Quoting Fox News host Tucker Carlson, President Trump on Monday said “prestige media outlets” have fallen low, either becoming “extinct” or degrading themselves “beyond recognition.”
“’The American Media has changed forever. News organizations that seemed like a big deal are now extinct,’” Trump tweeted, quoting Carlson’s remarks from his show Monday evening. “’Those that remain have now degraded themselves beyond recognition, like the New Yorker – or they’ve been purchased by Jeff Bezos to conduct unregistered lobbying for……… ….Amazon, like the Washington Post. It’s hard to remember that not so long ago America had prestige media outlets, but not anymore.’ @TuckerCarlson.”
Trump also added his own words, by now an old refrain: “The Fake News Media is the true Enemy of the People!”
“The American Media has changed forever. News organizations that seemed like a big deal are now extinct. Those that remain have now degraded themselves beyond recognition, like the New Yorker – or they’ve been purchased by Jeff Bezos to conduct unregistered lobbying for………
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
…. Amazon, like the Washington Post. It’s hard to remember that not so long ago America had prestige media outlets, but not anymore.” @TuckerCarlson The Fake News Media is the true Enemy of the People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
Carlson’s comments led into a rebuke of BuzzFeed News and its “cat coverage” — a reference to silly memes the site runs — and the outlet’s publication of the so-called “Trump dossier” that contains many salacious and unverified claims about Trump’s relationship with Russia.
Carlson then went head-to-head with BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief Ben Smith, sparring over the website’s
decision to publish the dossier and a BuzzFeed report published in January that claimed Trump told his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.
Cohen told a congressional panel last week that Trump “did not directly tell me to lie to Congress” and special counsel Robert Mueller’s office also issued a rare statement indicated the article was inaccurate, but BuzzFeed has defended its reporting.
“Here you have Cohen and the Mueller investigation debunking the so called ‘bombshell’ that you ran in January and you’re refusing to admit it has been debunked,” Carlson said. But Smith noted that Cohen also told Congress that Trump “in his own way, was telling me to lie.”
“But that’s not what you said,” Carlson said.
Smith doubled down and said that “the bar now seems to be” if Trump explicitly told Cohen to lie on his behalf.
“It is not to me totally crazy that he should be expected to interpret his boss’s words,” Smith said.
Cohen appeared before the House Oversight and Reform panel last Wednesday. He was sentenced to three years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations regarding hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign to two women who claimed they were involved in affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.
