Who’s Deep State Plot Is It Anyway?
Brian Stelter was up in arms today (and every other day) about Sean Hannity and the “pro-Trump media.” Already the tweets are flying:
CNN’s media critic has developed a serious concern that someone, somewhere, hasn’t been paying sufficient obeisance to the Special Counsel. Such dangerous talk must stop. The fact that Stelter targets Fox News (a network that regularly doubles or triples CNN’s viewership), well, that’s frosting on the cake:
CNN, and Stelter in particular, don’t like criticism of Mueller. They’re so rabid in their defense of the investigations that they could be on Mueller’s PR staff:
STELTER: You can’t understand fully how the Mueller probe is being perceived, how the public is understanding it, without understanding how conservative media is trying to discredit Mueller, discredit the FBI, and discredit the DoJ. There is this concerted effort from pro-Trump hosts on Fox News, from radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, and from right-wing bloggers and social media stars, to tear down Mueller, demand his firing, and in some cases even demand his arrest.
Here are three examples of incendiary talk that CNN and Stelter would have you believe border on the treasonous:
He casually described the Special Counsel’s behavior as “criminal,” not to mention “frightening,” “absurd” and “unfair.”
The Special Prosecutor has become corrupt in the sense that Lord Acton meant when he said “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
There are serious questions of wrongdoing here, and I think we need a truly independent investigation of the investigation itself, so that we can know who’s behind these lies, who is behind these leaks, and let the investigation continue.
Brian Stelter did not hide his disgust over Hannity demanding an “investigation of the investigation itself:”
STELTER: See these “Muellergate” banners from Hannity the other night? It straight up says onscreen “Investigating the investigators.” Fox’s message is that Trump is the victim of a deep state plot to ruin his presidency.
That truly is the last straw. This time Hannity has gone too far. Except the quote your Cable Gamer used wasn’t from Hannity at all. It was spoken by Paul Begala and dates from the era of Ken Starr. (The other two quotes, slightly edited to disguise their origin, are also Begala’s.) Yes, the same Paul Begala who, like Brian Stelter, works for CNN, appears regularly on their airwaves, and has not, to our knowledge, ever been called out by Stelter for his “deep state plot” conspiracy theories.
Far from calling out Begala, Brian Stelter once gave a warm write-up to a cinematic glorification of Begala’s bare-knuckled style of political combat. As for Begala’s view of Stelter, they’re clearly BFF’s:
Paul Begala even gets invited onto Stelter’s Sunday show Reliable Sources. Because who could be more reliable than someone who promotes “deep state plot” conspiracy theories, just like that dangerous Hannity guy?
Meanwhile CNN and Stelter continue to bitch about Fox News:
Both Fox News and the Washington Examiner reported on highlights from the memo while other outlets were still scrambling to get their hands on the doc. This raised eyebrows: Chuck Todd said releasing details to conservative media was “not a good look…”
How dare Fox News scoop CNN by getting memo details first and reporting them accurately? No doubt a featured segment on the next, very special edition of Reliable Sources.
The Cable Game 
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