CNN is grasping at straws to explain away Americans' waning interest in the impeachment trial. On Reliable Sources Sunday, host Brian Stelter and his CNN colleagues Oliver Darcy and John Avlon blamed it on the “Fox [News] firewall” which apparently keeps the right ignorant of Democrat arguments. Besides dismissing conservatives as indoctrinated, the liberal panel also attacked the Trump administration was “flabby snowflakes” who were used to preferential media treatment.
That last statement was in reference to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly a “liar,” last week. The panel also brought up CNN reporter Manu Raju being called a liberal hack by Sen. Martha McSally as evidence that Republicans can’t take criticism from the media because they are so used to being coddled by Fox News.
As CNN’s senior political analyst John Avlon seethed, "They get frustrated they're asked to explain the President's incoherent behavior. That doesn't mean you can simply lie and evade. Part of it is the Fox effect. It's made them flabby, snowflakes. Used to softball interviews and expect them and when they get somebody asking clear, fair minded questions they are offended and unnerved and lash out and lie."
Later on, they moved their attacks to CNN's competitor, Fox News, and its audience.
Host Stelter claimed there was a “Fox firewall” protecting the president. Conservative turncoat and CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy agreed, alleging that conservatives were never exposed to arguments from the Democrat side because they apparently live in a bubble:
DARCY: And they're trying to inoculate their audience from the arguments from the Democrats which the audience is not used to hearing, right? They're used to hearing Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity giving them the comfort food they want and this week in prime time you know, the one opportunity perhaps that these -- the audience would see these arguments made by someone like Adam Schiff they didn't get to see it because they were inoculated by the Fox audience in prime time.
STELTER: Yeah the afternoon hearings, trial coverage, was shown live on Fox News, but then Fox would cut away.
Completely lacking self-awareness, Stelter complained Fox News was “tilting the playing field” as if CNN was an impartial party.
Further displaying the liberal media’s own hypocrisy, Avlon wailed that Republicans in the Senate were “avoiding uncomfortable facts,” and “ignoring evidence,” when the same could be said for CNN and the Democrats they spin for:
Dissent is seen as disloyalty. You get benched if you’re not following the Fox News line. Because the business line is always play to the base. So they’re working hand in glove with the administration to push the same talking points. That necessarily means ignoring evidence. It means ignoring the Democrats' case. Talking over it, turning the sound off, and having analysts talk over it in addition to simply wiping the slate clean and doing ad hominem attacks in prime time. The bigger challenge this ends up seeping up to the Senate and where we have a real challenge for our Republic right now. Can we agree on basic facts? Can we reason together even at the level of the Senate. Because the tail wags the dog here. They're so afraid of losing a close partisan primary, being attacked by the president, that fear is motivating a lot of their decisions to try to avoid uncomfortable facts. That's incredibly dangerous for a democracy but happening right now.
Avlon’s statement here is hilarious considering what Stelter said just next.
“Chuck Schumer called this [Fox News bias] out at a press conference that was aired live on Fox News, let’s look at that!” he touted.
CNN’s anchors exclusively and proudly parrot talking points from the Democrats yet they have the nerve to complain that Fox News is biased towards Republicans? You won’t be surprised to learn that when Stelter worked at the New York Times in 2010 he was still mad at Fox News, but this time, for being too tough on the Democrat president in office.
