Stop the presses! CNN’s Brian Stelter, wants you to know that he reports on the facts and nothing but the facts. Of course, in reality, this assertion could not be farther from the truth, but the host made the claim regardless on Sunday’s Reliable Sources.
Stelter began the segment, which aimed to defend the media against accusations of bias, in a way only a CNN anchor could, by blaming the President:
You know, we've been talking about these misstatements from the President. Eric, you wrote something this week that really spoke to me. You talked about how it's difficult to use neutral-sounding language to describe what the President does, because that makes it sounds like you have an axe to grind…And just talking about it like this, just neutrally saying what happened, it sounds like an attack.
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple continued the pity party for the supposedly “neutral network” of CNN:
It does. And this is- you know, we talked about Shep Smith, we talked about-CNN gets hammered for this every, single day. Is people come on the air and say that Trump just mocked a reporter with a disability. Well, that happens to be the fact. And-
In his response to Wemple, Stelter blurted out the astronomical statement; “Yeah, back during the campaign one of these first times, we're just stating the truth.”
As if Stelter’s comments were not hypocritical enough, Wemple continued his bend against President Trump while simultaneously claiming to be fair and balanced:
Right. Or that Trump said- is on tape saying that he's grab-gonna grab- or that he had made a practice of grabbing women by the pussy. That also is a very neutral statement from a factual standpoint. And it sounds like a condemnation. The facts double as condemnations under Trump. I think that's -- and that has blown up the traditional model of broadcasting, because you always want to sound measured and neutral.
Right, because condemning the President is hardly partial.
Stelter’s cohort, Daniel Dale, evidently was no less wary of appearing hyper-partisan in his remarks: “I think you just call it out every time. I think what a serial liar like Trump counts on is his ability to wear us down, to wear us out.”
Lacking any sense of self-awareness, Stelter censured President Trump for his falsehoods: “That's why I like that you keep track of the number of times that he says the same falsehood.” Endlessly hammering Trump on a daily basis is CNN's idea of "stating the truth."
Transcript below:
Reliable Sources
10/20/19
11:37:55 PM
BRIAN STELTER: You know, we've been talking about these misstatements from the President. Eric, you wrote something this week that really spoke to me. You talked about how it's difficult to use neutral-sounding language to describe what the President does, because that makes it sounds like you have an axe to grind. Great example today, the President misspells the Defense Secretary's name on Twitter. Mark Esper is his name. The President wrote Esperanto. Maybe it was just an autocorrect, I make lots of autocorrect mistakes on my phone, but the President should have a proofreader. And just talking about it like this, just neutrally saying what happened, it sounds like an attack.
ERIK WEMPLE: It does. And this is- you know, we talked about Shep Smith, we talked about-CNN gets hammered for this every single day. Is people come on the air and say that Trump just mocked a reporter with a disability. Well, that happens to be the fact. And-
STELTER: Yeah, back during the campaign one of these first times we’re just stating the truth.
WEMPLE: Right. Or that Trump said- is on tape saying that he's grab-gonna grab- or that he had made a practice of grabbing women by the pussy. That also is a very neutral statement from a factual standpoint. And it sounds like a condemnation. The facts double as condemnations under Trump. I think that's -- and that has blown up the traditional model of broadcasting, because you always want to sound measured and neutral.
STELTER: Right and as neutral. So, how do you handle that Daniel on a daily basis?
DANIEL DALE: I think you just call it out every time. I think what a serial liar like Trump counts on is his ability to wear us down, to wear us out. He knows that, you know, we might fact check it the first time or the second time, but he's going to say it a hundred times. Some of these false claims, these lies, he's told a hundred times. And if we let the other 98 go, then he wins with those 98.
STELTER: That's why I like that you keep track of the number of times that he says the same falsehood. Here's another example we'll put on the screen, this is the second fact's first graphic we have, he talks about the U.S. Deployment to Syria initially being just one month, when, in fact-
DALE: There was no time table on it.
