When Donald Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer acknowledged that he had threatened to eject CNN reporter Jim Acosta from Trump's press conference yesterday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson seemed to forget that he once thought reporters are “supposed to get their questions answered.” But that was so President Obama-questioning ago.
During an interview last night, Carlson asked Spicer whether it was true that he had threatened Acosta for aggressively trying to get Trump to call on him at the press conference.
Spicer’s reply is via Media Matters:
SPICER: So, what happened was, after the exchange that you just noted, he did it again towards the end, he continued to harass the president-elect. After the president-elect had ended the press conference and been removed from the area, I went up to Mr. Acosta and I said that his behavior was rude, inappropriate, and disrespectful of the president-elect. He told me that he thought that he had a right to ask a question, even though CNN had been granted a question to one of their other correspondents. I informed him that I thought that no one should be treated that way and treated that disrespectfully, and that if he did it again in the future, I would have him removed.
Tucker, you know, now I’ve known you long time. You know I am a pretty solid Republican. I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or Democrat or an independent, but if someone did that to President Obama or President Clinton or frankly any other human being, I would say the same thing. No one needs to be treated with that level of disrespect and rudeness. I think Mr. [Jim] Acosta owes the president-elect, and frankly the entire press corps, an apology for his childish and inappropriate behavior.
You may recall that when President Obama was outright heckled in a "question" by Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro, in 2012, while Carlson was still the editor-in-chief, he stuck up for the reporter, saying, “This is what reporters are supposed to do,” and “They’re supposed to get their questions answered.”
The Washington Examiner, no liberal rag, explains why Acosta was no Munro: “Acosta asked for clarification about a story that’s been sweeping the country. The journalist didn’t interrupt or taunt. He didn’t even bring up the issue; the president-elect did. Acosta simply shouted out a question like the other hundreds of reporters.”
But instead of telling Spicer that reporters are “supposed to get their questions answered,” Carlson only made the argument that Trump didn’t need to ban a reporter. At the same time, Carlson suggested Acosta deserved the verbal attack and belittling he got from Trump during the presser.
CARLSON: So, the president-elect basically made that same point. I mean, from the podium, he said, “You’re fake news.” And he got me thinking that during the campaign, there were news organizations that were banned from Trump events. And I’m sort of wondering now why? I mean, the president-elect is certainly capable of responding directly to people he doesn’t like in the media. He’s pretty good at it and I think he’d probably get sympathy from viewers when he does it. So why would he ban news organizations when he so clearly enjoys batting ‘em around?
Later, in the interview, Carlson also sounded a bit queasy about these attacks on the press (but not willing to come right out and challenge them) when he asked Spicer to commit to allowing reporters who don’t agree with Trump to ask him hard questions.
Yes, he would, Spicer said, but “When people want to engage negatively with [Trump] or attack him, he’s going to fight back. If you want to have a conversation and engage in a polite and respectful manner with the president-elect, he’s going to treat you in kind.”
Spicer continued, “But if you come in hot and want to be disrespectful and rude, as Jim Acosta was today, he’s not gonna sit back and take it. This is a man who fights and wins.”
Carlson said admiringly, “Noticed.”
Watch it below, from the January 11, 2017 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Spicer and the Right Wing have a lot of nerve trying to claim any moral high ground in any situation of a reporter asking questions of a President. When President Obama was repeatedly heckled or booed at any event, Fox News and the Right Wing happily supported it. Ellen correctly notes just one situation with Neil Munro. That wasn’t the only time. There were plenty of others. How about, in a similar vein, Joe Wilson crying out “You Lie!” during a State of the Union Address – something that Rush Limbaugh vigorously defended him for doing? How about the numerous times that Fox News reporters would ask obvious leading questions of Obama and/or his Press Secretary, designed to play the Fox line of the day? How about the numerous intemperate attack questions inflicted by Ed Henry? How about the repeated attempts by Ed Henry to belittle Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail? And yes, how about all the support the Right Wing and Fox News gave to the Birther movement?
How about all the constant drumbeats of viciousness from the likes of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity throughout the Obama Presidency, always looking for an angle, some scandal that would be the magic bullet to bring him down? How about the repeated statements by the likes of Sean Hannity repeating Far Right ideas about Obama’s grade transcripts being suspicious? I presume that Sean Spicer is saying that all of this is just fine, but if a CNN reporter attempts to ask a question and is viciously rebuffed by a childish politician, that this must be the CNN reporter’s fault?
Spicer’s unbelievable hypocrisy and shamelessness is jaw dropping. How DARE he try to get away with this?