This past month has seen liberal journalists freak out over Fox New’s growing influence and whine about Donald Trump’s shots at leftist members of the press. They also worried they weren’t fair enough to Hillary Clinton during the campaign, even though one reporter admitted to having “spent a year” on writing a “great story” for the Democratic nominee.
In April, New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet feared Trump was creating a “culture” where Fox News was “regarded as serious journalism,” and the Times and Washington Post were not. His colleague, columnist Charles Blow charged that “Trump’s Fox fixation” meant America was “being governed by the dimmest of wits on the most unscrupulous of networks.”
Over on CNN, political analyst David Gergen fretted “if we had this president and we had a couple more like him” it could lead to the “diminishment of democracy, if not its death.”
On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos moderated a panel of journalists that worried they had not given Hillary Clinton fair coverage. The panel included New York Times reporter Amy Chozick who actually griped that the Clinton campaign didn’t accept a “sympathetic biographical” feature that she had “spent a year” on and was a “great story for her.”
Of course, Hollywood liberals attacked the White House as well, led by comedian Michelle Wolf’s obnoxious attacks on Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. And actor Robert De Niro fantasized about a future Saturday Night Live skit where he got to “arrest” Trump and “escort him to jail.”
The following are the worst attacks against Trump and conservatives over the last month from lefty journalists and celebrities:
[LANGUAGE WARNING]
She Tried Her Best to Boost Hillary
“I tried to write sympathetic biographical features. The perfect example is I wrote this sympathetic biographical feature about her moving to Arkansas and this feminist mentor of hers trying to talk her out of it. I spent a year on the story. The campaign didn’t want it. It was a great story for her.”
— New York Times reporter Amy Chozick on ABC’s This Week, April 22.
Equal Coverage Was Unfair to Hillary
“You look back [at the 2016 campaign] and say, listen, there were things done wrong. No question about that. But there’s something structurally in the media where we have to equalize everything. If you point out a wrongdoing on one side, you have to point at a wrongdoing on the other and they automatically become equivalent and that isn’t always fair.”
— Moderator George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, April 22.
Freaking Out Over “Fox & Friends”
“If he [Donald Trump] creates a culture where Fox & Friends and Jesse Watters are regarded as serious journalism, and the New York Times and the Washington Post are not, he will have done longstanding, harmful effect on the country.”
— New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet on CNN’s Reliable Sources, April 7.
“During the early days of the Obama administration, I did a few appearances on Fox & Friends....I never saw the show as anything more than a carnival, a propaganda tool for conservatives. I would never have thought that the show’s hosts would emerge as the most influential in American media....This show, with its kindergarten-level intellectual capacity, moved from parroting conservative policies to constructing presidential priorities. Fox & Friends has essentially become Donald Trump’s daily briefing....Trump’s Fox fixation isn’t benign or inconsequential – because, like him, the network has an aversion to the truth....In a way, America is being governed by the dimmest of wits on the most unscrupulous of networks. The very thought of it is horror-inducing.”
— Columnist Charles Blow in April 9 New York Times article “Horror of Being Governed by ‘Fox & Friends.’”
Scared by Sean Hannity’s “Toxic Relationship” with Trump
“It’s very scary as an American, to think that on major issues, the President’s first call is to Sean Hannity. He’s not going to counsel moderation or anything sensible because he wants this to be entertainment as much as Trump wants to produce entertainment. The more melodrama the more Sean Hannity has to cover and talk about. So this is a very toxic relationship.”
— New York Times columnist Frank Bruni on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, April 22.
Was He Asleep During CNN and MSNBC’s Coverage of the Obama and Clinton Years?
“We have never had an administration as close to a partisan media outlet as this one. Think about the relationships between people in the past who have advised presidents....We’ve never had media outlets staffing an administration to the extent – literally, the extent to Fox News and Breitbart have in this administration....There’s really nothing quite like it in American history.”
— CNN analyst and The Daily Beast Editor John Avlon on CNN’s Reliable Sources, April 22.
A Couple More Presidents Like Trump And It’s Bye-Bye Democracy
“I thought one thing was striking this week, Anderson, was a story in yesterday’s front page of The New York Times about the leader of Turkey, Erdogan, who is giving speeches like this every day. Two or three on national television, he pays no attention to facts, he tells a total number of lies, he’s charismatic, and he maintains about a 40 percent steady approval rating. Guess who else has about 40 percent these days? Donald Trump. So, it is a device that works up to a point. And I’m sad to say it also can lead to the diminishment of democracy, if not its death....We’re not there by any means but it is a threat. And if we had this president and we had a couple more like him, a couple more like him, I think we would be very close.”
— CNN Political Analyst David Gergen on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, April 5.
The Lack of Self-Awareness of His Own Career is Stunning
“I’m Dan Rather and I’m concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country, the sharing of biased and false news has become all-too common in corporate media....Unfortunately, some media executives use their local platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control – to try to control exactly what people think. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”
— Former CBS Evening News anchor on The News with Dan Rather on The Young Turks’ YouTube channel, April 2.
“America’s New Pravda” Could Have Been MSNBC’s Slogan Under Obama
Co-host Joe Scarborough: “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy. A national broadcasting system that is shoving propaganda down local anchor's throats....Straight from the pen of somebody who is a Trump acolyte is really, really chilling.”
Ex-Newsweek editor Jon Meacham: “It’s kind of beyond chilling, right? It’s state media, essentially....”
Scarborough: “They’re [Trump allies] trying to discredit those who are actually calling them out on their lies and now they’re using an entire broadcast system and I’m not sure who advertises on these stations, but they’re but they’re basically advertising for America’s new Pravda.”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 2.
Trump Snubbing Nerd Prom is An Insult to Press Freedom?
“What do you think about the president not attending this freedom, this toast to the press freedom two years in a row?”
— CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins to Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti, prior to White House Correspondents Association Dinner, April 28.
Wolf’s War on White House Women
“You guys have got to stop putting Kellyanne [Conway] on your shows. All she does is lie. If you don’t give her a platform, she has nowhere to lie. It’s like that old saying, if a tree falls in the woods, how do we get Kellyanne under that tree? I’m not suggesting she gets hurt. Just stuck. Stuck under a tree.”...
“There’s also, of course, Ivanka. She was supposed to be an advocate for women, but it turns out she’s about as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons. She’s done nothing to satisfy women. So, I guess like father, like daughter.”...
“I actually really like Sarah [Huckabee Sanders]. I think she’s very resourceful. Like she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies. And I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you know? Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee, is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like what’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know. Aunt Coulter.”...
— Some of comedian Michelle Wolf’s jokes about White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway and First Daughter Ivanka Trump at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, April 28.
Raunchy Jokes at Correspondent’s Dinner? Trump’s Fault
“I think something [comedian Michelle] Wolf was trying to do with these very, very risque jokes, in some cases x-rated jokes, I think she was trying to point over to President Trump and say ‘why is it the behavior accepted...by the leader of the free world, but I’m criticized up here as a comedian for saying some of the same sorts of things?’ I think that might have been what she was going for.”
— CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter on CNN’s New Day, April 29.
Host Chris Cuomo: “That’s the irony is that people are complaining, Trump backers, that she [White House Correspondents Dinner speaker Michelle Wolf] went over the line, when he goes over the line all the time and they say nothing to him. Say nothing about it.”
CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter: “And that’s why I think it’s so complicated. That’s why so many viewers are listening to this thinking, wait a second, why do you all care what a young comedian said? The President has changed all these conversations. That’s the thing.”
Cuomo: “She’s joking. He’s actually telling his truth – you know, he’s telling his truth when he says these things. “
— CNN’s New Day, April 30.
Can We Go Back to the “Camelot” Days When We Worshipped the Kennedys?
“The movie, I think, really looks hard at the context as well. I mean, the fact that his brother, Bobby Kennedy, had just been killed and his brother’s dream of reaching the moon was days away from being realized. How do you think that affected Ted Kennedy?...It won’t surprise you some people are taking issue with the fact this movie is characterizing this time, Bob Shrum, who worked for Kennedy, an old politico, called it a disservice and a journalist who was there on Chappaquiddick said it’s utterly fictionalized. Were you surprised at that push back?”
— Co-host Savannah Guthrie’s questions to “Chappaquiddick” star Jason Clarke on NBC’s Today, April 6.
Asking a Basic Census Question = GOP Plot to Oppress Minorities
“Let me be very clear. The addition of a citizenship question is to keep immigrants and their families in the shadows, it is to disenfranchise cities with large immigrant and minority populations and it is to skew congressional redistricting that happens in 2020 to disenfranchise largely Democratic states and cities that have large minority and immigrant populations. That is why there’s a citizenship question.”
— CBS News correspondent Alex Wagner on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, April 20.
North Korean Dictator More “Sane” and “Moral” Than Trump
Co-host Joy Behar: “We have gotten to the point in this world now where we have to rely on the sanity of Kim Jong-un and Putin over the president of the United States. That’s where we’re at. We’re hoping because one of the guys over there said, ‘We do not do diplomacy by tweet.’”...
Co-host Megan McCain: “That’s not my issue. My issue is the moral relativism between someone like Kim Jong-un and Putin and President Trump. I think it’s sort of easy to sit here and do that.”...
Behar: “Do you think Kim Jong-un is less moral than Trump? Do you?”
McCain: “Oh, my God! Putin is aiding and abetting Assad right now! Chemical gassing of children! Last time I checked, America isn’t doing that to anyone!”
— ABC’s The View, April 12.
Now: Bush Was Such a Statesmen, Then: Murderer!
Co-host Joy Behar: “This picture [of the Bushes, Obama, Clintons and Melania Trump at Barbara Bush funeral] made me nostalgic for the America that I grew up in, basically, where there were statesmen running the country instead of con men and thugs.”
Co-host Meghan McCain: “Even President Bush?”
Behar: “Yeah.”
— ABC’s The View, April 23.
Vs.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take for people to really wake up and understand that they [George W. Bush administration] are liars and they are murderers.”
— Behar on ABC’s The View, February 28, 2007.
Chick-fil-A Has Infiltrated! Will New York Ever Be the Same?
“Chick-fil-A’s arrival in New York City feels like an infiltration, in no small part because of its pervasive Christian traditionalism.”
— April 13 tweet from The New Yorker’s official Twitter account promoting Dan Piepenbring article “Chick-fil-A’s Creepy Infiltration of New York City”
So Will They Offer Free Subscriptions Now?
“Happy Birthday Karl Marx. You Were Right!”
— Headline to April 30 New York Times article.
Paul Ryan Like Reagan, “Brilliant” At Sounding “Kind” While He “Screws People”
Maya Wiley, SVP for Social Justice at The New School: “What he’s [Rep. Paul Ryan] been brilliant at though, is wrapping a lot of meanness in some kind words as he screws people.”
Host Bill Maher: “That’s what Reagan was great at.”
— HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, April 13.
America Has to Overcome “Racist” “Dumbass” Trump
Jay-Z: “He’s [Donald Trump] bringing out an ugly side of America that we wanted to believe was gone. And it’s still here and we still gotta deal with it. We have to have the conversation. We have to have tough conversation. We have to talk about the ‘N’ word. And we have to talk about why white men are so privileged in this country.”
Host David Letterman: “I completely agree.... And I’ve said this a thousand times. We don’t need any more evidence....Is he a racist, is he not a racist? I’m telling you, you’re having a debate over whether a guy is a racist, chances are that guy is a racist....The humanity that this country has to represent has been refueled by this dumbass.”
— Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, released in April.
Joss, Secret Service Is on Line One For You
“Donald trump is killing this country. Some of it quickly, some slowly, but he spoils and destroys everything he touches. He emboldens monsters, wielding guns, governmental power, or just smug doublespeak. Or Russia. My hate and sadness are exhausting. Die, Don. Just quietly die.”
— April 3 tweet by director Joss Whedon.
Trump and Fox = Fake News
“There is a big difference between MSNBC and Fox News. I mean, MSNBC sticks to the truth. They don’t make things up. There’s a loop going on between Trump and Fox News.”
— Host Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, April 6.
Eager to Imprison Trump
“I hope there’s a couple [Saturday Night Live skits] where I interrogate him [Donald Trump], then I arrest him, and then I escort him to jail....This guy, this administration, is beyond belief. It has to stop.”
— Actor Robert De Niro on NBC’s Today, April 18.
