After House Republicans agreed on Mike Johnson as a Speaker nominee, ABC reporter Rachel Scott started asking typical “election denier” questions, and drew boos and a “shut up” from Republicans. Reporters were outraged…even though they were 2016 election deniers.
AP’s Seung Min Kim tweeted “For the record, a completely fair question.” CBS reporter Robert Costa joined in: ”Boos and jeers don’t make questions suddenly disappear.” But these reporters don’t ask the same questions of election-denier Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the House Democrats.
CNN veteran John King was especially upset: “They are anti-democratic. They simply are. That’s a fact. And they are anti-free speech. They don’t like questions that they don’t like. They don’t want to answer questions that they don’t like. Well, sorry, welcome to America.”
The problem with this hot take is that CNN used to send a rabid Rottweiler to the press briefings and now sounds like a poodle. When Fox’s Steve Doocy asks tough questions, the same people who loathe him on The View turn around and yell at Republicans to get out of Congress.
Managing editor Curtis Houck — our expert on White House briefings and press conferences, among other things — joins the show to discuss the press-versus-government equation at this frightening time of war in the Mideast.
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.