The MRC’s Tim Graham appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Saturday and slammed the smug CNN for its claim to a hold a monopoly on truth. Host Bill Scanlan read from S.E. Cupp’s New York Daily News op-ed ripping into Sean Hannity for failing to disclose a relationship with Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Graham retorted: “S.E. Cupp is speaking as a host on CNN. She’s on Team CNN. People have all these really negative feelings about Trump and then they say they are facts. Your feelings aren’t facts!”
Regarding CNN’s obsession with covering urination, Graham zinged:
CNN being upset on a daily basis about Trump and doing... 77 mentions this week about prostitutes and urination, that's not news! That's a bunch of people who are very upset about the current state of political affairs!
Cupp wrote of Fox News: “Increasingly, and especially at Fox, opinion is not rooted in fact.... Because, like it or not, in America today, feelings trump facts.” Graham concluded: “There is team CNN over here. S.E. Cupp is on Team CNN.”
He concluded by hammering Chuck Todd:
The same people who are upset about Sean Hannity’s disclosure don’t care if Chuck Todd’s wife gets two million dollars from the Bernie Sanders campaign. He does like 17 interviews with Bernie Sanders and never mentions it because his wife has nothing to do with the money coming in to his house.
A partial transcript is below:
Washington Journal
4/21/18
9:56am ETBILL SCANLAN: Let me get your reaction to a view of the audience on Fox, particularly Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity, of course, was mentioned as a client of Michael Cohen in reporting earlier this week. S.E. Cupp, the commentator writing in Saturday’s Daily News. “The sad truth about Sean Hannity’s deceit is viewers do not care.” She writes that “Opinion infiltrated cable news along ago. That’s not the new part. It’s that even with opinion, there used to be an expectation by both broadcaster and viewer that opinions would be rooted in facts. Increasingly, and especially at Fox, opinion is not rooted in fact.
Of course Hannity should have disclosed whatever relationship he has with the President’s attorney, whom Hannity defends regularly on his program. But even as we wring our hands about this, pound our fists and wag our fingers, outside of academic and journalism circles, most Americans don’t really care. Trump knows this. Fox knows this. And Hannity knows this. Because, like it or not, in America today, feelings trump facts.” Agree or disagree?
TIM GRAHAM: No. It’s obnoxious. S.E. Cupp is speaking as a host on CNN. She’s on Team CNN. This is, again, people have all these really negative feelings about Trump and then they say they are facts. Your feelings aren’t facts! And CNN being upset on a daily basis about Trump and doing 77 stories or 77 mentions this week about prostitutes and urination, that's not news. That's a bunch of people who are very upset about the current state of political affairs. There is a certain kind of team play going on here. There is Team Fox over here, which maybe we could be seen as apart of. There is team CNN over here. S.E. Cupp is on Team CNN. So, I hope the New York Daily News disclosed that. We have a disclosure problem. The same people who are upset about Sean Hannity’s disclosure don’t care if Chuck Todd’s wife gets two million dollars from the Bernie Sanders campaign. He does like 17 interviews with Bernie Sanders and never mentions it because his wife has nothing to do with the money coming in to his house.
