President Trump sent the liberal media into a tailspin last week when he put out a midterm campaign ad that highlighted the murders committed by illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes and denounced the Democrats for their views on illegal immigration. CNN in particular, rushed to call the ad racist and during Sunday’s Reliable Sources, host Brian Stelter boasted about how his network refused to sell commercial time to air the ad.
Leading into bragging about CNN’s position on the ad, Stelter praised how “[w]e’re seeing bluntness on the part of reporters saying the word ‘lie’ or this week saying the word ‘racist’.” He promised views they wouldn’t play the ad in its entirety and admitted he felt “CNN probably showed this too much this week.”
“But it is notable that when the campaign tried to buy airtime from CNN -- to buy this ad -- CNN said no. Said, this is a racist ad it’s not going to be sold – we’re not going to sell you the airtime,” Stelter boasted basically touting how his network suppressed an opposing view on illegal immigration.
Stelter then turned to Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik and teed him up to slap CNN on the back and heap praise on them, saying: “Describing it as racist, David, that was significant.”
“That’s huge. That’s huge. It’s a bigger story,” Zurawik exclaimed. “I saw it today. And I thought wow I wish I had a piece of it. This is huge, that CNN said this is racist, said we are not going to take your money…”
Zurawik continued by touting the righteousness of calling President Trump a racist. “That was a really great stand to take on it. We have to. We have to call him racist. We have to call him a misogynist when he says thing—the things he says about women,” he declared.
Stelter offered minimal pushback, suggesting Zurawik was going “pretty far” by blatantly calling Trump a racist. Someone should introduce Stelter to his CNN colleague Don Lemon who last week said it was a matter of fact that Trump was a racist.
“We absolutely have to do [it]! Look, somebody has to speak truth to this madness of lies,” Zurawik indignantly proclaimed. The media critic then pointed to standard political spin by Republicans in their health care fight with Democrats over ObamaCare and called it “institutionalized” lying. “That's institutional lying, where did they get that? They got it from President Trump, it was a strategy. We have to stand up!”
Zurawik might need a refresher on the fact that ObamaCare was passed on lies, and that fact was something the bill’s architects bragged about openly afterwards.
That wasn’t the first time Zurawik went off the rails during Sunday’s program. Earlier in the show, he claimed that only “reasonable” people could understand how Trump led to the political violence in recent weeks. “[I]t is hard not to say that when the commander in chief, the president of the country, says things like ‘enemy of the people’ and constantly attacks and praises people who are aggressive towards reporters at rallies,” he asserted.
It wasn’t too long ago that Zurawik used to be the one that had to tone down Stelter’s off-the-wall conspiracies regarding Trump’s feud with the press. Now it seems they’re on the same page. This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Reliable Sources
November 4, 2018
11:03:11 a.m. Eastern(…)
BRIAN STELTER: His main talking points in this closing stretch have been fear of immigrants, fear of the caravan, and, frankly, hate the media. That’s been his big message, David Zurawik. Hate the media, it’s fake news. Do you think that actually resonates with voters that are going to turn out on Tuesday, or have already voted?
DAVID ZURAWIK: You know, I think it resonates with his base obviously and by that I mean the people who are at his rallies. I think, you know, it’s hard the say, Brian, about this, because of these incidents of violence and threats, real incidents in American life mount, I wonder how people more in the middle, independents and people like that -- it is hard to be -- If you are at all reasonable, it is hard not to say that when the commander in chief, the president of the country, says things like “enemy of the people” and constantly attacks and praises people who are aggressive towards reporters at rallies --
STELTER: Right.
ZURAWIK: It’s hard not to feel uncomfortable about that when you see in real life people getting attacked and in some cases, people being killed. I am not saying it is a quid pro quo link, link, link, but the climate is set by that. And I think it is making people more uncomfortable. Because they have to, in a way, fear for themselves. They have to live in this America, too.
STELTER: The climate is owe hot.
(…)
11:23:53 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: That's what we are seeing. We’re seeing bluntness on the part of reporters saying the word “lie” or this week saying the word “racist”. I mean, we’re not actually going to play that ad, the racist ad that was posted by the Trump campaign, but we’ll show you some of the video to remind what we’re talking about. Frankly, I think CNN probably showed this too much this week. But it is notable that when the campaign tried to buy airtime from CNN -- to buy this ad -- CNN said no. Said, this is a racist ad it’s not going to be sold – we’re not going to sell you the airtime.
Describing it as racist, David, that was significant.
ZURAWIK: That’s huge. That’s huge. It’s a bigger story, honestly -- I saw it today. And I thought wow I wish I had a piece of it. This is huge, that CNN said this is racist, said we are not going to take your money and then Don Jr. tweeted whatever he tweeted.
STELTER: Right, he was complaining about.
ZURAWIK: Complaining. Yeah, no. That was a really great stand to take on it. We have to. We have to call him racist. We have to call him a misogynist when he says thing—the things he says about women.
STELTER: You’re going pretty far there saying we have to call him a racist.
ZURAWIK: We absolutely have to do [it]! Look, somebody has to speak truth to this madness of lies. Brian, it was so institutionalized in the last couple of weeks that the Republican members of Congress, we all saw these stories, and cable news did a great job covering them, who had voted against the Affordable Care Act from saying Democrats were going to take away no preexisting conditions. That's institutional lying, where did they get that? They got it from President Trump, it was a strategy. We have to stand up.
(…)
