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By Geoffrey Dickens
 As Republicans get set to vote on a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, expect the liberal media to continue their efforts to derail any plan with distortions, lies and dire predictions that the bill will hurt and even kill many Americans.
In the run-up to the vote, MSNBC political analyst Joan Walsh called House Speaker Paul Ryan a “monster” and charged that “the cruelty of this bill is beyond belief.” CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose wondered how Republicans could “justify the fact” that Obamacare repeal “will hurt the people that supported them most enthusiastically during the election?” Former Time magazine editor Rick Stengel equated the bill to tossing poor Americans off a boat: “It’s about throwing some people off and giving some people privileges.”
Talk show hosts got into the act as well, with HBO’s Bill Maher calling the GOP bill a “turd” that read “like a manifesto from the Zodiac killer,” while former daytime talker Montel Williams attacked it as a “ridiculously stupid piece of legislation” that sentences millions of Ameriacns “to death.”
The following are just a few of the most obnoxious attacks, from the last few weeks, on the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare:
“Monster” Paul Ryan’s “Cruelty” is “Beyond Belief”
“Paul Ryan has been dreaming about cutting this program [Medicaid] since he was sitting – hanging out at keggers in college – he’s told that story. What kind of a monster is he? Who dreams of cutting Medicaid? They act like people are merely takers – they don’t act like they understand hardship of any kind. Paul Ryan – who actually got Social Security as a survivor when his father died, God bless him. I mean, the cruelty....it’s the only word we can use – the cruelty of this bill is beyond belief.”
— MSNBC political analyst Joan Walsh on MSNBC’s The Last Word, June 23.
“If I were him [Paul Ryan’s Wisconsin Democratic challenger], I would tie this health bill...I would tie it to Paul Ryan. I would bring up the fact that he joked that – joked, supposedly joked – that he was dreaming of slashing Medicaid over keggers in college. I would just bring out what a heartless, soulless Washington creature he’s become. I don’t think the district knows. You’ve made some good points about ‘it’s nice to have somebody in leadership,’ but if you have somebody in leadership who’s devoted their life to hurting people in the district, let’s think twice about that.”
— MSNBC political analyst Joan Walsh on MSNBC’s AM Joy, June 25.
GOP’s “Mean” Bill Sentencing Millions to “Death”
“I’m so angry about this ridiculously stupid piece of legislation that is honestly nothing more than a tax cut and a political agenda disguised as a health care bill...There are over 125 million of the 312 million Americans who right now suffer from a chronic illness. Out of that 125 million, 70 percent of them suffer from two....This 125 million people as of today will be as high as 140 million by 2020. And in 2020, they are going to be looking for somebody to give them medication and health care. And what this bill does is sends them all to death.”
— Talk show host Montel Williams on CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, June 23.
“Republicans look at it [health care] as a privilege, as a concierge service, as an entitlement that needs to be starved. And that’s what this bill represents. That’s what he [Barack Obama] means about it being ‘mean’ because it isn’t about getting everybody on board the boat where we all benefit – it’s about throwing some people off and giving some people privileges.”
— Former Time magazine editor Rick Stengel on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, June 22.
GOP Bill Like Manifesto From a Serial Killer
“The, you know, real bad idea and real bad dude this week is the Senate unveiled their super-secret health care bill....Everybody’s saying it was unveiled. Unveiled? Unveiled is not the right term. You unveil a sculpture. Nobody goes, ‘Behold, a turd.’ This is more likely something that was excreted. I mean, health care bill? More like a manifesto from the Zodiac killer. They should have published this by cutting out letters from the newspaper. It phases out Medicaid – the safety net for our oldest, poorest, and most vulnerable citizens....A small group of Republican Senators say they can’t vote for it because it’s not mean enough. A group led by, not surprisingly, Ted Cruz – who has been studying health care from top to bottom, up and down. Ted says, ‘Who knows more about making people sick than I do?’”
— Host Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, June 23.
Drastic Cuts Could Lead to the Deaths of Innocents
Anchor Anthony Mason: “CBS News has learned Senate Republicans hoping to win support for the ObamaCare replacement have added another $45 billion for the treatment of opioid addiction. However, that’s just a fraction of what Medicaid covers right now, so what happens if Medicaid is cut drastically? Adriana Diaz takes a look.”...
Correspondent Adrian Diaz: “The opioid epidemic claimed 4,100 lives in Ohio last year, 308 here in Akron. What would you say to the folks in Washington who are talking about cutting back on Medicaid?”
Addict Leah Kohen: “Please, don’t do it. You’re going to have the blood of a lot of innocent people on your hands.”
— CBS Evening News, June 29.
“Brutal” Imagery of Republicans Having Leftist Activists Arrested
“On Capitol Hill, police are currently removing protesters in wheelchairs outside of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office. The protesters are from a nonprofit group called ADAPT. And it’s pretty extraordinary, these pictures. We’ve had people being carried out by Capitol Police, clearly they are under orders to clear the hallways. It’s not their fault, but this is what they are being told by House leadership and Senate leadership to do....A brutal image for Republicans and supporters of this bill, frankly....The power of these kinds of images is not to be discounted in this kind of debate....That’s the kind of image that, in my experience in the past, has led to Congress backing down from things, including catastrophic health care and other legislation that had already passed, was repealed, when people, when activists get out there on the streets and show real pain.”
— Host Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, June 22.
Trump Breaking His Promise, Will Hurt Americans...
“Let’s really talk about what it means to my [Republican] party, that my party has gotten to this stage where you just see the numbers and they are just devastating. There’s no attempt to hide the fact that Donald Trump is breaking every promise he made and that they will have a disproportionate impact hurting older, middle-income Americans.”
— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 27.
“Obamacare is starting to become a birth right like Medicaid and Medicare. And what people – some people didn’t like was the ‘Obama’ on Obamacare, but they like the care. And we’re not going to be able to leave 20 or 22 million people without health care. You will have an eruption not just on YouTube but all over the country. And suddenly Donald Trump’s going to be responsible for people that are sick and ill. He had promised not to touch Medicaid and Medicare on the campaign trail – he reneged on that promise.”
— CNN historian Douglas Brinkley on CNN Tonight, June 28.
...Including His Own Voters
“You can lie if you’re Donald Trump, you can lie about whatever you want to lie about. If you’re Republicans, and you feel like lying about saying nobody’s going to lose their health care coverage, you can do that, too. But you slash $750 billion, Mike Barnicle, from Medicaid, after you’ve already slashed another $300 or $400 billion in an underlying budget, over $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, that destroys health care in rural America, in Trump America. We’ve said it again, let me say it again, not just for the poor. For the middle class and the upper middle class, their parents in nursing home, their children in NICU units, you name it, it devastates health care for half of America.”
— Host Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe, June 28.
“How do [Republicans] justify the fact that it [ObamaCare repeal] will hurt the people that supported them most enthusiastically during the election?”
— Co-host Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning, June 27.
Trump is Distracting Us with Tweets While Republicans Ravage the Poor
“The truth is, every minute we are talking about these tweets, we are not talking about millions of people [that] are going to lose their health insurance and a tax cut for wealthy people. You know, we’re going to talk about later in the program, but, you know, was it calculated to distract attention?”
— Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on CNN’s AC360, June 22.
Senate GOP Behaving Like Children Who “Did Something Wrong”
Anchor David Muir: “One quick question, Matt, on health care today. Millions of Americans finally learn what’s in the Republican senators’ plan. Why the secrecy?”
Political Analyst Matthew Dowd: “Well, you obviously have the secrecy because they think they’re doing something that the American public doesn’t want. It’s as if you walk in your living room and your kids are trying to hide something under the cushion. You know they did something wrong. And I think that’s a real problem.”
— ABC’s Good Morning America, June 22.
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By Kristine Marsh
This past weekend a fan of President Trump took an old video of Trump participating in fake television wrestling, put CNN’s logo in place of the person Trump was pretending to fight and made a gif out of it. Trump then retweeted the gif, to the media’s dismay. Predictably, journalists took to Twitter to spin this flippant tweet as a violent threat against all journalists. CNN journalists took it the worst of course, but went overboard with the hyperbolic predictions of whatever significance a silly gif could have.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017
CNN contributor Sally Kohn added this insanely inaccurate pinned tweet:
Both sides have a problem with hateful crazies.
The difference is the left denounces theirs.
The right elects theirs president.
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) July 2, 2017
While Kohn and regular contributor Paul Begala said the tweet was license for Trump’s followers to commit violence against journalists:
How long until the headline reads: "GOP leaders notably silent as Trump shoots someone on 5th Avenue"? https://t.co/TjV01THlPn
On @CNN at 3pm ET discussing how the President of the United States apparently wants to kick me and my fellow journalists in the head.
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) July 2, 2017
And apparently even CNN hosts believed it. Anchor Brooke Baldwin:
— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) July 2, 2017
CNN’s “Republican” analyst Ana Navarro:
America, stand against this. Trump is going to end up getting a media person killed w/this incitement to violence. Maybe then, he'll stop. https://t.co/IGM0fThtt5
Others in the media also overreacted on Twitter. Such as David Frum from the Atlantic:
Trump has brilliantly changed the subject from “Is he a Russian intelligence asset” to “Is he a dangerously violent lunatic?"
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 2, 2017
Mother Jones’ David Corn:
The president of the United States, instead of dealing with health care, ISIS, or the economy today, is tweeting out revenge porn.
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 2, 2017
Greg Sargent, Washington Post:
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 3, 2017
NBC’s Kasie Hunt:
We just talked about this on #MeetThePress -- imagine any journalist's face where that logo is https://t.co/PrbOmVnOpn |
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By Curtis Houck
CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta phoned into Sunday afternoon’s CNN Newsroom to offer his latest meltdown/rallying cry for his liberal media cohorts, demanding that they and the rest of the country “stand up to” President Trump following his slams against the media, or journalists will be “hurt” and “silenced.”
After telling host Fredricka Whitfield about the calls to ignore or brush aside the President’s tweets, Acosta forcefully proclaimed that “we have to try the other approach, we have to stand up to this” by “confront[ing] this and say that it's wrong.”
“[M]y concern is, and I know it's shared by others, is that this kind of rhetoric, this kind of behavior is going to lead to a journalist being hurt and that's the thing I worry about. I hate that I'm worried about that on 4th of July weekend when we're all supposed to celebrating our freedoms, including the First Amendment, the right to free speech and a free press. That's what I'm concerned about,” Acosta added in the same tone Brian Stelter used all day.
Acosta then used an either-or fallacy to demand that everyone “on all sides of the political spectrum” decide whether they will stand with Trump or Acosta, Stelter, and company in the media:
[P]eople have a choice on all sides of the political spectrum, on both sides of the political aisle. Where are you going to stand in all of this? Are you going to say well, it's okay for the President to engage in this kind of behavior to attack the new media, try to intimidate the news media. He's trying to silence us, Fredricka. That's what's going on here or are people going to say, you know, enough is enough? And, you know, I just think that we've reached where people need to say, enough is enough, it doesn't matter what party you're from, what side of the political spectrum you’re on[.]
Whitfield interjected with a softball question, expressing concern about Acosta’s ability to question the White House on policy when he must “press the points about the press place in asking probative questions verus being able to ask the probative questions of policy.”
The man Rush Limbaugh compared to a cat chasing a laser pointer doubled down, acknowledging the belief that he shouldn’t lose his mind all the time before arguing that “we've reached the point where the behavior has to be labeled for what it is, and it is just wrong.”
For a media industry that largely wasn’t concerned about things like the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017, it’s rich listening to Acosta whine about the lack of policy discussions:
It is unhealthy behavior, it's unbecoming for the President of the United States to be doing all this, I would love to be focused on policy, I would love to be focused on health care, the environment, foreign policy, we're going to be going on this foreign trip with the President. He’s going to be in Warsaw and in Germany at the G-20, meeting with Vladimir Putin after that. That is going to be a fascinating encounter between the two leaders. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was lecturing us in the briefing room earlier this past week saying, you know, you don't spend enough time on the policies, but is the President who is tweeting about Mika Brzezinski, it’s the President who is tweeting videos of him taking down CNN in a pro-wrestling match.
“I think we're well beyond that and now we just have to stand up, confront it and say, this is wrong. There's no right side. There’s both sides of this issue. There’s no, well, on one hand and on the other hand. It's just wrong,” he concluded.
Here’s the relevant transcript from July 2's CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield:
CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield
July 2, 2017
4:04 p.m. Eastern
 JIM ACOSTA: I think our statement really sums it up. You know, the are two approaches to this. One is, we can just sit back and be silent and just take it. There are some people who say, you know, don't take the bait, you are going to encourage this behavior even more. But I think we're well past that now. I think we’re at the stage where we have to try the other approach, we have to stand up to this. We have to confront this and say that it's wrong. And I know, speak for myself, I can't speak for everybody who has covered Donald Trump since he was a candidate, but, you know, I covered him throughout that campaign, and now that he's President of the United States, my concern is, and I know it's shared by others, is that this kind of rhetoric, this kind of behavior is going to lead to a journalist being hurt and that's the thing I worry about. I hate that I'm worried about that on 4th of July weekend when we're all supposed to celebrating our freedoms, including the First Amendment, the right to free speech and a free press. That's what I'm concerned about, and I think where we stand right now is people have a choice on all sides of the political spectrum, on both sides of the political aisle. Where are you going to stand in all of this? Are you going to say well, it's okay for the President to engage in this kind of behavior to attack the new media, try to intimidate the news media. He's trying to silence us, Fredricka. That's what's going on here or are people going to say, you know, enough is enough? And, you know, I just think that we've reached where people need to say, enough is enough, it doesn't matter what party you're from, what side of the political spectrum you’re on, this is just not the kind of information you expect to come from the President of the United States.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: So, Jim, how concerned are you now — this point forward or maybe a continuation that you will be spending more time in the pressroom there at White House arguing or having to press the points about the press place in asking probative questions verus being able to ask the probative questions of policy. Where this white house stands on certain issues. You are being put in a position and it's a question. Are you being put more in a position of defending your place as a member of the press in the White House versus trying to get to the bottom of where policy -- what the directive is of this White House, where it is the nation?
 ACOSTA: Well, I can tell you, Fredricka, I know from talking to a lot of people in Trump world, people who have worked in the White House, on this campaign, there is some strategy behind this and make no mistake, when the President does this sort of thing, when his adviser encourage this sort of thing, it's because they know it provokes this kind of response, and makes the conversation about us in the news media and less about the President and his policies and so, I completely understand the point from some of my colleagues who say — in press who say, if you engage in this, then you’re encouraging this behavior which is really aimed at provoking a conversation about the news media instead of the President's policies. I totally get that, but at the same time, we've reached the point where the behavior has to be labeled for what it is, and it is just wrong. It is unhealthy behavior, it's unbecoming for the President of the United States to be doing all this, I would love to be focused on policy, I would love to be focused on health care, the environment, foreign policy, we're going to be going on this foreign trip with the President. He’s going to be in Warsaw and in Germany at the G-20, meeting with Vladimir Putin after that. That is going to be a fascinating encounter between the two leaders. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was lecturing us in the briefing room earlier this past week saying, you know, you don't spend enough time on the policies, but is the President who is tweeting about Mika Brzezinski, it’s the President who is tweeting videos of him taking down CNN in a pro-wrestling match. So, they can't have it both ways. It's a little too cute by half, if you ask me. But I think we've moved beyond the academic discussion of, well, what should we do about the tweets? Should report on the tweets? I think we're well beyond that and now we just have to stand up, confront it and say, this is wrong. There's no right side. There’s both sides of this issue. There’s no, well, on one hand and on the other hand. It's just wrong.
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By Brad Wilmouth
On Monday's New Day on CNN, when asked by co-host Alisyn Camerota why the dominant media are so "unpopular," CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter only vaguely referred to some of the reason being "self-inflicted" before turning to putting much of the blame on "politicians" like President Donald Trump attacking the media as "fake news."
In fact, according Gallup polling, negative views by the public toward the media go back for quite some time, and have changed very little in the last couple of years.
During a discussion of President Donald's recent retweet of an edited video depicting him punching out a man with a CNN logo over the man's face, Camerota read a few tweets from former George W. Bush administration press secretary Ari Fleischer.
After reading the first two tweets that expressed disapproval of the video, the CNN host got to Fleischer's third tweet in which he was critical of the media: "Number three, 'The reason the President does it, it is because the press has made themselves so unpopular. It's a fight the President actually wins with much of the country.'"
Camerota then posed:
So that's the part that I want to ask you about, Brian, very quickly. Again, is there any soul-searching to be done from the press about what does he mean that we've made ourselves so unpopular? What are we doing that is making us have such low approval ratings with the public?
Stelter vaguely referred to journalists being partially to blame as he responded: "There has been soul-searching. There should be more soul-searching. Partly, these are self-inflicted wounds over the course of decades."
He then shifted the blame as he added: "But a lot of the reasons for distrust in the media has to do with politicians like President Trump telling people not to trust the media. We could do a better job telling our own story and explaining how this is real news, not fake news."
Not surprisingly, the CNN media analyst made no mention of the substantial liberal slant against conservatives in the dominant media.
He could have noted any number of common media transgressions like hyping stories that fit a preferred narrative while ignoring those that undermine it, or -- in drive-by fashion -- devoting much time to the possibility of scandal while giving little attention after a scandal turns out to be without merit.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, July 3, New Day on CNN:
6:43 a.m. ET
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Ari Fleischer -- former White House press secretary -- had some tweets that I just want to get your impression of. He said, "I never minded a good fight with the press. It's part of a good democracy, but this goes too far." Number two, "Some will think it's funny, but I find it in poor taste." Number three, "The reason the President does it, it is because the press has made themselves so unpopular. It's a fight the President actually wins with much of the country."
So that's the part that I want to ask you about, Brian, very quickly. Again, is there any soul-searching to be done from the press about what does he mean that we've made ourselves so unpopular? What are we doing that is making us have such low approval ratings with the public?
BRIAN STELTER: There has been soul-searching. There should be more soul-searching. Partly, these are self-inflicted wounds over the course of decades. But a lot of the reasons for distrust in the media has to do with politicians like President Trump telling people not to trust the media. We could do a better job telling our own story and explaining how this is real news, not fake news.
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By Kyle Drennen
Just like clockwork Monday morning, all three network morning shows had a collective freak out over President Trump tweeting out over the weekend a doctored clip of him wrestling “CNN” to ground created out of an old WWE appearance he did years ago. Anchors and correspondents were indignant as they breathlessly hyped the social media controversy. Only CBC bothered to mention the context of the President’s criticism of the cable channel.
At the top of NBC’s Today, fill-in co-host Craig Melvin proclaimed: “Twitter Smackdown. President Trump under fire for another tweet going after the media. Sharing this video, slamming CNN.” In a report minutes later, correspondent Hallie Jackson declared: “This morning, a fake fight with what the President calls a fake news network generating real controversy for the commander-in-chief.”
Jackson then touted: “A spokesperson for the cable network saying, ‘It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters’...”
In a discussion that followed the report, Melvin and fellow substitute co-host Sheinelle Jones turned to political analyst Elise Jordan for reaction. Jordan scolded:
This is really his favorite Twitter activity, media criticism. And it’s a great punching bag for him, the media’s approval rating is hovering below his, so this is a battle that – this is a fight he wants to pick....he’s not that engaged on policy, he would rather be engaging in media spats on Twitter.
It should be noted that Jordan recently compared the President to a “suicide bomber,” so perhaps she’s not the best person for NBC to turn to when fretting over heated rhetoric.
Leading off ABC’s Good Morning America, fill-in co-host Amy Robach feared: “President Trump doubles down on his attack on the media, tweeting this WWE clip. Outrage from members of his own party, saying he’s demeaning the office of the presidency. Others saying it could incite violence.”
One those supposed “Republicans” who was cited by correspondent David Kerley in the later report was political strategist Ana Navarro decrying: “The President of the United States is inciting violence against the free press.” The reporter forgot to mention that Navarro endorsed and voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
He went on to announce: “Elected Republicans quickly denouncing the President’s attack on journalists and the First Amendment.”
Like his NBC colleague, Kerley also cited how “CNN, the subject of the altered video, said in a statement the President is involved in, quote, ‘juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office.’”
Joining NBC and ABC, CBS This Morning began with fill-in co-host Reena Ninan sensationalizing: “President Trump tweets a video of him literally bashing the media...” “Mr. Trump spent much of the weekend lashing out at the media, including a tweeted video that outraged many of his critics,” she added while introducing a report on the topic minutes later.
Correspondent Chip Reid highlighted: “In response, CNN called it ‘a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters. He is involved in juvenile behavior, far below the dignity of his office.’”
However, to his credit, Reid did something that his fellow journalists did not do, he actually noted CNN’s recent retraction of a story that turned out to be fake news: “The President ramped up his feud against CNN after a couple of major mistakes by the network last week, including a story about Mr. Trump that was later retracted, causing three reporters to resign.”
The biased reporting across the broadcast networks was brought to viewers by State Farm, Febreeze, and JC Penny.
Here are excerpts of the hyperbolic coverage on all three July 3 morning shows:
Today
7:02 AM ET
 CRAIG MELVIN: President Trump setting off some fireworks of his own this Fourth of July weekend. On Sunday, the President posted this video to his Twitter account that shows him wrestling a figure with the CNN logo on it. He’s been ramping up his attacks against the media in recent days. And that’s not all, still insisting his November victory was tarnished by voter fraud, the President also took aim at some states that are refusing to hand over their voter roles. We’ve got it all covered this morning, beginning with NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson. Hallie, good morning.
HALLIE JACKSON: Hey, there, Craig, good morning to you. And while it’s pretty quiet here at the White House today, not so much on Twitter, where Donald Trump is decrying coverage of his presidency. His advisers insisting they’d all rather be talking policy one day after that clip of the President slamming a cable network, literally.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Tweet Slams Media; Controversy After Wrestling Video Targets CNN]
This morning, a fake fight with what the President calls a fake news network generating real controversy for the commander-in-chief.
THOMAS BOSSERT [WHITE HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER]: I think that no one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they don’t. But I do think that he’s been beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to.
JACKSON: The throwdown shown here, a throw back to Donald Trump’s WWE cameo, modified now to show a CNN graphic instead. A spokesperson for the cable network saying, “It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters,” citing this comment from the President’s deputy press secretary just last week.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: The President in no way, form, or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary.
JACKSON: The wrestling video appeared to originate on the online forum Reddit, where the President’s supporters cheered the clip’s new notoriety.
(...)
Good Morning America
7:02 AM ET
 AMY ROBACH: And we begin this morning with the President pouncing on the media. President Trump tweeting out this video over the weekend showing him in an old WWE clip, but in this version, you can see he is body slamming CNN. ABC’s David Kerley at the White House with much more on that. Good morning, David.
DAVID KERLEY: Good morning, Amy. This morning the President is being roundly criticized in a bipartisan manner for that tweet and the video amping up his battle with the media. And all this going on as his Republican colleagues are trying to change health care and sell it back home.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump “Slams” the Media; Outrage Over President’s Wrestling Tweet]
KERLEY: The official presidential tweet is an old wrestling video takedown with businessman Trump. Doctored with the CNN logo covering the face of his victim. One face of the media pummeled in the world of fake wrestling. Outrage even from Republicans immediately.
ANA NAVARRO: The President of the United States is inciting violence against the free press.
KERLEY: But the President defended by his Homeland Security adviser who saw this for the first time on This Week.
MARTHA RADDATZ: You’re in charge of Homeland Security there. That seems like a threat.
THOMAS BOSSERT: Yeah, certainly not, though. I think that no one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they don’t.
KERLEY: Elected Republicans quickly denouncing the President’s attack on journalists and the First Amendment.
SEN. BEN SASSE [R-NE]: This is the Fourth of July weekend. The Declaration of Independence is pretty dang clear about this.
GOV. JOHN KASICH: It’s ridiculous, right? Everybody is kind of flabbergasted. You know, he ought to stop doing it.
(...)
CBS This Morning
7:07 AM ET
 REENA NINAN: Mr. Trump spent much of the weekend lashing out at the media, including a tweeted video that outraged many of his critics. Chip Reid is at the White House, where the President’s advisers are defending his message. Chip, good morning.
CHIP REID: Well, good morning. The President’s latest controversial tweet comes a day after he proclaimed on Twitter that, “My use of social media is not presidential. It’s modern day presidential.” So welcome to the modern age.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Tweet Firestorm; President Takes on Journalists With Hostile Tweets]
DONALD TRUMP [SATURDAY]: The fake media is trying to silence us, but we will not let them.
REID: President Trump kept the focus on his favorite target over the weekend, the media.
TRUMP: The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I’m president and they’re not.
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
REID: Sunday morning the President posted a video on Twitter showing him bashing the CNN logo. Originally from 2007, the video shows then-citizen Trump attacking a wrestling executive. It’s unclear who made the new version, it was first posted on Reddit five days ago by a user who’s past postings have threatened violence against Muslims. In response, CNN called it “a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters. He is involved in juvenile behavior, far below the dignity of his office.”
(...)
REID: The President ramped up his feud against CNN after a couple of major mistakes by the network last week, including a story about Mr. Trump that was later retracted, causing three reporters to resign.
(...)
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By Nicholas Fondacaro
 MSNBC’s self-crowned political referee, Chuck Todd, appeared to throw in the towel on enforcing D.C.’s political rules, or at least the journalistic ones. During the first segment of Monday’sMTP Daily, Todd and two of his panelists, Brian Karem and David Folkenflik, whined about how the media was expected to be impartial with President Trump attacking them. “ But look, two generations of us as reporters. We're trained and conditioned to don't show emotion, we're the umpires and the referees.” Todd claimed. “ When somebody is insisting on making you the story, what do you do? … I struggle with it.”
It was clear that Todd didn’t know how to be an unbiased reporter as he opined about how he and other journalists weren’t trained to deal with Trump’s “moral failings.” “Somebody tweeted that journalists today were never trained to cover moral failings very well. And in some ways, this is what makes this more difficult,” he told his fellow partisans. “We're not good with having to say what's right and wrong sometimes because again, we have been trained to be dispassionate and the umpire.”
He also championed Brian Karem who recently flipped his lid and yelled at Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a White House press briefing. “And you gave voice this when you said: ‘We're just trying to do our jobs here. What are you talking about,’” Todd hyped.
NPR’s David Folkenflik expanded upon Todd’s frustration with the need for journalists to be unbiased in their reporting. He talked about how new generations were supposed to learn from “mistakes of the past” and denounced the apparently outdated idea that news should be fair and balanced. “You and I, we’re trained on the idea of being down the middle and scrupulously impartial, and you have seen recalibration to the idea that doesn't always capture, not only, the facts in front of you but the truth of those facts assembled to become,” he complained.
And with a stone-cold face, Folkenflik threw away the popularly held belief that the media should show both sides to an issue or story. “But the idea of saying: ‘Well, this is one hand and this is the other hand, and therefore we’ve captured a journalistic fairness,’ is often a deep disservice.” You read that correctly. According to him, it’s “often a deep disservice” to fairly report an issue.
Throughout their discussion, they exposed their biases for all to witness. Towards the beginning of the segment, Todd equated Trump’s tweets to the actions of dictators. “Folks, if these actions and this language was being used by a leader in a different country … our State Department would be saying: ‘Hm. That country is inching toward authoritarianism because that's usually the first sign. When you try to delegitimize a free press,’” he asserted.
Karem touted and laughed about how he had gotten away with letting his unchecked emotions drive his reporting about the White House. “I was surprised. That's not the most viral moment I thought I had in the White House,” he joked, referencing his out of control spat with Huckabee Sanders. “I called Mick Mulvaney a ‘soup Nazi’ during one briefing because he wanted to take food away from poor kids, and it just flabbergasted me.”
The Playboy reporter (Karem) was proud of how he catered to the liberals of America with his throw downs with Trump administration officials. “The American public is frustrated with us for not stepping up and holding him accountable for that moral failing, people want to see that,” he declared with no evidence. He also equated himself to acting as Trump’s “parent,” and remarked that he didn’t want that duty.
This out in the open conversation about how tired they were of having to be fair and impartial in the age of Trump, is the epitome of why in poll after poll the public says they don’t trust the media. Their comments here are why Trump’s war with the media resonates with his supporters and the general public. It’s why they’re losing their credibility.
Transcript below:
MSNBC
MTP Daily
July 3, 2017
5:03:03 PM Eastern
(…)
CHUCK TODD: Then there are the tweets. President Trump has slammed the media on Twitter 60 times since January 20th, that’s six-zero. This is just a smattering of the ways the President has spoken about the media since Inauguration Day. You see it there; disparaging, demeaning, failing, false. You know, sometimes they are lighter in humor. I get the sleepy eyes treatment. But some of the words are pretty, pretty nasty.
Folks, if these actions and this language was being used by a leader in a different country, our State Department, not just we in general. Our State Department would be saying: “Hm. That country is inching toward authoritarianism, because that's usually the first sign. When you try to delegitimize a free press.” But yes to be fair, U.S. Presidents have always warred with the press. It’s in their interest to push their agenda and there should be an adversarial relationship between the White House and the fourth estate. That's fine. It's our duty to find the truth and the truth can sometimes hurt.
(…)
TODD: What should the press do?
DAVID FOLKENFLIK: You know, in some ways it was worse than we might have hoped, and at least as bad as we might have feared. It's not bad in a sense that you haven't seen -- you haven't seen actions taken against the press too as then-candidate Trump promised to go after the libel laws, which would have been complicated for him to do that. But there are other things he could have done.
(…)
TODD: What the President does with his tweets, and I had this conversation with him. I said: “Don't personalize it. Attack the entities all you want, but when you attack individuals, you dehumanize.” And you gave voice this, when you said: “We're just trying to do our jobs here. What are you talking about?”
 BRIAN KAREM: That's what it boils down to, and from day one, you start out by telling me I'm the enemy of the people. You start out by telling me that I'm fake media. And I'm sure you know as I know, people have been injured trying to do this job. Me and about 12 other people on the planet have actually gone to jail for the first amendment and that's a sobering experience. There are people who have died, been shot at, covered wars, and we're the enemy of the people? And to not have a press conference or a press briefing for a week on camera, and then your very first press briefing on camera you start out by bashing CNN in general and all of us, you know, as CNN specifically, and all of us in general, that's just a little too much to take.
TODD: Here's the challenge, and David, I want you to weigh in on this as well. But look, two generations of us as reporters. We're trained and conditioned to don't show emotion. We're the umpires and the referees. We are not to show emotion. Don't take it personally. Cover it, dispassionately if you can.
KAREM: Don’t be the story.
TODD: Don’t be the story. When somebody is insisting on making you the story, what do you do? This has been a struggle for all of us. I struggle with it.
FAREM: It’s a struggle for me!
(…)
TODD: You know, David, somebody tweeted during the mess of the President's horrendous attack on a colleague of mine using horribly graphic terms. Somebody tweeted that journalists today were never trained to cover moral failings very well. And in some ways, this is what makes this more difficult. We're not good with having to say what's right and wrong sometimes because again, we have been trained to be dispassionate and the umpire.
 FOLKENFLIK: Well, I think every generation supposedly tries to unlearn the mistakes of the past and make so doing make their own. You and I, we’re trained on the idea of being down the middle and scrupulously impartial, and you have seen recalibration to the idea that doesn't always capture, not only, the facts in front of you but the truth of those facts assembled to become. And I think there is more of an emphasis among sophisticated, thoughtful journalists trying to make sense of the world for their readers and audiences, that we have to be scrupulously fair, very transparent about the journalism we do. But the idea of saying: “Well, this is one hand and this is the other hand, and therefore we’ve captured a journalistic fairness,” is often a deep disservice.
(…)
KAREM: We are part of the story. Whether we want to be or not. And that's a fact that we have to face. So, how do we deal with it is where do we go from here? You can't sit back and say: “I not a part of it.” He’s making us apart of it, and if you sit there and take it and take it, there is a good section of the American public when I did what did.
I was surprised. That's not the most viral moment I thought I had in the White House. I called Mick Mulvaney a “soup Nazi” during one briefing because he wanted to take food away from poor kids, and it just flabbergasted me. I thought if anything was going to viral it’d be that. But I didn't anticipate this. What happened afterwards, clued me in, it's not just us in that room that are frustrated. The American public is frustrated with us for not stepping up and holding him accountable for that moral failing, people want to see that. And at that point in time, I don't want to be his parent. But at some point in time, what do you do? As you said. You said: “Don't make it personal.” But he has made it personal. I can't pretend that he hasn't. I can't walk away from that.
TODD: Can’t un-ring the bell.
(…)
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By Kyle Drennen
The liberal media have refused cover the story of terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard in Britain and his parents’ fight in European courts to bring him to the United States for medical treatment. However, after President Trump tweeted out his support for the family on Monday, MSNBC finally found time to cover the topic – if only so their reporter could cynically accuse Trump of “exploiting” the situation.
Minutes after the President posted his statement to social media in the 10 a.m. ET hour, anchor Hallie Jackson informed viewers: “...you may have seen a couple minutes ago President Trump is back on Twitter....he’s talking about a little boy named Charlie Gard, writing, ‘If we can help little Charlie Gard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.’” Acknowledging the lack of press coverage, she asked: “Do you know who Charlie Gard is? Do you this story? NBC’s Matt Bradley does, he’s live in London to break this down.”
After Jackson remarked on how Trump was “wading into this situation,” Bradley explained the child’s difficult medical fight in detail. Following that, he went out of his way to attack the President for daring to speak out on the controversy:
Now depending on how you see this, Hallie, you could either – and depending really on your impressions of Mr. Trump before hand, you could either decide that this is the President selflessly stepping in to help grieving parents who are experiencing a terrible wrenching pain and a baby who has a very rare and very difficult-to-treat illness, or you could decide that this was the President trying to use the grief of two parents and a small baby for political gain and weighing into a situation that is really very much a national and European issue and not one that would expect anything from a United States politician. But again, this just depends on how you look at it.
Bradley was not done. An hour later, he again appeared on the left-wing cable channel to suggest that Trump was just trying to score political points:
So you can either – depending on your view of President Trump – you can either see this as the President weighing in to help a very sick child and his parents, or a president who’s using a very sick child and his parents as political props to appear as though he’s actually helping, when in reality it would take extraordinary intervention on behalf of the President to go in the face of multiple high courts here in Britain and the European Court of Human Rights.
An hour after that, Bradley was featured once again:
Now you can see President Trump’s tweet as either coming to the defense selflessly of a very, very sick little baby and his parents, or you can see it as the President exploiting a very, very sad situation and two parents who are just simply hard wired to keep their baby alive and will go to any lengths to see that happen.
This nasty smear of the President’s intentions was brought to viewers by Johnson’s, Trivago, and PC Matic.
Here are excerpts of the July 3 coverage:
10:53 AM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: So if you are watching this show and also happen to be on your phone, online, you may have seen a couple minutes ago President Trump is back on Twitter. But he’s not talking about what you might expect, whether it’s the health care situation, whether it’s the media. Instead he’s talking about a little boy named Charlie Gard, writing, “If we can help little Charlie Gard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.” Do you know who Charlie Gard is? Do you this story? NBC’s Matt Bradley does, he’s live in London to break this down. Because, Matt, the President is sort of wading into this situation now that has made a lot of headlines over in the U.K.
MATT BRADLEY: That’s right. This isn’t an issue that you probably would have heard about in the United States, but it was a big one here. There’s been protests and a lot of talk constantly about little baby Charlie Gard. He’s a 10-month-old baby boy who’s been afflicted by a very rare genetic condition...
(...)
 BRADLEY: But Charlie’s parents have not been giving up and they’ve been fighting a legal battle against the National Health Service and the government and the doctors who are caring for baby Charlie for the past several months. And now they had an offer to go to the United States where a doctor was going to give them experimental treatment. But Charlie’s parents managed to raise 1.3 million British pounds to care for the child and to bring him to the United States. And just today – just recently, just in the past couple of days, the European High Court of Human Rights decided that they were going to side with the doctors and with the British government and forbid Charlie’s two parents, who are in their mid-30s, from taking their child to the United States to receive experimental treatment. They decided that this would only be extending the agony of baby Charlie.
And so, the two parents have now been hearing from world leaders. Now the Pope just today weighed in and said that Charlie Gard’s parents should be allowed to, quote, “accompany and treat their child until the end.” And then just moments ago we heard from Donald Trump, he weighed in. And he offered to help these children.
Now depending on how you see this, Hallie, you could either – and depending really on your impressions of Mr. Trump before hand, you could either decide that this is the President selflessly stepping in to help grieving parents who are experiencing a terrible wrenching paper and a baby who has a very rare and very difficult to treat illness, or you could decide that this was the President trying to use the grief of two parents and a small baby for political gain and weighing into a situation that is really very much a national and European issue and not one that would expect anything from a United States politician. But again, this just depends on how you look at it.
(...)
11:35 AM ET
BRADLEY: So you can either – depending on your view of President Trump – you can either see this as the President weighing in to help a very sick child and his parents, or a president who’s using a very sick child and his parents as political props to appear as though he’s actually helping, when in reality it would take extraordinary intervention on behalf of the President to go in the face of multiple high courts here in Britain and the European Court of Human Rights.
(...)
12:26 PM ET
BRADLEY: Now you can see President Trump’s tweet as either coming to the defense selflessly of a very, very sick little baby and his parents, or you can see it as the President exploiting a very, very sad situation and two parents who are just simply hard wired to keep their baby alive and will go to any lengths to see that happen.
(...)
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