On Monday, CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued President Trump, looking to overturn his order banning the three from the White House, a judge scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, and White House television pool members, 5 networks, including FOX News Media, announced they will suspend their pooled coverage of the President. Monday on CNN's NewsNight with Abby Phillip, it was all on the table, and Scott Jennings raised some eyebrows for several reasons.
CNN's Sara Sidner, filling in for Phillip put up a post from the President from Monday morning, and summarized it.
SIDNER: The President claims the move is an assault on the, quote, fake news rather than the free press. He called the media corrupt, pervasive, out of control, and a threat to national security. He cited no specific story, however, instead claiming that because he won the election, he deserves positive coverage.
The problem is, there was no such claim about deserving positive coverage in the post she read from. Sidner may have been referring to what Trump said on Friday at the WH, "I don’t think somebody should be allowed to come in and write fake stories. They’re fake news, and that’s why they have no credibility-- I had 96 percent negative coverage during the election. And I won because they have no credibility."
After CNN analyst and Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin predictably claimed that the networks have a "pretty compelling" case and the White House "doesn't have the right to do this," Sidner turned to CNN's Scott Jennings, who not only agreed with Rogin's assessment of the case, but also surprisingly, thought Trump's ban was a mistake.
JENNINGS: I think he's unlikely to prevail in court, A. B, it seems to me the net result of this has been -- he has less reach. I mean, his message is not going to get out as much. If this is sort of becomes the way it is, he will be seen and heard by fewer people, which I think is actually a net negative since he's his own best spokesperson and his own best press secretary.
Number three, I actually think sparring with some of these folks in the Oval works to his advantage. And so if you take them out, you lose that a little bit.
Jennings continued to express doubt about the move, before Rogin got cute, and Jennings would rip the competition..
JENNINGS: My view is this is unlikely to stick based on what I've -- I'm not a lawyer either, but based on what I've heard, it's unlikely to stick. And it may be a little self-defeating if you consider that you want the President to be heard and seen more, like I do. This seems to be working against that. So, we'll see what happens.
ROGIN: So, if you're press secretary, you're not going to do that? Is that what you're pledging here right now?
JENNINGS: I'm not answering any hypothetical.
ROGIN: You're not going to single out any -- okay.
SIDNER: So --
JENNINGS: Can I add one more thing? I actually think there's a difference between, truthfully, CNN and Politico and MS NOW. You watch MS now for ten minutes, it's like total alternate reality. I actually think there's a difference.
That accurate assessment led to CNN's Ashley Allison weighing in.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, some would say that about Fox. Yes. I think --
JENNINGS: Yes, Obama, he said that about Fox News.
SIDNER: Let me just ask you though --
ALLISON: But he didn't kick them out, did he?
No, he didn't. Maybe because CNN's Brian Stelter didn't push for it, the way he suggested Fox News could be banned by Biden, and even from cable itself, in 2021.
Sidner then decided to press Jennings on CNN's news coverage.
SIDNER: Do you support the President's ban on the press because -- I mean, you work here at CNN. Do you think the journalists here are reporting fake news?
JENNINGS: I sometimes strongly disagree with the framing, but, no, I think we need to cover the news here. And I think we still can cover the news, but I consider this to be a news outlet. I consider Politico to be a news outlet. MS is a different story, in my view.
Jennings would bring up that a lot of those objecting to Trump's ban, "are the same people who were clamoring for Trump to be thrown off social media," which he was, by Twitter in 2021. You can see that in the video below.
Sidner's misrepresentation of Trump's post and Jennings being unafraid ripping of MS NOW & his take on Trump's ban, this is CNN!
