Kurt Schlichter: We Should Cheer CNN’s Ritual Suicide

Posted: July 5, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Photography, U.S. News | Tags: Brian Stelter, CNN, Donald Trump, Fuji News Network, Make America Great Again, President of the United States, Twitter, United States, Vince McMahon, WWE | Leave a comment

Kurt Schlichter writes: If you ever had any doubt that Donald Trump was right that the mainstream media is the enemy of the American people, CNN corrected your inexplicable inability to comprehend this painfully obvious truth by choosing July 4th to threaten some guy for daring to make fun of Its Medianess Holiness. Apparently, if you dare defy the media it has the right to wreck your life – as long as you are an anti-Obama rodeo clown or a meme-making rando on Reddit. If you are a zillionaire like Anthony Scaramucci with the bucks to hire top flight law firms and Gawkerize its lame carcass – which I would have done in a split-second if CNN had lied about me the way it did about him – then you get a free pass.

Instead of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, CNN’s new motto is apparently “Confront the afflicted and settle with the comfortable.” Every time I see the CNN logo I hear James Earl Jones‘s voice intoning “This is CNN, and we suck.”

But actually, maybe we should all thank CNN for its work guaranteeing Trump’s second term.

Now, before we move on, someone is going to point out that the meme guy is kind of a jerk and said stuff that offends decent people. So? How is that the point? This is a multi-billion dollar media corporation using all its power to threaten an individual into not criticizing it. How is that ever okay? And don’t pretend for a minute this media extortion precedent gets limited to outlier Reddit guys. Normal Americans are next.

The media babbles about “principles,” but as soon as they become inconvenient then out the window go those precious “principles.” A silly wrestling gif supporting the president “promotes violence against the media,” but a week before that funding a play where President Trump is stabbed to death was artful political commentary? That’s my objection to all this recent “principles” talk. Read the rest of this entry »

[VIDEO] Media Critic Mollie Hemingway Puts a Spell On CNN’s Brian Stelter

Posted: November 14, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook, U.S. News | Tags: 2016, @brianstelter, Barack Obama, Big Data, Brian Stelter, CNN, Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Financial Times, Hillary Clinton, Jared Kushner, Republican Party (United States), The New York Times, Twitter, United States | Leave a comment

The Media Needs To Wake Up And Get Its Credibility Back

‘The really alarming thing is that a lot of people in the media aren’t listening…the media need to wake up because it’s actually a very important time to get our credibility back…’

Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway joined CNN‘s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday to talk about what the media got wrong and how to make amends.

“They’re deciding to quadruple down on everything they got wrong, disparaging people who they don’t understand, don’t even seek to understand, and continuing to avoid dealing with the fundamentals of this race.”

Mollie Hemingway Basically Sets CNN on Fire

Ace writes:

…A little background: Brian Stelter, who is supposedly CNN’s “media critic,” does nothing but criticize those who criticize the media, suggesting they’re dangerously undermining a key part of democracy….(read more)

…CNN should just officially change his title to Official Establishment Media Defender. I’ve never seen him say anything about the media except it’s awesome and anyone who disagrees is a liar….But he did have on Mollie Hemingway, who told him, essentially, “I refuse.”

— AceofSpadesHQ

“Maybe what you need to realize is that for a lot of people who don’t share your political opinions, that’s what it feels like. What you’re going through right now is what it felt like for the last eight years.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Byron York: At CNN, a Double Standard for Dem, GOP Debates

Posted: October 14, 2015 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Censorship, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Anderson Cooper, Bernie Sanders, Brian Stelter, Byron York, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, CNN, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Donald Wuerl, Fox News Sunday, Hillary Clinton, Jake Tapper, Rand Paul, Republican Party (United States), Thomas Rosica | Leave a comment

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york Byron York writes: Before the Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library Sept. 16, CNN promised to stage what it called “actual debating.”

“Is one of the goals for you … to spur more actual debating?” CNN’s Brian Stelter asked debate moderator Jake Tapper a few days before the event. Stelter pointed to a moment in the August Fox News debate in which two candidates, Chris Christie and Rand Paul, had an extended and heated — and illuminating — exchange with each other.*

“That was my favorite moment from the debate,” Tapper said. “Let’s have as many of those as possible. So, yes, what the team and I have been doing is trying to craft questions that, in most cases, pit candidates against the other, specific candidates on the stage, on issues where they disagree, whether it’s policy or politics or leadership. Let’s actually have them discuss and debate.”

“I don’t think this is a debate where you’ll have candidates attack each other; we’ve not seen this on the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders has been very clear. He’s not going to go after Hillary Clinton by name. He’s not going to criticize her. And I see no reason that Hillary Clinton would do that with any of the candidates.”

— Anderson Cooper

That was then. Now, another CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper, will be moderating a debate, this time among Democrats, and he says there will be none of that raucous “actual debating” this time around.

[Read the full text here, at the Washington Examiner]

“I’m always uncomfortable with that notion of setting people up in order to kind of promote some sort of a faceoff,” Cooper told Stelter Sunday. “I think these are all serious people. This is a serious debate. They want to talk about the issues.”

Leave the slugfest to the Republicans. The Democratic debate will be a serious discussion of the issues. Read the rest of this entry »

REWIND: Author of Discredited Rolling Stone UVA Rape Story Will Apologize Tonight

Posted: April 5, 2015 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Brian Stelter, Charlottesville, Chief of police, CNN, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Phi Kappa Psi, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Types of rape, University of Virginia, Virginia | Leave a comment

Robby Soave writes: Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the author of Rolling Stone‘s much-maligned story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia, plans to formally apologize for her mistakes, according to CNN‘s Brian Stetler.

Erdely stopped responding to questions and interview requests at the beginning of December, as reporters began to call into question the details of the story. (Richard Bradley and I were the first to do so.) Since then, the story has completely collapsed and was essentially confirmed as false by The Washington Post and the Charlottesville police department.

Erdely plans to break her silence tonight, according to The Daily Caller:

But now, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter, Erdely plans to make a public apology nearly four months after Rolling Stone’s retraction. Her apology appears to be timed to coincide with the release of a Columbia School of Journalism report on Rolling Stone’s journalistic failings….(read more) Read the rest of this entry »

Failure to Report for Duty: Stars And Stripes Publishes Full Brian Williams Interview Because He Canceled On David Letterman

Posted: February 9, 2015 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Brian Stelter, Brian Williams, CBS, CNN, David Letterman, Iraq War, Late Show with David Letterman, NBC, NBC News, NBC Nightly News | Leave a comment

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**Some industry navel gazers say he’s missed a great opportunity by canceling. But Williams’ loss, and Letterman’s, is Stars and Stripes’ gain**

Lisa de Moraes reports: Stars and Stripe says it has today published the transcript and audio of its full interview with Brian Williams from last week — because Williams canceled on David Letterman.

“The reason we decided to publish it now is because Williams backed out of this appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. We felt there was a lot of interest out there to hear him, in his own words, really address these questions and hear his response, unfiltered…”

Williams will not appear on the Late Show with David Letterman this Thursday, yesterday canceling a long-scheduled appearance in the wake of an investigation into his inflated claims about taking enemy fire while in a helicopter in Iraq. Some industry navel gazers say he’s missed a great opportunity by canceling. But Williams’ loss, and Letterman’s, is Stars and Stripes’ gain.

“…so everybody can listen for themselves and judge…Williams has not come forward and answered questions. He has made statements on his own but he hasn’t sat and answered questions about it.”

— Travis Tritten

“The reason we decided to publish it now is because Williams backed out of this appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman,” Travis Tritten, who did the interview, explained this afternoon to CNN. “We felt there was a lot of interest out there to hear him, in his own words, really address these questions and hear his response, unfiltered — so everybody can listen for themselves and judge,” Tritten added. Read the rest of this entry »

Carol Costello Apology Countdown Clock

Posted: October 27, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Brian Stelter, Bristol Palin, Carol Costello, CNN, Costello, ESPN, Howard Kurtz, Stephen Smith, Washington Post | 1 Comment

TICK TOCK CNN media reporter: Costello deserves all the criticism she’s getting TICK TOCK TICK TOCK

Hot Air‘s Ed Morrissey writes:

And CNN deserves some too, although their media reporter Brian Stelter didn’t go quite that far yesterday. Give Stelter credit for covering the controversy at all, though; he’s not an ombudsman or Carol Costello’s editor, after all, but just CNN’s media-beat analyst. Stelter provides a fair, if limited, look at Costello’s giggly adolescent delight at hearing Bristol Palin recount an assault in an audio clip, but doesn’t get around to discussing CNN’s responsibility for the segment or Costello’s refusal to apologize on air:

Stelter’s predecessor went a little further. Howard Kurtz, now at Fox, said his former employer should make Costello apologize on air:

That brawl in Alaska involving Sarah Palin’s family has gotten a lot of media attention. And when police audio was released, CNN anchor Carol Costello played it. And, boy, did she think it was a hoot. …

How on earth is that funny? Would Carol Costello have said enjoy if, let’s say, Chelsea Clinton was getting roughed up? Now Sarah Palin is…(more)

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At Mediaite, Joe Concha thinks an on-air apology may come today. CNN is out of options, Concha writes, and the controversy won’t go away:

In the past 72 hours alone, the Washington Post’s respected media writer, Erik Wemple–who has described Costello as “outstanding” in the recent past–has called on her to apologize on CNN air. Fox’s media analyst–Howard Kurtz–stated on Sunday’s Media Buzz the following: “Carol is a good journalist, but to make fun of the woman (Bristol Palin) in this episode no matter who started that brawl is horribly insensitive.” Kurtz added a need for Costello to apologize on-air as well.…(more)

If you’ve forgotten Costello’s take on Stephen Smith, it took place in late July, after Smith actually did apologize on air for suggesting that Janay Rice played a role in the incident of domestic violence that put the NFL under the microscope this season. Read the rest of this entry »