In roughly eight minutes Wednesday afternoon, MSNBC Live host Katy Tur and far-left liberal actor Rob Reiner were able to showcase why the embarrassingly smug behavior of Hollywood and the liberal media has continued to lose them supporters despite their deranged attempts to play the victim card.
Tur started her pity party by showing video of CNN’s Jim Acosta being heckled at a Tuesday night Trump rally and fretting that “I would say the President's supporters attacking the media was unbelievable, but it is not” as “[i]t is constant and has been since 2016.”
She added that what was “unbelievable” was Eric Trump “tweeting a video in support of the crowd and then the President himself re-tweeting that video” and then lectured the President and his administration for not defending Acosta before welcome on Reiner with all the glee of a kid in a candy store.
Tur continued to admit that “this is not a new thing,” but instead of moving or taking the high road, the MSNBC host couldn’t leave the topic be as she complained: “The President hasn't said a word to his supporters to tell them to cool off, to chill out, to calm down. He stokes this.”
Even though it’s supposed to be an interview, Reiner happily sat by as Tur ranted (click “expand” for more):
When you don't like the answer, you'll boo the messenger, which is we saw happened to Jim Acosta last night. People don't want to hear the facts about the President it seems or Donald Trump supporters don't want to hear the facts. A lot of them tune us out, won’t believe a single thing that they say. They believe what he says over us, which is, you know, propaganda, when you don’t have somebody to push back or fact-check or correct the spin or they’ll believe their friends and family, but they're not going to believe the media, even if the media is comporting with what they're seeing with their own eyes.
This teed up Reiner to argue that he views the media world as having “two mainstream medias” with one being “Washington Post, New York Times, all the networks except for Fox working very hard to get the truth out.”
The way he should have phrased that was they’re engaging in bias by omission, playing favorites with socialists, and working to get Trump removed from office. But that’s just one man’s take
In his mind, he reiterated a hysterically false claim that “this is the first time that you have mainstream media essentially divided into two halves, so that you have, you know, Fox, Breitbart, Sinclair and Alex Jones, which has now been taken off of Facebook, thank God.” Alex Jones hasn’t been taken off Facebook yet (though most think he should be).
Comparing today’s journalists to those in the lead-up to the Iraq War, Reiner bemoaned: “[T]hey weren't facing the headwinds that real journalists who are working very hard now to get the truth out, which is this cement block, a wall that they cannot penetrate with the truth and that's the scary part.”
Tur then showed how out of touch she is with the American populace when she seemed exasperated at the notion that, three years after Trump began his candidacy, droves of people still believe that “the media” and Hollywood don’t “represent regular people.”
She pleaded with Reiner to help her figure this out, so Reiner responded as only Meathead could, which is double down (click “expand” for more)
REINER: You just have to keep pounding away. There's nothing else you can do. I mean, look, it doesn't speak to the mainstream media. They're just angry. Their people are angry, and he will feed them whatever they want to keep that anger going and you see it in the rallies. He actually calls for, you know, this outrage and take it out against the media, take it out against immigrants, take it out against whomever you want. That's what he does. He keeps stirring it up. But you have to stay at it, you have to say at it. There's no other way.
TUR: Bring the fact checking up to 11.
REINER: Well, if you can, I mean if you can. If you don't break through, we are going to have — we are in right now, it might be the last stage of a civil war. The latest battle is being fought. Hopefully it won't be fought physically, but we are more divided than we ever have been and we’ve got a President who is backed up by media. Presidents have always spewed propaganda. Liberals, Democrats, Republicans, everyone has.
After a commercial break, Tur returned in the MSNBC Live handoff to Ali Velshi with Velshi touting what “a fun conversation” both on air and “off air too.”
“He — he keeps saying and I agree with this completely, we’re arguing facts. We’re arguing whether or not this is a cup instead of arguing policy,” Tur added, heaping more praise on Reiner.
To see the relevant transcript from August 1's MSNBC Live with Katy Tur, click “expand.”
MSNBC Live with Katy Tur
August 1, 2018
2:48 p.m. Eastern[CROWD HECKLING JIM ACOSTA]
KATY TUR: The video was taken by CNN's Jim Acosta. That's just some of what he personally faced at a rally last night in Florida that the President held. I would say the President's supporters attacking the media was unbelievable, but it is not. It is constant and has been since 2016. You guys all know that. Here is what is unbelievable though.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable]
The President's son Eric tweeting a video in support of the crowd and then the President himself re-tweeting that video. But here's what Eric Trump had to say back in June when speaking about public criticism of his father's administration.
ERIC TRUMP: I’ve never seen hatred like this. I mean, to me, they’re not even people. It’s — it's so, so sad. Morality is gone. Morals have flown the window. We deserve so much better than this as a country.
TUR: Now take a listen to what press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had to say just a few weeks ago.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: We are allowed to disagree, but we should be able to do so freely and without fear of harm. [SCREEN WIPE] Healthy debate on ideas and political philosophy is important, but the cause for harassment and push for any Trump supporter to avoid the public is unacceptable.
TUR: Maybe the President and his administration should take their own advice, or perhaps the advice of the First Lady, and Be Best. With me now actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, director of the recent film shock and awe. Rob, it’s really good to have you.
ROB REINER: Thanks for having me.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Supporters Taunt White House Reporter at Florida Rally]
TUR: I — I — again, this is not a new thing. It's been going on since 2016. The President hasn't said a word to his supporters to tell them to cool off, to chill out, to calm down. He stokes this. I asked somebody in the campaign, I guess it’s about a year and a half ago now or in the midst of the campaign, the end of the campaign when it was really getting hot, I said does the president care, if one of us, one of journalists got hurt, does the President care? Would the President care?
REINER: And what was the answer?
TUR: No.
REINER: He wouldn’t care?
TUR: No.
REINER: Well, that — that —
TUR: And this was an earnest answer. This wasn’t a sarcastic answer. It was an earnest answer between somebody that I had a good rapport with in the campaign.
REINER: That goes along with everything we know about this guy, which is he only cares about himself. He doesn't care what happens to other people. He doesn't have empathetic feelings for other people, he just cares about what happens to him.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Retweets Video of Supporters Taunting White House Reporter]
TUR: When you don't like the answer, you'll boo the messenger, which is we saw happened to Jim Acosta last night. People don't want to hear the facts about the President it seems or Donald Trump supporters don't want to hear the facts. A lot of them tune us out, won’t believe a single thing that they say. They believe what he says over us, which is, you know, propaganda, when you don’t have somebody to push back or fact-check or correct the spin or they’ll believe their friends and family, but they're not going to believe the media, even if the media is comporting with what they're seeing with their own eyes.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; WH: Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech Often Go Hand-in-Hand]
REINER: Yeah.
TUR: The Washington Post has been keeping a running fact-checker if you will of the president's — the way he speaks and they’ve just updated it. 4,229 false or misleading claims in 558 games. That’s 7.5 claims a day. In just June or July, that's 16 lies or falsehoods or falsehoods or misleading claims a day.
REINER: And that is the biggest problem I see with — cause I think of it as two mainstream medias. You have, you know, Washington Post, New York Times, all the networks except for Fox working very hard to get the truth out.
TUR: To be fair, there are some really genuinely, very good journalists at fox.
REINER: Yes.
TUR: — who do some genuinely —
REINER: Yes.
TUR: — good journalism.
REINER: Yes, you know —
TUR: Look at Ed Henry's interview with Scott Pruitt.
REINER: Absolutely and, you know, we've got Shepard Smith. There are good journalists there. But this is the first time that you have mainstream media essentially divided into two halves, so that you have, you know, Fox, Breitbart, Sinclair and Alex Jones, which has now been taken off of Facebook, thank God.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Retweets Video of Supporters Taunting White House Reporter]
You know, trafficking in another narrative and so, you know, when Shock and Awe, with these guys, the four journalists who got the truth out during the run-up to the war, they were facing headwinds of patriotism, the trauma of 9/11, but they weren't facing the headwinds that real journalists who are working very hard now to get the truth out, which is this cement block, a wall that they cannot penetrate with the truth and that's the scary part. That’s —
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; WH: Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech Often Go Hand-in-Hand]
TUR: Donald Trump ran on this and as effective. He said that, you know, the media doesn't represent regular people. Hollywood doesn’t represent regular people. We are completely out of touch with regular people and it worked to his advantage. How — how as somebody who speaks in the media often, as someone who produces films like Shock and Awe that are journalism films but also somebody in Hollywood, how do you push back on that.
REINER: You just have to keep pounding away. There's nothing else you can do. I mean, look, it doesn't speak to the mainstream media. They're just angry. Their people are angry, and he will feed them whatever they want to keep that anger going and you see it in the rallies.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Supporters Taunt White House Reporter at Florida Rally]
He actually calls for, you know, this outrage and take it out against the media, take it out against immigrants, take it out against whomever you want. That's what he does. He keeps stirring it up. But you have to stay at it, you have to say at it. There's no other way.
TUR: Bring the fact checking up to 11.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Retweets Video of Supporters Taunting White House Reporter]
REINER: Well, if you can, I mean if you can. If you don't break through, we are going to have — we are in right now, it might be the last stage of a civil war. The latest battle is being fought. Hopefully it won't be fought physically, but we are more divided than we ever have been and we’ve got a President who is backed up by media. Presidents have always spewed propaganda. Liberals, Democrats, Republicans, everyone has.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; WH: Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech Often Go Hand-in-Hand]
TUR: Everyone spins.
REINER: Yeah. To push a policy, to push a rationale to go to war, but they’ve never been backed up by essentially in a sense state-run media. That's new and social media. It's all news and it's very, very scary right now.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Supporters Taunt White House Reporter at Florida Rally]
TUR: Everyone spins, certainly the lead-up to the Iraq war was — is a really good example of when something that's not true can get us into a disastrous war, but it is important to point out that this President, the amount of times he says things that are verifiable false is completely unprecedented.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Retweets Video of Supporters Taunting White House Reporter]
REINER: Right.
TUR: Completely unprecedented.
REINER: But it works. It works because just like active measures, just like disinformation campaigns that the Russians put out, they keep feeding on each other and if you say no collusion, or fake news, or witch hunt, you say it over and over and over again, you will cement people who believe in what you believe.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; WH: Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech Often Go Hand-in-Hand]
But saying it over and over again doesn't make it true and we know just based on what we've seen, there's all kinds of conspiracy right out there and obstruction of justice. He's now trying to make it so that when Mueller comes with his — with his report, his base will not believe it.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: #Unbelievable; Trump Supporters Taunt White House Reporter at Florida Rally]
TUR: He is the living embodiment of if you say a lie often enough, people will start to believe it. Rob Reiner, it is wonderful to have you in. Thank you so much. Good to see you.
REINER: Thanks for having me. Thanks.
TUR: We will be right back.
(....)
TUR: And that will do it for me this hour. My friend, Ali Velshi, the one and only, is here now to take things away.
ALI VELSHI: That was a fun conversation with Rob Reiner.
TUR: It was. It was interesting.
VELSHI: And it was interesting when it was off air too, we needed a little web extra for that.
TUR: I know. He — he keeps saying and I agree with this completely, we’re arguing facts. We’re arguing whether or not this is a cup instead of arguing policy.
VELSHI: Yes and it sucks a lot of oxygen out of the room. When people say this must be a really exciting time for you, I often say that I'm sad for all the things we don't talk about. The important policy discussions we don't have
TUR: It is exhausting.
VELSHI: because we are fact checkers full time.
TUR: I know and we seem to be having the same conversations every single day because he keeps lying or misleading or exaggerating.
VELSHI: Yeah. Yep. And we’re going to keep doing it. And we’re going to keep doing it. We won’t tire of it.
TUR: Ali Velshi —
VELSHI: Have a good rest of your day.
TUR: — you too.
VELSHI: Thank you.
