Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett criticized CNN for who the puts on to offer a pro-Trump perspective during the network’s panel discussions.
Lovett praised host Brian Stelter for going after Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity for what he deemed as being “intellectually dishonest.” However, he argued Stelter could do the same with pro-Trump CNN personalities, including contributors Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany, for being “stupid,” a “bullshit factory” and “terrible representatives of the views of conservatives.”
Partial transcript as follows:
LOVETT: Look, here’s an example. You go after Hannity on this show, right? You say he’s intellectually dishonest, he doesn’t care about the truth, he doesn’t care about what his audience cares about, right?
Then you turn on CNN, and Hannity has got a little beachhead on half the shows on this network. You turn it on, and there’s a big, giant panel. And you have…
STELTER: You mean Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany and other Trump supporters.
LOVETT: Absolutely. And you look at that giant panel, and it’s smart person, smart person, smart person, stupid person, smart person, smart person, smart person, bullshit…
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: Why does it help to insult Trump supporters like that?
LOVETT: I’m not insulting the Trump supporters.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: You just called them stupid people.
LOVETT: I’m not calling the Trump supporters stupid people. I’m calling the people that CNN puts on television are terrible representatives of the views of conservatives. They’re terrible representatives of the kind of politics we should have.
I mean, these are not intellectually honest people. These are people building a brand. These are people willing to say anything.
And the same criticism you direct at Hannity, you could direct at the people that CNN puts on the air. I mean, I have said this before, but I think it’s true. So often on CNN, there’s a world-class journalist interviewing campaign rejects and ideologues and silly, craven people who do not care about informing people, that aren’t there to kind of help people understand what is going on in the news.
And the thing is, there are millions of people who say every day, we don’t like this, right? You look at every single poll, every single poll.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: But millions are also watching it.
(CROSSTALK)
LOVETT: Oh, we’re all getting a ratings bump. We’re all getting a ratings bump.
STELTER: I wish I had Jason Miller here to react to you right now.
You’re saying these people aren’t intellectually honest.
LOVETT: I’m — what I’m saying is, over and over again, you have polls that say people hate the news. And it’s not sustainable to have an entire — look, and some of that is partisanship, right? That is liberals saying that our side is not represented well, and conservatives saying, our side is not represented now.
But how is it sustainable that we all cannot stand the way the news comes at us, right, and not just the substance of it, but the way it’s delivered?
And I think what we have found with this company is that there’s an appetite for something different, for something that is at times serious, but doesn’t take itself seriously.
(h/t RCP Video)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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