Wednesday on The View, the ladies rushed to CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s defense after he was heckled yet again at a Trump rally, Tuesday. The hosts complained that Trump was destroying the freedom of the press here and internationally, and was behaving like a “dictator.” Only Republican host Meghan McCain pointed out the other side, that the media’s biased reporting has made the average American distrust them.
Playing the clip from CNN yesterday, host Whoopi Goldberg wondered if there was “anything” the media could do to “change the conversation.” Fellow host Joy Behar dismissed the question, saying the problem wasn’t with the media, it was Trump’s fault for fighting back.
She claimed that Trump’s attacks on the press have led to a domino effect across the globe. “He’s not just a menace in this country, is my point!” she gushed.
BEHAR: The thing about it is that Trump is -- debasing our press on a regular basis and telling people it's fake. And it's -- metastasizing around the world. This year, Egypt, Vietnam. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and others have passed laws and fined news outlets after accusing them of spreading false information. You read about people in Canada and France who are afraid that this president is so out of control and -- so on the wrong page about every single thing that he does every single day they’re afraid for them also. He's not just a menace in this country is my point.
Whoopi rephrased the question, asking, “So is there a way to -- change the narrative about the media?”
Host Sara Haines suggested that Jim Acosta tried to relate to the people in the crowd by talking with them one-on-one when cameras weren’t rolling. She lauded the reporter for trying to get people to see him on a “personal” level.
Host Sunny Hostin, on the other hand, didn’t see anything wrong with the media’s reporting on Trump. In fact, she praised it and criticized Trump for acting like a “dictator” (a common refrain for the media as of late):
They need to keep on doing their jobs. Their job is to report the facts. I think that is one of the a reason this president has started this war against the media. Because he doesn't like that the truth is being reported. And I think that means that as journalists, you have to continue to do so. These are the acts in my opinion, of a dictator. Dictators attack the press routinely and we’re seeing it in this country.
McCain argued both sides took it too far. “I don't like any of this. I thought during the election when the amping up of anger was happening looked dangerous,” she said, but added that the media disrespected middle America as well, bringing up a rude tweet from a Politico reporter:
There was actually guy that got hit in the face at one point in time. My good friend, Olivia Nuzzi covers -- she was on the campaign and was covering it and she said i felt really intense to be in that room when he says look at the media over there, look at the media over there. I don't like any of this, from day one I have been vocal on all networks that I don't like this. When something happens like this morning, Mark Caputo whose a writer for Politico tweeted, “if you put everyone's mouths together in this video, you get a full set of teeth.” The pictures of the Trump supporters. There has to be respect on both sides. You have to respect on both sides. You have to respect average Americans coming to these Trump rallies for whatever reason. When you're mocking them at the same time, the war, which you just used that term, there are two sides to this. Americans in the middle of the country feel like the press don't respect them. And that exacerbates that.
Behar shot back that McCain was overblowing it and the majority of the press didn’t behave that way, even listing MSNBC in that group. Has she turned on cable television lately?
“The New York Times doesn’t do it, The Washington Post doesn't do it, MSNBC doesn’t do it. One guy on Politico did it,” she argued.
McCain said Behar was wrong but they didn’t have time to get into it. “ I don't agree with that either. 20 million examples. We're out of time,” she shook her head.
Whoopi closed the segment saying that everyone needs to “chill out” and that this kind of heckling could lead to violence against reporters.
“If Jim gets hurt or somebody gets hurt doing this. We have seen what happens when people get angry at journalists. We have seen what happens. We have witnessed this on television. We have to be careful,” she warned.
