CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter apppeared on their Newsroom show on Saturday afternoon to preach an early sermon that the dismissive impeachment chatter of Fox News opinion hosts "hurts all of us because it makes it impossible to have a debate about the facts."
Stelter seems to avoid the notion that when you tell the Fox audience that facts that are unfriendly to the liberal narrative aren't facts, but "Fox News conspiracy propaganda stuff," you're already unwilling to debate.
ANA CABRERA: But are the facts breaking through and they’re just spinning them? Or are they disregarding the facts altogether?
BRIAN STELTER: I think they’re operating in an alternative universe where the damaging information that comes out during these hearings is discarded, and blamed on rogue elements or things like that, or what they say is the deep state. It is this echo chamber that is getting stronger and stronger that I think these Fox personalities are inside.
And ultimately, it hurts all of us because it makes it impossible to have a debate about the facts, the substance that’s at stake. When they are saying these hearings are boring or bogus, they’re ignoring the constitutional issues at play, but this has been very effective. I have to say, Hannity’s ratings were very high this week. Not as high as the hearings overall. I think most people did hear something about the testimony, whether they soaked it up through their social media feeds, et cetera. But Hannity is 1,000 percent behind President Trump. So are these other players in the right-wing media universe. They’re showing no signs of being concerned so far.
Cabrera began by asking about the average person, the one who doesn't have time to sit around all day watching CNN and their impeachment hot takes. Stelter can't stand liberals being demeaned as a bunch of troublemakers hurting America, even if that's comparable to how he describes his opponents.
STELTER: The split in our information universes impacts our political universe, our political debate. If you are only hearing what Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are telling you about impeachment, then you think the Democrats are an evil bunch of troublemakers who are trying to hurt and destroy the country. That's the message hour after hour from these top-rated shows. And it absolutely affects both the president's mindset, because he then reflects back what he hears, and it impacts what GOP voters are thinking. And ultimately, that impacts Republican senators, they're going to have to make a vote on this.
Cabrera did ask about Fox hosts like Chris Wallace who played up the impeachment drama. But she wasn't going to ask Stelter that if Hannity's out of control, has he ever put on a guest who said Obama would be responsible for a "many more million deaths" than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong? Then who is guilty of mangling the facts with conspiracy garbage?
