always like people who want to speak truth to power on the show...
