The media’s hypocritical obsession of dismissing fake news as largely the right’s problem was on display for disaffected consumers and votes on CNN Wednesday afternoon as host Brooke Baldwin and her panel hailed the “high” “journalistic standards” of fake-rape-story-peddling Rolling Stone in their “Shakespearean tragedy” of a post-election interview with President Obama.
Host Brooke Baldwin began the nearly seven minute segment with such reverence for the outgoing President as well as the magazine and publisher Jann Wenner that was recently found guilty of defamation concerning a former University of Virginia administrator.
“It was November 9, this is the day after the decisive election made Donald Trump President Obama's successor, the day President Obama would sit with Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner for their fourth interview, an exit interview that would become the first's public reaction to Trump's historic win,” Baldwin proclaimed.
She then welcomed on Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis and CNN political commentator Bill Press to comment on the interview that seems to have so personally and deeply touched her as she gushed:
I mean, well, incredible — I mean, just totally fascinating interview. Kudos to Jann for doing this and you know, he describes — I just want to begin with tone cause it almost feels like — the description is like it's a funeral. It’s a funeral and ambience in the White House.
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When DeCurtis explained that Wenner offered to cancel the meeting on November 9 due to the unexpected result not in the President’s favor and Obama still agreed to it, Baldwin briefly hit pause for a split second so she could gasp “wow.”
The pair then continued:
DECURTIS: So it had that feel of, you know, right after a cataclysm, really, and it's fascinating. I mean, think Jann's been doing interviews for a long time and you see a lot of his strengths as an interviewer there and Obama —
BALDWIN: He's very comfortable with the President.
DECURTIS: Yeah, completely.
BALDWIN: He trusts him.
Of course, the Rolling Stone editor was allowed to dither away on what felt like a rehabilitation segment for the magazine by CNN as he hyped that they’ve always been looking out for readers and being true representatives of them when interviewing someone:
He has certain kinds of things — I mean, I think the Rolling Stone interview, you know, whether it's Mick Jagger or President Obama, always has a feeling I think for readers of — as if a representative of the readership is there and Jann had that feel, I mean, as informed as he is about politics, he definitely had his sense of okay, what happens now?
Baldwin only mustered in response another elongated excerpt from Wenner’s interview and particularly a quote from President Obama on why he thought Trump won (which included his complaint that Fox News being on in bars and restaurants helped Trump).
Press finally chimed in and caused those who’ve followed the Rolling Stone scandal to do a spit-take when ruled that we should all give “kudos to Rolling Stone and Jann Wenner again for keeping our journalistic standards high, Brooke” to which Baldwin shot back, “no kidding.”
“They make us proud, of course. I was reading a Shakespearean tragedy reading this article. It's a fascinating interview and I think the President was in denial about a couple of issues,” Press added before explaining that the President has lost sight of how his policies will be rolled back in the coming years in addition to the scores of legislative seats lost since 2010.
The relevant portions of the transcript from November 30's CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin can be found below.
CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin
November 30, 2016
3:25 p.m. Eastern
BROOKE BALDWIN: It was November 9, this is the day after the decisive election made Donald Trump President Obama's successor, the day President Obama would sit with Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner for their fourth interview, an exit interview that would become the first's public reaction to Trump's historic win. The piece is entitled, “The Day After: Obama on His Legacy, Trump's Win and the Path Forward.” You can see the cover right here in part Wenner writes: “The last time I had interviewed the president, in 2012, it was a lazy afternoon. I'd gone over our time limit by a half hour, and on leaving the Oval Office, I ran into Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, sitting by the desk with the president's assistant waiting to come in. This time it was her ghost.” Here with me, Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis and with us, CNN political commentator Bill Press, a Democrat. So welcome to both of you and I mean, well, incredible — I mean, just totally fascinating interview. Kudos to Jann for doing this and you know, he describes — I just want to begin with tone cause it almost feels like — the description is like it's a funeral. It’s a funeral and ambience in the White House.
ANTHONY DECURTIS: Well, you know, it's an interesting situation. I mean, Jann called him that morning — called President Obama that morning and just said, look, obviously we're in a situation where we didn't anticipate and do you need to cancel this? And we'll do it another time, that's perfectly fine and, you know, Obama said no, I want to do it.
BALDWIN: Wow.
DECURTIS: So it had that feel of, you know, right after a cataclysm, really, and it's fascinating. I mean, think Jann's been doing interviews for a long time and you see a lot of his strengths as an interviewer there and Obama —
BALDWIN: He's very comfortable with the President.
DECURTIS: Yeah, completely.
BALDWIN: He trusts him.
DECURTIS: He has certain kinds of things — I mean, I think the Rolling Stone interview, you know, whether it's Mick Jagger or President Obama, always has a feeling I think for readers of — as if a representative of the readership is there and Jann had that feel, I mean, as informed as he is about politics, he definitely had his sense of okay, what happens now? What are we going to do now? You know, that sense that I think a lot of Hillary Clinton supporters had the day after the election, you could feel that in his questions very ardently.
BALDWIN: Let me just read another piece of this. The President spoke of why Trump's win shouldn't come as a surprise. This is what he told Jann, citing his own massive rallies in '08, he said — the President said this to Rolling Stone: “That's the thing about voting. It doesn't mean polls are irrelevant but there's always a human variable involved in this. So I think the odds of Donald Trump winning were always around 20 percent. That [doesn't] seem like a lot but one out of five is not that unusual. It's not a miracle.” And, Bill, he chalked up Trump's appeal to voters. He had talked about — you know he said that, you know, Fox News is in every bar, in every restaurant in major chunks of the country. You know, whether that's entirely true or not would you agree with sort of what the President was saying and what was so missed?
BILL PRESS: Well, first of all, kudos to Rolling Stone and Jann Wenner again for keeping our journalistic standards high, Brooke.
BALDWIN: No kidding.
PRESS: They make us proud, of course. I was reading a Shakespearean tragedy reading this article. It's a fascinating interview[.]
(....)
BALDWIN: Anthony, just back over to you, one question that the question Wenner asked is what advice do you have for Trump? What did he share and what of this entire wide ranging interview surprised you the most?
DECURTIS: Well, I really was struck — you know, the situation was pretty dramatic, obviously the day after the election, but, you know, this is no drama Obama and I was struck by his clarity.
(....)
PRESS: Yeah, just one quick point. Building on what Anthony said is what struck me was a contrast between here's President Obama and the Democratic Party is losing the election they never should have lost and he's so calm, he’s so collected, he’s so measured, he’s thinking through everything he says. Contrast that with the style of Donald Trump, right? Who would have been up for two hours tweeting away like a 14-year-old. So we got to get used to that, I guess.
BALDWIN: I guess so and hey, at least he's holding a news conference December 15. I will be curious to see over the course of the next four years the relationship that perhaps President Obama and President Trump could continue as we know, they've been on the phone much more than anyone anticipated in maybe an adviser in chief role if Trump would accept it. Bill Press, thank you as always. Anthony DeCurtis, thank you so much. for swinging by.
DECURTIS: It’s my pleasure.
BALDWIN: Cover of Rolling Stone. It's a fascinating, fascinating read, thank you.
