WATCH: For the third time in two months, Fox News’ Shep Smith has stood up for a free press. “CNN is not fake news” pic.twitter.com/wbJmy7LMiD
— Yashar (@yashar) February 24, 2017
Yet, President Donald Trump’s administration has put Steve Bannon’s “opposition party” logic into practice by attacking the press — this time by banning certain entities from the White House press briefing. Chief among the news organizations barred from Sean Spicer’s off-camera gaggle were CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed, Politico, and the BBC. More friendly outlets like Breitbart, OANN, the Washington Times, NBC and ABC, however, were allowed in. Time and the Associated Press boycotted the event. As for Fox News…
Whether or not Trump’s favorite source of Swedish terrorism reporting attended the gaggle remains to be seen. Even so, outspoken anchor Shepard Smith — who previously defended CNN’s Jim Acosta and the press at large against the president’s anti-media tirades — wasn’t having any of it. Hence why he devoted a whole segment of his hour to condemning the Trump administration for its latest action, and attempted to teach Trump about what so-called “fake news” actually is.
“For the record, fake news refers to stories that are created — often by entities pretending to be news organizations — solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance. In short, fake news is made-up nonsense delivered for financial gain,” Smith opined. “CNN’s reporting was not fake news. Its journalists follow the same standards to which other news organizations — including Fox News — adhere. Senior administration officials regularly speak without attribution so that the public can be informed about what our government is doing — off the record.”
Smith’s comments regarding “CNN’s reporting” were, of course, in reference to the Fox News competitor’s story regarding the White House’s attempts to bury stories regarding administration officials’ alleged ties to Russia. Check out the full segment below.