CNN’s resident anti-Donald Trump alarmist Brian Stelter took to his show, “Reliable Sources,” Sunday and issued his arguably most dire/bonkers warning about the president yet. “Do citizens in dictatorships recognize what's happening right here right now,” he sneered, “Are they looking at the first two days of the Trump administration and saying, ‘Oh, that's what my leader does?’” Stelter’s cries of despot were triggered by Trump doing what all politicians do, exaggerate their own performance.
Stelter showed nothing but contempt for the president as he ridiculously asked, “Will President Trump deny reality on a daily basis? Will he make up his own false facts and fake stats? What will the consequences be?”
“Is Trump gaslighting us, trying to manipulate? Make you doubt your own eyes. Does he know what gaslighting means,” he pontificated.
It was Press Secretary Sean Spicer who sent Stelter off the rails with talk of crowd sizes on Saturday. The CNN host demonstrated his eagerness for Spicer’s scalp with even more outlandish questions, “Would you quit if you were asked to lie? Will journalists trust a word he says now? Will Spicer have to resign?”
He vigorously tried to sow the seeds of doubt, declaring, “This is about the truth. Will trump use federal agencies to twist the truth? Will we be able to trust the data, statistic, the numbers this government provides?” He also re-aired the off the wall assertions pushed by CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Saturday night, that the Trump administration may not be trusted, to tell the truth about troop fatalities or warn of a potential terrorist attack. “Will they tell the truth when it really hurts,” wondered Stelter.
Ironically, Stelter tried to put the burden on conservative media outlets, demanding “Will conservative media outlets play along with Trump’s lies? Will they claim he is telling the truth or will conservative outlets respect their readers enough to call BS on BS?”
If Stelter wants to “call BS on BS” then let’s get right to it. He claims that Trump cannot be trusted, to tell the truth, and present real facts. But Stelter was nowhere to be seen when Obama’s State Department was caught editing official video of a press conference, on someone’s order. They removed questions posed by Fox News’ James Rosen that exposed that the department lied about being in negotiations for the Iran deal. If that isn’t something out of George Orwell’s 1984, I don’t know what is.
The real “BS” that needs to be called out is the media’s, there is a reason their approval ratings are in the toilet. Were ABC and NBC telling “the truth when it really hurts” Sunday morning when they omitted the loony ramblings of Ashley Judd and Madonna’s fantasy about “blowing up the White House?” Both of those networks also failed to cover any of ObamaCare’s failures for the first eight months of 2016.
When it comes to telling the truth, Stelter is on very unstable terrain, let’s review.
On air in October, he openly blamed Trump’s ‘overheated’ rhetoric for the firebombing of a GOP county headquarters in North Carolina. When there are cold hard facts reported that he doesn’t care for he discredits them, like he did to Associated Press when they exposed how Clinton Foundation donors received special access. Or how about when Stelter himself pushed dubious claims of Islamophobia by a YouTube prankster? There’s a lot more where that came from.
For a journalist fixated on the media regaining the trust of the public, he doesn't appear to be helping very much.
Transcript below:
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CNN
Reliable Sources
January 22, 2017
11:40:34 AM EasternBRIAN STELTER: All I have today are questioning. Maybe you do too. Will President Trump deny reality on a daily basis? Will he make up his own false facts and fake stats? What will the consequences be? Will reporters give up trying to fact check? Is that the goal? To wear us down, to wear us out. What will you at home trust? Who will you trust? Is this all accidental? Or is the Trump administration creating confusion and sowing division on purpose? Is the idea to force voters to choose between the reporters and the commander-in-chief to cast doubt on the media so much that you give up and trust nothing? Is Trump gaslighting us, trying to manipulate? Make you doubt your own eyes. Does he know what gaslighting means?
…
Axelrod said would you quit—Would you quit if you were asked to lie? Will journalists trust a word he says now? Will Spicer have to resign? These are all just questions but really this is about a lot more than the press secretary. This is about the truth. Will trump use federal agencies to twist the truth? Will we be able to trust the data, statistic, the numbers this government provides? Will agencies like the Secret Service come under pressure for contradicting Trump? Last night CNN Jim Sciutto said forget about crowd sizes, will the administration tell the truth about matters of life and death?
…
What happens the next time the economy slips into recession? Will Donald Trump and his administration tell the truth? Will they tell the truth when it really hurts? Let me ask you this. What happens if his approval ratings sink even further? Will Trump believe the polls or will he say, as he did this week, say they are rigged? Will his pollsters conjure up numbers he likes more instead? What will you believe? Will you and your neighbors just shrug or will you demand more honesty from your government?
And what about the media? Is Trump just trying to twist us into knots? Is it working? Or is there an end goal? Do Trump's allies want to silence skeptics in the media, destroy the press or maybe support an alternative press that presents an alternative reality that's more favorable?
Will conservative media outlets play along with Trump’s lies? Will they claim he is telling the truth or will conservative outlets respect their readers enough to call BS on BS?
And finally. What can all newsrooms do to help you know what's really going on? These are uncomfortable questions especially these last ones, but it's time to ask them. Do citizens in dictatorships recognize what's happening right here right now? Are they looking at the first two days of the Trump administration and saying, “Oh, that's what my leader does?” What should we learn from them today?
