Making his second Fox Business Network appearance on Wednesday, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell eviscerated CNN on The Evening Edit for “nationally lying to the American people” concerning their July 26 Trump Tower story.
The CNN reporting has taken a huge hit since Monday’s revelation that Michael Cohen attorney Lanny Davis was CNN’s source and the August 22 bombshell that his client didn’t actually know whether Donald Trump had advance knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting.
Bozell first told host Liz MacDonald that CNN can’t defend this story any longer despite their insistence and it has bolstered the President’s repeated notion that the liberal media are “fake news.”
He then explained further before noting the massive amounts of airtime devoted by the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC toward this scoop but have yet to clarify on the air (click “expand” for more):
Bias is a story that has a slant to it. A false story is a story that you got wrong. A fake story is a story that you know is false and you’re deliberately putting it forward and this is fake news. You got a situation where either Michael Cohen was lying under oath, or he wasn’t saying — his spokesman wasn't saying, telling the truth when he said that Trump knew about this meeting. Well, now you have got Michael Cohen's own spokesman, his lawyer, coming forward and saying publicly, no it is not true that this story is not true. My client did not say this he does not know this and when CNN stands by this report, this blockbuster report[.]
Bozell then observed that the American elites fail to “understand that America understands when you make a mistake, you just need to come clean, you made a mistake,” but CNN has continued to dig deeper and defend the team behind the article (Carl Bernstein, Marshall Cohen, and Jim Sciutto).
Asked to comment on Bernstein, Bozell let loose by calling him “an embarrassment or a disgrace” and made that assertion about CNN lying to each and every one of us (click “expand” for more):
Well, I don't know whether the Carl Bernstein — I should label him an embarrassment or disgrace to his profession. This guy is trying to relive Watergate. He’s trying to use the same buzzwords, cover-up and everything else, trying to say, you know, “look at me, look at me.” One more shot at fame. He got it wrong. Not only did he get it wrong, he got it deliberately wrong. And why do I say deliberately? Because he’s made no effort to come clean and acknowledge he got it wrong. He is standing by a lie. I — I don't know how else to say this, Liz. This is a lie. CNN is nationally lying to the American people. I — how else do we look at this?
To see the transcript of the full segment from FBN’s The Evening Edit on August 29, click “expand.”
FBN’s The Evening Edit
August 29, 2018
5:25 p.m. EasternLANNY DAVIS [on CNN’s AC360, 08/22/18]: The reporting of the story got mixed up in the course of a criminal investigation. We were not the source of the story.
[SCREEN WIPE]
ANDERSON COOPER [on CNN’s AC360, 08/22/18]: So, Michael Cohen does not have information that President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians beforehand or even after?
DAVIS [on CNN’s AC360, 08/22/18]: No, there’s not.
LIZ MACDONALD: But CNN is still doubling down, standing by a Michael Cohen-Trump Tower story claiming that the President knew about that meeting even though Cohen's lawyer, you JUST saw him there, Lanny Davis, says it's false. Journalist Glen Greenwald telling Tucker Carlson that CNN has credibility issues after Lanny Davis admitted he was anonymous source for the story that he says is now wrong. Watch.
GLENN GREENWALD [on FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, 08/28/18]: I find it to be and obviously this is a high bar, one of the most humiliating and scandalous moments in the entire media behavior of the trump Russia saga. [SCREEN WIPE] They can't detract the story and they can't admit they lied, so they’re just continuing to stick with what everybody knows is a lie but not many people care because people think — a lot of people, anyway, think it was done for the right political agenda.
MACDONALD: AT&T recently bought Time Warner, which houses CNN. Taking a look at that stock, AT&T, well, closing slightly down for the day. Bring in Media Research Center President Brent Bozell. Brent, it’s so great to see you. How can CNN stand by a story when the central guy's lawyer says it is false?
BRENT BOZELL: Well, they can't. You know, if anybody suggests that when the President talks about fake news, he’s exercising hyperbole, this is the classic example of what we're talking about. Bias is a story that has a slant to it. A false story is a story that you got wrong. A fake story is a story that you know is false and you’re deliberately putting it forward and this is fake news. You got a situation where either Michael Cohen was lying under oath, or he wasn’t saying — his spokesman wasn't saying, telling the truth when he said that trump knew about this meeting. Well, now you have got Michael Cohen's own spokesman, his lawyer, coming forward and saying publicly, no it is not true that this story is not true. My client did not say this he does not know this and when CNN stands by this report, this blockbuster report, and let me add something, Liz, it’s not just CNN. There were almost 30 minutes of airtime given to this false report by ABC, NBC, and CBS.
MACDONALD: And MSNBC.
BOZELL: And do you know not a one of them has taken it back yet? You've got NBC, online, and CBS online, taking it back but the networks themselves have not walked this story back yet?
MACDONALD: You know it was pretty astonishing —
BOZELL: It’s fake news.
MACDONALD: — you know, Brent, because here is the thing, there is a lot of stories out there in D.C., you know, using anonymous sources and the thing is to your point, when the White House makes a mistake or unsubstantiated charge, it gets hammered for it.
BOZELL: Liz, there is something very strange in the American political scene and it’s — I've never understood it, quite frankly. This goes back decades. There is something about the elites, that they don't understand that America understands when you make a mistake, you just need to come clean, you made a mistake. If CNN made an honest mistake reporting told to them they believed by Lanny Davis, if it was an honest mistake, you simply correct the story with equal fervor as the original story, you report it.
MACDONALD: You know what’s interesting.
BOZELL: The American people understand this.
MACDONALD: You know The Washington Post is now going after its former Watergate reporter, Carl Bernstein. Carl Bernstein co-wrote that CNN story. Here is the WaPo headline: “A journalist of Watergate fame faces questions about a trump piece.” Here’s Carl Bernstein talking about that CNN story he co-wrote with a former Obama official and another producer. Watch.
CARL BERNSTEIN [on CNN’s Reliable Sources, 07/29/18]: Cohen was saying that Doanld Trump, the candidate for the president for the United States, had authorized the go ahead for that meeting to take place with this meeting and I said this is news, as did CNN. [SCREEN WIPE] The cover-up is demonstrable because he helped create the cover story on the airplane, which has since been disproven about that So we've got a lot to learn and we need to keep doing our reporting and that includes this dynamic that is going on of the attempts by the President to undermine a free press because he wants our credibility destroyed because we are reporting the truth.
MACDONALD: You know, wait a second. Hang on here. Hang on. Listen, everybody is for a free press. Nobody likes the press attacks that have been going on. But hear, Brent, did you hear how Carl Bernstein tried to rationalize backfilling a hole he blew wide open in his own credibility? That basically the president authorized the meeting. How many other meetings has the President authorized, Brent?
BOZELL: Well, I don't know whether the Carl Bernstein — I should label him an embarrassment or disgrace to his profession. This guy is trying to relive Watergate. He’s trying to use the same buzzwords, cover-up and everything else, trying to say, you know, “look at me, look at me.” One more shot at fame. He got it wrong. Not only did he get it wrong, he got it deliberately wrong. And why do I say deliberately? Because he’s made no effort to come clean and acknowledge he got it wrong. He is standing by a lie. I — I don't know how else to say this, Liz. This is a lie. CNN is nationally lying to the American people. I — how else do we look at this?
MACDOANLD: Brent Bozell, you are passionate and fired up about it. Thank you so much for coming on. We love to have you back on again. Good to see you, sir.
BOZELL: Thank you, Liz.
