In a rare moment of candor, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell admitted what the network has become: An echo chamber that won’t accept debate. Appearing Sunday on The Al Franken Podcast, O’Donnell disputed the idea that CNN “hates Trump.” The host contrasted, “On MSNBC there will be no one defending [Trump] because we don’t bring on liars. I don’t bring on a liar. I won’t do that.”
So, there you go. MSNBC won’t allow diversity of thought because “we don’t bring on liars.” The President is routinely compared to Hitler on MSNBC. Would disputing that be “lies,” according to O’Donnell? Challenging the idea that CNN is anti-Trump, the host attacked the network for...allowing people to defend Republicans:
No, they don’t [hate Trump]. One third of the people on their payroll love Trump. So, you’re guaranteed on any hour of CNN to, minimum, one third of the programming will be supportive of Trump. Someone on their payroll saying, “Here’s why Trump is right.”
One third of CNN’s programming is defending Trump? Has he ever watched his competitor? Franken, the former Democratic senator, asked for a clarification:
FRANKEN: Are you saying that to defend Trump, you have to lie?
O’DONNELL: Yes, absolutely.
FRANKEN: Of course. Of course.
O’DONNELL: How else do you defend a liar, a pathological liar who lies about everything? You have to lie. So, CNN has people on the payroll who they basically pay to tell their lies to the CNN audience in the middle of, you know, a CNN hour for some number of minutes.
As for not bringing people who tell untruths, O’Donnell in August of 2019 went on the air to say that Trump’s loan from Deutsche Bank was signed by Russian oligarchs. That turned out not to be true and the host had to retract it. Speaking of honesty, Franken asked if MSNBC is a progressive network. Here’s how O’Donnell replied:
Yeah, I’ll take that. I believe that what I do in my hour, what Rachel does, what Chris Hayes does, we discuss everything in a completely honest way and that sounds partisan in today’s era because the Republican Party is just non-stop lying.
Honesty, like when O’Donnell called the President an “ignorant,” “deranged” “clown.”
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The Al Franken Podcast
1/13/2020AL FRANKEN: So, I want to ask you about cable news because you’ve got CNN, which is sort of, “We’re playing it down the middle except we hate Trump.”
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: No, they don’t. One third of the people on their payroll love Trump. So, you’re guaranteed on any hour of CNN to, minimum, one third of the programming will be supportive of Trump. Someone on their payroll saying, “Here’s why Trump is right.”
FRANKEN: Well, they bring someone on to do that. Their hosts don’t do that.
O’DONNELL: Their hosts don’t. But that’s one of the reasons Trump kind of wants you do watch CNN instead of MSNBC.
FRANKEN: Sure.
O’DONNELL: Because he knows on MSNBC there will be no one defending him because we don’t bring on liars. I don’t bring on a liar. I won’t do that. And there’s no one on CNN —
FRANKEN: Are you saying that to defend Trump, you have to lie?
O’DONNELL: Yes, absolutely.
FRANKEN: Of course. Of course.
O’DONNELL: How else do you defend a liar, a pathological liar who lies about everything? You have to lie. So, CNN has people on the payroll who they basically pay to tell their lies to the CNN audience in the middle of, you know, a CNN hour for some number of minutes.
(....)
FRANKEN: So, you’re the progressive station. Fair to say?
O’DONNELL: Yeah, I’ll take that. I believe that what I do in my hour, what Rachel does, what Chris Hayes does, we discuss everything in a completely honest way and that sounds partisan in today’s era because the Republican Party is just non-stop lying.
