Fresh off his newfound stardom after arguing with White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday afternoon, The Sentinel and Playboy writer Brian Karem told MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews that he (and the press corps) are “tired of being paddled” as liberal pushers of fake news.
Matthews swooned over Karem before the segment, promoting in a tease how he caused “fireworks in the White House briefing room as a reporter fights back against the White House charges of fake news.”
When Karem appeared in the next block, Matthews oozed nothing but praise:
Brian, thank you. I was very impressed by that. What got you? What made you do it today? Cause nobody else has done it before. It should have done, I think. You find it because they turn that, supposedly a service to the American people with people paid by American taxpayers to give us answers to questions which you have a right. That’s what a briefing’s supposed to — it’s not supposed to be a PR campaign of trashing everybody who disagrees with the President.
When the Hardball host wondered if Sean Spicer and Huckabee Sanders are “truth tellers,” Karem responded that this was “why we're here is to try to find out and there have been, what got me when you ask about what got me rankled, it’s the fact that they sit there and say, we're dishonest in the media and we're being dishonest.”
Showing the liberal reporter has no shame, he argued that the White House’s pushback against the liberal media included attacks on reporters who have died in dangerous corners of the world:
Well, there's consequences. But I have yet to hear anyone from this administration even admit a mistake and so, it is a little hard to take....In addition, there are reporters who have given their lives to get news to the public. And it would be just labeled as dishonest and fake media rankles me. And — you know, maybe I lost my temper that moment. But it was long time coming. It was six months.
Matthews had been due for an awkward, slightly-disturbing Notable Quotable, so it wasn’t a shock when he told Karem that the White House press corps are pawns in “a PR campaign” by the Trump administration in which “they have to sit there and be props, basically props for the White House press secretary, to use them and yell at them.”
“They're being used as a PR campaign. So the people from the more right wing reaches of the country who still believe in Trump, they're watching them being paddled basically,” Matthews added.
Karem shot back: “Yeah and I’m tired of being paddled and I don’t like that. I don't like being paddled. I don't like being spanked...Just give me the facts.”
Matthews concluded with more gooey compliments, telling Karem that he’s “made some noise” and “[i]n the regular, normal truth telling media, you'll be talked about tonight and tomorrow.”
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 27:
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 27, 2017
7:13 p.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Pressing Questions]
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Coming up, fireworks in the White House briefing room as a reporter fights back against the White House charges of fake news.
BRIAN KAREM: We're here to ask you questions. You're here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, see, once again, the President's right and everybody else out here is fake media and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.
MATTHEWS: Well, that reporter, Brian Karem, joins us next.
(....)
7:18 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Pressing Questions]
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to Hardball. Well, during today’s White House press briefing, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders got into a heated exchange with Brian Karem, the executive editors for The Sentinel newspapers, two local papers here that cover the suburban Washington area. Let’s watch this.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: We've been going on this Russia/Trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. Things like the success at the VA barely get covered. They may get covered for an hour at a time, but this story gets covered day in, day out, and I think America is frankly looking for something better. They're looking for something more and I think they deserve something better from our news media.
KAREM: Come on! You're inflaming everybody right here right now with those words. This administration has done that as well. Why in the name of heavens — any one of us, right, are replaceable and any one of us, if we don't get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. You have been elected to serve for four years at least. There's no option other than that. We're here to ask you questions. You're here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, see, once again, the President's right and everybody else out here is fake media and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I just — I disagree completely, first of all. I think if anything has been inflamed, it's the dishonesty that often takes place by the news media and I think it is outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question.
MATTHEWS: Brian Karem joins us right now. Brian, thank you. I was very impressed by that. What got you? What made you do it today? Cause nobody else has done it before. It should have done, I think. You find it because they turn that, supposedly a service to the American people with people paid by American taxpayers to give us answers to questions which you have a right. That’s what a briefing’s supposed to — it’s not supposed to be a PR campaign of trashing everybody who disagrees with the President. Your thoughts.
KAREM: Well, I had listened to it — look, first of all, I have a healthy respect for Sarah and I have a healthy respect for Sean and a healthy respect for what they do.
MATTHEWS: Why? Why do you have that? Explain that.
KAREM: Because it is a difficult job.
MATTHEWS: What do you respect what they do?
KAREM: I respect the fact that they have to face the likes of us every day and I'm not the easiest person in the world to get along with. Just ask people who actually like me?
MATTHEWS: Are they truth tellers? Are they truth tellers?
KAREM: That's — that’s why we're here is to try to find out and there have been, what got me when you ask about what got me rankled, it’s the fact that they sit there and say, we're dishonest in the media and we're being dishonest. Well, there's consequences. But I have yet to hear anyone from this administration even admit a mistake and so, it is a little hard to take. So, the people in that room I have a healthy respect for. I've been coming and going in this room off and on since the Reagan administration and there were — you know, those people, I have held up as heroes, some of the people that were here. In addition, there are reporters who have given their lives to get news to the public. And it would be just labeled as dishonest and fake media rankles me. And — you know, maybe I lost my temper that moment. But it was long time coming. It was six months. I would like the see that taken off and just taken off the table and let us talk about real issues. Let us ask our questions. Quit hitting us with faking media. I mean, everyone including Breitbart in there has been respectful. They've asked tough questions and the administration has not often been forthcoming with what I would say are factual answers. So yeah. I'm concerned.
MATTHEWS: I thought it was interesting cause you were really — let me try to interpret what you’re doing another way. The reporters who sit in those chairs there in the briefing room at the White House, have to sit there. They have to sit there because they've been assigned to that post, to that spot and if somebody up there is doing a PR campaign against them, they have to sit there and be props, basically props for the White House press secretary, to use them and yell at them and treat they will like high school kids or grade school kids that were disobedient and didn't get their homework in on-time and they’ve got to sit there. They're being used as a PR campaign. So the people from the more right wing reaches of the country who still believe in Trump, they're watching them being paddled basically.
KAREM: Yeah and I’m tired of being paddled and I don’t like that.
MATTHEWS: You know, given a timeout if you will and you said — I think you’re right.
KAREM: I don't like being paddled. I don't like being spanked. I — you know, to me, the attitude that I get, I get it from my children and I say, you know, enough of that. Don't pour water in my ear and tell me it's raining. Just give me the facts and I would very much like if could I get this out of this administration and I —
MATTHEWS: Well, you made some noise. I’m telling you.
KAREM: Well, thank you.
MATTHEWS: In the regular, normal truth telling media, you'll be talked about tonight and tomorrow. Thank you so much, Brian Karem for coming Hardball.
KAREM: Sure.
