CNN’s Brian Stelter appeared on C-Span’s Washington Journal on September 1 and got an earful from some folks. He was on the program to discuss his new book, “Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth.”
Beth wrote about how one caller screamed at Stelter, and rightfully so, for being part of the network of liberal news outlets who tried to destroy Nick Sandmann. CNN settled the defamation lawsuit filed against them by Sandmann after it was exposed that he didn’t provoke the 2019 Lincoln Memorial incident with Native American activist Nathan Phillips. It occurred during the annual March for Life event in Washington D.C. Sandmann wore a “Make America Great Again” hat, he was white, and he attended a pro-life rally—all things that trigger the Left. So, he had to be destroyed, right. Well, Sandmann is now drinking from the skulls of his enemies.
Yet, about 20 minutes into the program, one caller ripped into CNN for the absurd chyrons—the banners they use during their coverage—and called Stelter “humpy dumpty.” That’s when the C-Span host cut off the caller and allowed Stelter to respond. This was a reference to CNN’s coverage of the ongoing Kenosha riots in which the banner read, “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING."
“Fiery but mostly peaceful”
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 27, 2020
Who did it better? CNN’s Omar Jimenez or MSNBC’s Ali Velshi?pic.twitter.com/97EY8miH4G
You simply cannot make this up. Anyways, here's how Stelter replied (via CSPAN):
[BRIAN STELTER]: I really appreciate the caller's point about the chyrons. These are the graphics on the bottom of the screen. They are known as chyrons or banners. Different TV shows handle these differently. For example, on my program, Reliable Sources, I view every banner before we go on the air and I edit them, and I make changes to them. So, I am 100 percent responsible if you don't like the banner on my show. It's my fault. But different shows handle these differently. And I think that CNN banner that the caller mentioned that said that there were ‘fiery but mostly peaceful protests.’ That banner was probably a mistake. I don't know who wrote it. Probably a young producer who's trying their best under deadline and a breaking news situation. But I think it's probably that that kind of thing becomes easily criticized and probably not the right banner to put on screen. What I would suggest to our caller is view CNN for a day. Don't view it for 10 seconds. Don't pick on the worst mistake made during the day because I know I make mistakes on the air. Everybody makes mistakes. Instead, try to view it in totality. Try to view it in context. By the way, I try to do that for Fox News as well. I think it's unfair to cherry-pick the most foolish moments or the most outlandish moments on a television network. Instead, try to look at the totality of it, but know that when mistakes happen, there are consequences. There is accountability. In fact, I had a tough conversation with one of my bosses last week because I made a mistake in my nightly newsletter, and I'm better off for having that conversation. I think what we need more of in journalism are those checks and balances and those standards and practices so that when I do slip up, someone notices and we talk about it and I make sure it doesn't happen again.”
The totality of CNN’s coverage? Seriously? I’ve watched CNN for years because I want to know what my enemies are saying. It’s trash. And at the Newsbusters division, I’m sure they got a laugh at this response as well. CNN is one of the most brazen and outspoken anti-Trump networks out there. Jim Acosta is insufferable, their hosts are a joke, and where was the accountability for when the network outright screwed up peddling fake news about Russian collusion? There are many screw-ups, but the one about some donor giving Trump and inner circle a decoding key to the Wikileaks trove of documents that were released during the 2016 election was an epic fail. First, the documents were already made public; CNN would know that if…they read the date in which the email was sent. For hours, it went uncorrected. And when it was, it was quite a facepalm moment.
Oh, and has anyone watched Don Lemons show since the 2016 election. Need I say more.
There is no accountability on the liberal media side. If there were, hordes of reporters would be looking for new jobs for peddling the Trump-Russian collusion hoax for nearly two years.