CNN just gets desperate trying to say everything the president says is dictatorial. On Sunday's Reliable Sources, host Brian Stelter pretended it was "ominous" and threatening for the president to tell his supporters on Twitter to call or write the publisher of The Atlantic to object to their nasty story, with anonymous sources claiming the president called fallen soldiers "suckers" and "losers."
If that's a threat, then NewsBusters threatens media outlets daily by saying "call them, write them, contact their advertisers." If you can't stand the heat, stop throwing anonymous bombs in the "news" kitchen. This is the same Stelter that doesn't see any real threat in the rioting streets.
But Jeffrey Goldberg, the very partisan Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, claimed this was dictatorial, not democracy in action! He may claim to be a highly intelligent man, but he can't seem to distinguish between a letter to the publisher and tanks in the streets:
BRIAN STELTER: Right. Speaking of the climate and the president's attacks, here is his latest broadside against you and your magazine and the majority owner, Laurene Powell Jobs. He writes:
"Steve Jobs would not be happy that his wife is wasting money he left her on a failing radical left magazine -- again, the magazine is not failing -- run by a con man, that's you apparently, that spews fake news and hate. Call her, write her, let her know how you feel," four exclamation points.
That seems ominous to me. Do you interpret that as a -- as a threat?
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: You know, I spent a lot of my career covering dictatorships in the Middle East and so, I'm -- I'm familiar with this kind of discourse. It is a threat. It is meant to intimidate. I would only say we are neither failing nor radical left, and I would say, and I'm not speaking for the ownership or the management of the company, I would say that we have excellent owners who value editorial independence and integrity. And I would just say that we are not going to be intimidated by the president of the United States. We're going to do our jobs and I think that is true for a large number of outlets.
His intense frustration which comes out in these -- in these outbursts comes from the fact that unlike dictators and other countries, he cannot simply shut down media outlets that -- that he doesn't like. And so, it's our duty to continue to pursue the truth no matter what he says about us. And I would say that at The Atlantic and many other organizations including yours, there is unanimity of feeling that we -- we have a responsibility and we're going to do it regardless of what he says.
It's also hilarious that Goldberg touts his uber-billionaire publisher as a titan of "editorial independence" when she donated massively to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and now Joe Biden in 2020.
CNN and The Atlantic are similar in that they pretend removing Trump from office by any means necessary is the same as "pursuing the truth."
This segment was brought to you by Sandals Resorts (and the AFL-CIO!). It's not authoritarian to contact them and tell they how you feel about this.
