On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s New Day, co-hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota “reported” on an interview that Anderson Cooper conducted the night before with former Fox News contributor, Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters. There, Peters laid out his grievances with Fox News that lead to his decisions to leave the network to the approval of CNN and their anti-Fox obsession:
For years I was glad to be associated with Fox. It was a legitimate conservative and libertarian outlet and a necessary one. But with the rise of Donald Trump, Fox did become a destructive propaganda machine. And I don't do propaganda for anyone. And frankly, as a former military officer, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And I saw in my view Fox, particularly the primetime hosts, attacking our constitutional order, the rule of law, the justice department, the FBI, Robert Mueller, and oh, by the way, the intelligence agencies. And they're doing it for ratings and profit and they’re doing it knowingly in my view, doing a great, grave disservice to our country.
Instead of simply reporting this story, Camerota decided to act as all objective journalists do, which is taking a clear, partisan side and continue her seemingly never-ending crusade against her former longtime employer.
Like Ralph Peters, I too was upset about the blurring of lines between propaganda and journalism. So Ralph now -- Colonel Peters feels he can speak freely now that he’s there. I think some would say, what took you so long? There's been a blurring of lines obviously. I don't know that viewers know the difference between the primetime hosts that he takes exception with and the great reporters. There are a lot of ethical issues that he brings up and we hope to be able to talk to him about them.
She continued, “not everyone there is following the rules of journalism. And so if you're not, you don't have to adhere to the truth and the facts. Again, I'm not sure that viewers know when the truth button is on and when the truth button is off.”
It is easy to point out the irony of this condemnation of journalistic ethics violations coming from Alisyn Camerota on New Day. This program, along with CNN, has been notorious for its political bias and journalistic ethics violations that result from it.
Take for example this past May when Camerota gave former Obama senior advisor Valarie Jarret a softball interview without disclosing that Jarret’s daughter is a CNN Justice correspondent.
Speaking of softball interviews, on May 1 this year, Camerota had on former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards where she brought such incredibly tough questions like how she feels about leaving Planned Parenthood and if she thinks the current state of abortion rights is moving backwards or forwards. As NewsBusters contributing blogger Brad Wilmouth pointed out:
“The CNN host did not bring up the argument that the government could take the money that it currently gives to Planned Parenthood and transfer it to health clinics that provide medical care to women and do not perform abortions. She also did not point out that any money received by Planned Parenthood -- either tax dollars or otherwise -- is tacitly propping up every aspect of what the group does, including abortions, just by helping them to stay in business and recruit lifelong customers who might later go to them for abortions.”
Lastly, Camerota and the New Day team employed their expert journalistic discretion by choosing to report on Trump’s reported habit of drinking lots of Diet Coke just forty minutes after the December eleventh attempted suicide bombing in New York City was still developing.
Readers can check out our extensive NewsBusters archive documenting the bias of New Day and CNN as a whole.
A full transcript of this June 7th segment is below.
New Day with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman
6/7/18
7:41:46 AM - 7:44:07 AM (2 min and 20 sec)
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Listen to this. In his first interview since leaving Fox News, long-time military analyst Lt Colonel Ralph Peters slammed the network saying that he feels Fox has lost its way.
LT COL RALPH PETERS: For years I was glad to be associated with Fox. It was a legitimate conservative and libertarian outlet and a necessary one. But with the rise of Donald Trump, Fox did become a destructive propaganda machine. And I don't do propaganda for anyone. And frankly, as a former military officer, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And I saw in my view Fox, particularly the primetime hosts, attacking our constitutional order, the rule of law, the justice department, the FBI, Robert Mueller, and oh, by the way, the intelligence agencies. And they're doing it for ratings and profit and they’re doing it knowingly in my view, doing a great, grave disservice to our country.
CAMEROTA: Well, in that interview Peters also added that he feels the Mueller investigation is the most important of his lifetime. So --
JOHN BERMAN: So --
CAMEROTA: I have a lot of thoughts about this.
BERMAN: And you're willing to share?
CAMEROTA: Well, I even wrote a book about this theme called Amanda Wakes Up
BERMAN: Almost available in paperback. Now available in paperback.
CAMEROTA: As of Tuesday. Because, like Ralph Peters, I too was upset about the blurring of lines between propaganda and journalism. So Ralph now -- Colonel Peters feels he can speak freely now that he’s there. I think some would say what took you so long? There's been a blurring of lines obviously. I don't know that viewers know the difference between the primetime hosts that he takes exception with and the great reporters. There are a lot of ethical issues that he brings up and we hope to be able to talk to him about them.
BERMAN: The word he used that is the most damning is knowingly. That things are being done knowingly and deliberately to spread information that in some cases the truth is questionable, shall we say.
CAMEROTA: Yeah. Not everyone there is following the rules of journalism. And so if you're not, you don't have to adhere to the truth and the facts. Again, I'm not sure that viewers know when the truth button is on and when the truth button is not on.
