CNN's Brian Stelter on Tuesday appeared on CSPAN's "Washington Journal" to promote his new book. One of the people who called into the show slammed Stelter and his employer for various "distortions or misinformation" that has caused Americans to lose faith in the media.
"You guys always talk about how many times Trump has lied. I've calculated that with your chyrons – you know, I don't know if there's any journalists left at CNN – but if I were to estimate, 300 different distortions or misinformation that we get out of CNN – and you have to watch it at the airport, which is harsh – but if you added all that up to 46 months, it comes out to be 300,000+ distortions of truth," the caller from Minnesota explained.
In particular, the caller took issue with how CNN and other mainstream news outlets, like The Washington Post, treated Nick Sandmann, the teenager who was defamed during last year's March for Life.
"So my thing here is that you guys, this is how low you'll go. It's that you went out and made lies and defamed a child and then you had to settle out of court, pay this child for distorting information about this young individual. I would say that if anything is happening at CNN and anybody who buys your book, it's really just one of those things that's dividing our nation," he said. "I don't believe in dividing our nation. It hurts our great nation, so CNN really is the enemy of the truth."
"That's my opinion. Thank you," the caller said before hanging up.
Stelter said he appreciated the call and knew the man wasn't the only American who felt the same way.
"There's been a process of a radicalization that's happening in this country, with media bashing that is absolutely unprecedented. You know, 20, 30 years ago conservatives talked about media bias and there were some really valid points to that critique. It is absolutely true that lots of journalists are based in New York and Washington, they're based in big cities, they have liberal leanings."
"Mainstream newsrooms are built so that that bias doesn't seep into the news coverage and yet, sometimes it does. I absolutely acknowledge that," Stelter said. "I think it's different to talk about things as if they're enemies. No American is the enemy of another American. No news outlet is the enemy of America."
C-SPAN caller GOES OFF on CNN’s Brian Stelter live on the air: pic.twitter.com/V9see3Pbpz
— The First (@TheFirstonTV) September 1, 2020
Despite knowing how Americans feel, Brian Stelter and the folks at CNN will continue to do what they always do. You know why? Because they assume that President Trump's analysis of the "fake news media" is all in hsi head. They chalk up people like this caller as just another "Trump-supporting deplorable."