Actor Bryan Cranston appeared to go after President Donald Trump during his acceptance speech at the Tony Award’s on Sunday, declaring that the media is not the “enemy of the people” as the president routinely says of the establishment press.
Cranston, who was accepting an award for his portrayal of a broadcast journalist in the play Network, responded to comments by Trump that mainstream media networks and publications from CNN to The New York Times “will do anything possible to see our country fail” and had thus become “enemy of the people.”
“I would like to dedicate this to all the real journalists around the world, both in the press — the print media — and the broadcast media, who actually are in the line of fire with their pursuit of the truth,” Cranston said. “The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people.”
Trump’s latest criticism the media came after The New York Times published an allegedly false report which said Mexico had agreed to take additional measures to stop the flow of illegal immigration from Central America to the U.S. southern border long before the president had threatened tariffs against Mexican imports.
…..there is not, we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs – But I don’t believe that will be necessary. The Failing @nytimes, & ratings challenged @CNN, will do anything possible to see our Country fail! They are truly The Enemy of the People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2019
On Saturday, the left-wing website The Daily Beast also published a false report claiming Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., failed to pay their drink tab at a pub in Ireland. The far-left outlet, that last week doxed an black Trump supporter after he creating a parody video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), issued an apology and has since taken fire for their false report.
An item in our Cheat Sheet, quoting a local Irish paper, said that Eric and Donald Jr. Trump had not paid their bill at a local pub. In fact, a nearby Trump golf club did later reimburse the bar. The item has been updated, and we regret the error
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 8, 2019
Bryan Cranston, meanwhile, elaborated on his comments while talking to reporters backstage after the ceremony, claiming it is important to “keep sounding the alarm” about the Trump administration’s policies.
“It’s absurd to think that the media is the enemy of the people,” the Sneaky Pete star said. “If that message keeps getting propagated over and over and over again, sometimes it starts to seep in. And the perception of the truth is often more important than the truth, because if people believe it, it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not.
“So the opposite message has to continue to be put out there, whether it’s diversity or the fight against the media or women’s reproductive rights or voting rights,” he continued. “It’s important to keep sounding the alarm.”
“It’s absurd to think that the media is the enemy of the people.” Bryan Cranston explains why he called out Trump’s attacks on journalists during his #TonyAwards speech. pic.twitter.com/2JZ3TPo095
— Patrick Ryan (@PatRyanWrites) June 10, 2019
The 63-year-old Breaking Bad star has long been a vociferous critic of President Trump, having once pledged to leave the country if he got elected. However, he later reversed his position, saying that he hoped Trump would do an “exceptionally good job” for the benefit of the country as a whole.
“It’s just astonishing to me. President Trump is not the person who I wanted to be in that office, and I’ve been very open about that,” Cranston said in a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “That being said, he is the president. If he fails, the country is in jeopardy. It would be egotistical for anyone to say, ‘I hope he fails.’ To that person, I would say, f*ck you. Why would you want that? So you can be right?”
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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