After spending the start of his own CNN show condemning the supporters of Brexit for being ignorant racists, Fareed Zakaria appeared on Reliable Sources to condemn pro-Brexit papers. The disgraced reporter admitted that the media does “tend to be, probably, left of center,” but argued the real bias is that, “the media does have a bias in favor of facts.” Zakaria accused papers in favor of Brexit of using only an emotional argument.
“If you look at the Brexit campaign, the people who wanted Britain to leave were entirely using emotion,” Zakaria claimed, “They were conjuring up horror stories of millions of refugees comes into Britain, overwhelming the social services, things like that.”
Host Brian Stelter added, “This is what we see in the tabloids, right? The Daily Mail, The Sun, the British tabloids that were supporting a departure from the EU.”
“Exactly,” Zakaria agreed, “The British tabloids are basically their Fox News.”
Zakaria went on to pontificate about how intelligent the anti-Brexit supporters were, “the people who wanted Britain to remain were producing studies and economic analyses and experts.” He claimed that their real bias is that they were using data to argue to stay in the European Union, “It does have a bias in favor of authentic, legitimate experts who are providing data.”
He also argued that it was the duty of “journalists,” like him, to call out the pro-Brexit papers for “scare mongering,” “I think journalists have to point out when one side is using facts and the other side is using— kind of pushing emotional buttons, that there's a difference. They're not equivalent.” Even though it is fact that there is increase immigration permitted by EU governance, not Britain’s own parliament. Not to mention the strangling economic and trade regulations that had created notably slow growth.
But the “journalist” seems to have for gotten that the anti-Brexit supporters did their own “scare mongering” with all kinds of grim economic and trading scenarios, all but claiming the island nation would be swallowed by the sea.
Transcript below:
CNN
Reliable Sources
June 26, 2016
11:14:21 AM EasternFAREED ZAKARIA: But there's another point— piece here that's important to point out, which is the media is often accused of bias. And look, we know most journalists are—do tend to be, probably, left of center. But there's another problem here, which is that if you look at the Brexit campaign, the people who wanted Britain to leave were entirely using emotion. They were conjuring up horror stories of millions of refugees comes into Britain, overwhelming the social services, things like that.
BRIAN STELTER: This is what we see in the tabloids, right? The Daily Mail, The Sun, the British tabloids that were supporting a departure from the EU.
ZAKARIA: Exactly. The British tabloids are basically their Fox News. They don't have Fox News, but they have the tabloids. On the other side, the people who wanted Britain to remain were producing studies and economic analyses and experts. So the media does have a bias in favor of facts. It does have a bias in favor of authentic, legitimate experts who are providing data. And they do point out that some of the scare mongering is, in fact, scare mongering. Now, you can call it bias, but I think journalists have to point out when one side is using facts and the other side is using— kind of pushing emotional buttons, that there's a difference. They're not equivalent.
