The journalists on CNN prove daily that they are members of the opposition party when it comes to the President. Inside Politics host John King on Tuesday delivered a whining “speech” about Donald Trump’s “bad” treatment of journalists. Specifically complaining about press access, King huffed, “There's a bigger issue about White House transparency and secrecy.”
King spent time demanding televised press briefings, chiding, “I'm a TV person, so we want the camera in the room.” Getting worked up, the journalist snapped, “But it is bad. It is bad when an administration starts to retreat from a public disclosure and public discourse.”
Admitting that he’d gone from standard mid-day reporting to advocacy, King concluded, “That’s my speech.”
On Monday, Jim Acosta went on a rant about the Trump White House, lecturing, “I don't know what world we're living in right now, Brooke, where we're standing at the White House, and they bring us into the briefing room here at the White House and they won't answer these questions on camera, or let us record the audio. I don't know why everybody is going along with this.”
A partial transcript is below:
Inside Politics
6/20/17
12:52
JOHN KING: It was just five months ago, Sean Spicer entered America’s living room with the first briefing room appearance we’re not likely to forget.[Clip of Sean Spicer’s January 21 press briefing]
KING: Now, since that fiery briefing room, call it a screed, call it a lecture, call it what you will, that was January 21, the President has mostly been, we are told, mad at his press secretary, complaining to other aides and to Spicer himself about his performance, his inability to respond quickly enough to leaks, the President believes and the President thinks to stop those leaks. That’s why Spicer’s departure from the briefing room has long been at the center of what’s become a cottage industry of reporting here on an impending, perhaps, White House staff shakeup. Now, Spicer again rumored to be on his way out of the briefing room, which means that Saturday Night Live might need a new shtick.
[Montage of Melissa McCarthy
KING: That’s funny. Melissa McCarthy does a great Sean Spicer. But, again, this is one of those stories where you can focus on the theater and the drama and the constant leaks about the shakeup within the White House. Whether you like Sean Spicer or not, whether you support Sean Spicer or not, this is his job and he’s constantly been talking about losing your job, which is a hard thing to do. Number two, there’s a bigger issue about White House transparency and secrecy, In this interim period where Sean Spicer’s job has been somehow under review or consideration, they’ve started to do more off-camera briefings, which is — I’m a TV person, so we want the camera in the room. I’ve covered the White House. They don’t always have to have a camera in the room. But it is bad. It is bad when an administration starts to retreat from a public disclosure and public discourse. That’s my speech.
