Brian Stelter doesn’t think much of you dummies who shun the “normal” media for Fox News. The CNN anchor appeared on another liberal cable channel, MSNBC, on Monday night to plus his new book bashing Fox News. As the Republican National Convention was about to begin, Stelter sneered, “One third of the country is disconnected from the normal news system, the NBCs and the New York Times and they have opted into this alternative reality led by Trump.”
Stelter disingenuously suggested it’s only NOW that he has grown to despise rival Fox News (which routinely crushes CNN in the ratings): “I would not have written this five or ten years ago. Something has changed at Fox News. The network has moved from conservative, which is great. There’s lots of room for conservative media. It’s moved into this conspiratorial extreme place, largely led by Donald Trump.”
Stelter thinks “conservative” news media is great? Not likely. MSNBC host Ari Melber, to his credit, actually wondered why Fox News has to do “all the conservatism.” Stelter responded by again saying something he doesn’t mean.
I would say MSNBC benefits when there's a healthy, conservative ecosystem. The world benefits when there's a healthy, conservative media ecosystem. But what insiders at Fox said to me, “We don't have standards and practices. We don’t have checks and balances. You know, we don’t have the kind of journalistic standards that other networks do. And that's a problem. That actually hurts us. It hurts our credibility.”
Who are these anonymous Fox sources who hate their network? He didn't say of course.
MSNBC’s propaganda was sponsored by Infiniti. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
A partial transcript is below.
The Beat
8/24/2020
6:31 PM ETBRIAN STELTER: I wouldn't have written this book back in the 2010s — whatever we used to call those, the 2000s, I would not have written this five or ten years ago. Something has changed at Fox News. The network has moved from conservative, which is great. There’s lots of room for conservative media. It’s moved into this conspiratorial extreme place, largely led by Donald Trump. He gradually took control of the network, because there was a leadership vacuum. And now he has a propaganda machine, the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.
ARI MELBER: Part of what you document is the way the dual role works. So take all of the scandal over Russia and Mueller, and people, as everyone knows, went to prison over that. National security was involved. It's a big deal. Even if you think that some people think that Donald Trump really didn't rise to a conspiracy and we reported on that with Mueller’s ultimate findings. But on the Fox side, Sean Hannity knew about this June 9 Trump Tower meeting more than a week before The New York Times. You say he strategized with the Trumps to keep it from coming out and what to say if it did. What does that tell you about Sean Hannity's role?
STELTER: That Sean Hannity is not a news man, he's a stop-the-news man. He's not about the media, he's anti-media. He's anti-journalism. And there's room for that, I guess, if that's what viewers want. But it looks like news, it smells like news and tens of millions of people think it is news. One third of the country is disconnected from the normal news system, the NBCs and the New York Times and they have opted into this alternative reality led by Trump. That is something that Trump didn't do, but he's taken advantage of it. And men like Hannity should know better. They should be tethered to the truth. But we are far from that situation now.
6:36 PM ETMELBER: Final question, full disclosure obviously, I'm in the media, you're in the media, that doesn't mean we should ignore the self-critical issues. What do you say to conservatives — I hear this from sources — I’m sure you do too — who say, “Okay, Fox, like President Trump, may go too far.” But they argue much of the traditional press, print and TV, they view as more sympathetic to the resistance, and stocked with people who they claim have views that track more against Donald Trump than for. And that Fox is the one, maybe they and OAN, are the one places that have to do all the conservatism, because it's them against the rest of the press, and some of them would include this channel and yours in that critique.
BRIAN STELTER: I would say MSNBC benefits when there's a healthy, conservative ecosystem. The world benefits when there's a healthy, conservative media ecosystem. But what insiders at Fox said to me, “We don't have standards and practices. We don’t have checks and balances. You know, we don’t have the kind of journalistic standards that other networks do. And that's a problem. That actually hurts us. It hurts our credibility.”
So I would say this is coming from Fox folks who say, “We should be better. We shouldn’t have propaganda every night from Hannity. We should have more real journalism.” And you know when it mattered most, Ari? It matters most when the pandemic upended our lives. Fox did a disservice to the public by downplaying the pandemic, even though they were stocking up on hand sanitizer internally. Even though they were building home studios like the one I’m in, on the air they were talking about this like it’s the flu. And that had life and death consequences.
