OPINION:
American journalists petulantly demanded that Fox News stand by their cable news competitor CNN after the 3rd place news outlet was publicly shamed by President Trump in England this weekend.
When CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta tried to bully his way into a question from Trump during a joint press event with Prime Minister Theresa May, the president chastised Acosta calling his network “fake news.”
Acosta: “Mr. President, since you attacked CNN, can I ask you a question?”
Trump: “John Roberts go ahead”Acosta: “Can I ask you a question?”
Trump: “No, no. John Roberts go ahead. CNN is fake news. I don’t take questions from CNN. CNN is fake news. I don’t take questions from CNN. John Roberts from Fox. Let’s go to a real news network.”
Acosta: “But we’re a real network too, Mr. President.”
Strangely, according to most journalists, the rude actor deserving of scorn in this exchange was not Acosta and not even Trump, it was John Roberts for actually doing his job and asking the president a question when called on.
According to the reporters’ club, Roberts was supposed to chastise the president and refuse to ask a question unless Acosta got rewarded for interrupting and butting in out of turn.
Roberts could’ve said, “Mr. President, none of my colleagues are fake.” Or “Mr. President, you know better than this.” He could have even passed the mic to Acosta in a show of unity… https://t.co/lZ02UcWYZ9
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 14, 2018
And the pile-on began. Sanctimonious reporters hanging out in their favorite lounge, Twitter, jumped on board displaying shock and despair that Roberts and Fox News as a corporation didn’t chastise Trump and praise the brilliant efforts of Acosta and CNN.
The Hill’s media reporter Joe Concha stepped forward and made a pretty great point:
Interesting to hear Fox’s John Roberts get lectured in the bubble for not defending Acosta, but no one seems to have any issue w/Acosta calling Fox News on multiple occasions “State-supported TV,” which would therefore include Roberts, Wallace, Shep, etc. https://t.co/vzCtXrsifk
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) July 13, 2018
Indeed, Acosta isn’t alone. Brian Stelter, the Cardinal in charge of the Journalistic Congregation of Doctrine and Faith, has repeatedly called out Fox News for what he calls a “feed back loop” suggesting the Trump White House and Fox work together in a propaganda effort.
Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, they’ve all dabbled in public attacks on Fox News. And, it appears they’re taking a cue from their boss.
CNN chief Jeff Zucker has called the network that dominates his in the ratings a “propaganda machine” and compared Fox to the old Soviet TASS News Agency.
“What has happened to that network in the last 18 months, especially the last year, is that it has just turned itself into state-run TV,” Zucker said. “TASS has nothing on them,” he said in reference to the Russian news agency.
So, let’s just be clear on how news outlets are all supposed to behave according to American journalists.
CNN’s reporters and hosts can routinely call Fox News “propaganda” and “state-run media” and CNN’s president can compare his competitor to the Soviet Union’s official outlet that spent decades lying about the millions of deaths in the totalitarian communist state (I’m referring to TASS now, not The New York Times.) And when a reporter from CNN rudely interrupts the proceedings at an international press conference, the Fox News reporter must defend the guy and the network who’s been calling him a propagandist?
That’s some serious hubris right there.
Meanwhile, Roberts actually did release a statement complimenting CNN (his former network) but the statement omitted any reference to Acosta.
Here is the statement from Fox News’s John Roberts, who was selected by Trump to ask a question after CNN’s Jim Acosta was dissed. pic.twitter.com/Wp4PDIP4xg
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) July 13, 2018
Classy move, John. It’s way more than CNN deserved.
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