We Worship You, Oh Brian
As we predicted the day the Tucker/Kaus story broke, Brian Stelter featured an attack on Fox News today. It took something of a double-bank shot to pull it off, because the story reflected on Carlson rather than FNC. But it was easy enough to engineer that sort of spin, and by this morning the dispute served as a seamless entré to demean Fox News.
At least one person didn’t react well to Mr. Stelter’s treatment of the story. Betsy Rothstein (who writes for Carlson’s Daily Caller) took to twitter and had more than a few pointed comments about Stelter’s presentation:
Let’s correct record right now: 1) reporters know about the policy at TheDC. 2) Brian Stelter does not seriously criticize CNN. That’s bs.
And Brian Stelter: how about reporting that this happens at nearly every outlet. For reporters who go on MSNBC too. This isn’t outlandish.
When a tweeter proposed that someone at Fox News who wrote a story trashing Roger Ailes would be “fired on the spot,” Ms. Rothstein replied:
Of course they would. The same goes for an MSNBC employee and Phil Griffin too. And CNN, Zucker. WaPo, Bezos. On and on.
At one point Mr. Stelter noted how independent he is because he had just talked about CNN. Betsy Rothstein was not impressed:
This morning Brian Stelter claimed he can be critical of CNN and it’s total bs. He lumped CNN mildly and vaguely in with other pubs who had somehow gotten the Secret Service story wrong. How? Who knows?
That was hardly some bold critique of CNN. And for him to act like it was, well, he’s delusional.
Fine Brian Stelter do what you say: investigate your boss Jeff Zucker in a seriously critical way. Then I’ll eat my words.
You want to critique CNN? OK, report how CNN hired a future murder suspect they knew was problematic.
Another story idea for Brian Stelter, who can allegedly critique CNN: A discrimination lawsuit against your network.
TCG could bring up Reliable’s feeble (or nonexistent) coverage of Fareed Zakaria, Jim Clancy, Carol Costello and the like, but that would be piling on.
Meanwhile, Mediaite put up its Reliable Sources dings Fox post in record time today: in less than a half hour, and while Reliable was still on the air! The adulation for Mr. Stelter at Dan Abrams’ website is something to behold. Of course, that Reliable post is currently Mediaite’s top story. Only it’s by Josh Feldman. Evan must be inconsolable.
The Cable Game 