Fox News host Shepard Smith stood up on behalf of journalism today and against Donald Trump’s attack on a CNN reporter at his press conference.
As I previously noted, Trump tried to deflect from questions about his relationship with Russia, whether he is blackmailable and whether his campaign colluded with the country during the presidential campaign. Instead of coming clean on the subject, Trump threw a bullyboy temper tantrum about “fake news” and the media. Trump’s incoming press secretary also threatened CNN reporter Jim Acosta with ejection because he demanded to ask a question after being attacked.
It didn’t go over well with Smith. And he took to the Fox News airwaves with his reprimand (transcript via Media Matters):
SMITH: President-elect Trump today told CNN’s Jim Acosta that his organization amounts to fake news. CNN’s exclusive reporting on the Russian matter was separate, and distinctly different from the document dump executed by an online news property.
Though we at Fox News cannot confirm CNN’s report, it is our observation that its correspondents followed journalistic standards, and that neither they nor any other journalist should be subjected to belittling and delegitimizing by the president-elect of the United States.
Was Smith really speaking for all of Fox? I’d like to hope so. But his certainly did not appear to be the official network view on Outnumbered earlier in the day.
I wrote in my last post that the Outnumbered attacks on the media (while largely ignoring questions about Trump’s relationship with Russia) was proof that Fox is “more a political operation than a journalistic one.” While that’s still true, it was nice to see the journalistic side rear its head today. It was needed.
Watch it below, from the January 11, 2017 Shepard Smith Reporting, via Media Matters.
According to highly credible Italian correspondents, the Clinton campaign had the full 35-page memo as early as August/September 2016, butTHEY DIDN’T USE IT !!!!! Reportedly because the investigation had only just started. Similarly, several media organisations also refrained from reporting on it, not wanting to jump the gun.
Does anybody recall any such restraint on the part of the Trump campaign? Or, Director Comey for that matter. Trump even purred with pleasure as he recalled the dirty details discovered in Podesta’s emails.
Apologies in advance for the following on a salacious detail: Trump claims that the “golden shower” allegations can’t be true because he’s a proven germophobe. I find that to be credible. However, according to our press, he’d asked the ladies to urinate on the bed that the Obamas had slept in. That’s credible, too, if only because the childishness is perfectly in line with the petulance of the man.
Finally, Trump’s claim that he would not misbehave for fear of cameras is laughable, considering that he’d already boasted – on camera – to an irrefrenable propensity for groping women. A hallway, a stairwell or an elevator would suffice. And it’s silly to be wary only of foreign “locations”.
Again, apologies for getting down into the gutter. More confirmation that bad behaviour is highly contagious. I promise in future to take a higher road.
