On Tuesday's Fox & Friends, the hosts and CBN political correspondent David Brody discussed how the Associated Press took dramatically different takes on Twitter on the budget proposals of Obama and Trump. On Monday morning, AP tweeted "President Trump sends Congress $4.4 trillion spending plan that features soaring deficits.”
But that's not how AP tweeted Obama's budget proposals. In 2015, they tweeted "Obama sends $4 trillion spending plan to Congress, pledging help for middle class." In 2016, they tweeted "Obama sends record $4.1 trillion spending plan to Congress to combat terror threats, global warming.” Amber Athey of the Daily Caller reported the contrast was exposed on Twitter by Fox News contributor Stephen Miller (@redsteeze). Fox showed the tweets on screen:
STEVE DOOCY: There you've got them touting President Obama. He spent nearly the same amount, but he combatted terror threats and global warming, and pledged assistance for the middle class, even though those budgets also featured soaring deficits, like President Trump. What's going on?
DAVID BRODY: A couple of things. Well, first, the anti-Trump filter in clear force, for sure, for the Associated Press. Look, last year, they did the same thing. Last year they talked about how the Republican budget was going to gut -- that was the word gut -- science and the environment. That was their factual analysis, and then came the opinion afterwards, I like to call it the shot and the chaser. And their opinion was what Republicans are against in regards to mainstream climate [science] and all of that. They were giving opinion, not just fact, and it's ridiculous.
DOOCY: You know, I remember when I was in journalism school. Everybody regarded the Associated Press as a fair broker. Are you telling me they are now political?
BRODY: Yeah, it's starting to become that way, and if there's one thing Donald Trump has done if nothing else, and he's done a lot, he has exposed this media bias like we have never seen before. We knew it existed before, but he has literally, we are talking about CNN, quote, "the most trusted name in news," -- look, they have gone off the rails to the point where some of what are supposed to be their regular main anchor hosts are now giving opinion commentary at the end of their programs. It's just fascinating to watch.
The rise of Trump has definitely pushed all the liberal networks to turn the volume up on passionate editorializing, as they accuse Fox of being "state-run TV." They need to read their own tweets and stories about Obama to remember just how helpfully they acted as docile Obama publicists. AP's tweets surely demonstrate the pattern, and the contrast with today.
