CNN’s Brian Stelter proved himself a Biden regime sycophant on Sunday, using his interview with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to ingratiate himself with her and to demonize Biden’s critics, rather than to report the news.
“What does the press get wrong when covering Biden’s agenda?” Stelter began. “When you watch the news, when you read the news, what do you think we get wrong?”
Glenn Greenwald mocked Stelter’s approach, paraphrasing the question as, “Beat me, Jen! Tell me how to be better.”
Beat me, Jen! Tell me how to be better. 😍🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵 https://t.co/F03dxJzxko
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 6, 2021
“Have I been a bad boy, Jen? I want to be a good boy,” Greenwald added, again mocking Stelter.
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Yet Stelter went on to ask another sycophantic question, one which the court reporters in Iran should learn to emulate.
“You have a daughter going into kindergarten, I have a daughter going into pre-K, and I think to myself what kind of country is this going to be when they are our age? Do you fear that, given the craziness we’re seeing from the GOP? Do you fear that for our kids? For your kids and mine?” the CNN anchor asked.
After Psaki took the opportunity to plug Biden’s agenda, Stelter returned to the question. “But when I hear the former president’s talking about trying to get reinstated, thinking he’s going to be back in the White House, I think to myself, what kind of country are we creating?”
Greenwald also mocked this second round of questions.
“Somehow Brian Stelter managed to take his humiliatingly ‘tell-me-why-I’m-bad-Jen’ start to his interview and get even more sycophantic from there,” Greenwald noted. “Even Psaki had to be thinking: ‘oh my god, the intensity of his adoration is…. uncomfortable.'”
Somehow Brian Stelter managed to take his humiliatingly "tell-me-why-I'm-bad-Jen" start to his interview and get even more sycophantic from there.
Even Psaki had to be thinking: "oh my god, the intensity of his adoration is…. uncomfortable."https://t.co/mhXFwAZ3Oy
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 6, 2021
Greenwald argued that “the ‘interview’ that [Brian Stelter] did with Jen Psaki yesterday should be studied in journalism school. It’s one of the most sycophantic interviews of a state official you’ll ever see. This is how state TV functions.” He shared yet another clip from the interview in which Stelter asked Psaki, “For journalists who watch what you do, what’s your advice for them about trying to stay close to the truth in this world of lies?”
I'm not using hyperbole when I say the "interview" that @brianstelter did with Jen Psaki yesterday should be studied in journalism school. It's one of the most sycophantic interviews of a state official you'll ever see. This is how state TV functions:https://t.co/jhsvhOSpJQ
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 7, 2021
Stelter took his opportunity to interview the spokeswoman for the most powerful man in the world and spent it asking her how the press can do better, what lessons she would have for silencing dissent from her boss’s agenda, and whether or not she worries about the horrid evils of her opposition. This is exactly the kind of sycophantic interview observers would expect of state “journalists” in repressive regimes such as Iran, China, and North Korea.
To be fair, Stelter did ask Psaki why Biden has not held more than one big press conference, pressing her on whether or not this is a strategy to be “more boring.” Yet the overall impression of his interview proved remarkably sycophantic. He did not ask Psaki about the crisis on America’s southern border or the White House’s continued trust in chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci amid his email controversy.
Stelter dismissed criticism by suggesting that both the Left and the Right were outraged at his *therefore fair* reporting.
“My Twitter mentions right now: liberals mad because I asked [Psaki] about why Biden won’t hold more press conferences,” he wrote. “Conservatives enraged because I asked her ‘what do you think we get wrong?’ And I feel so old fashioned thinking to myself, ‘judge the interview in context…'”
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Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson told Fox News that Stelter was “trying to curry favor with Jen Psaki” by slamming Trump.”[It] pretty much sums up CNN coverage of politics. Given CNN’s collapsing viewership, perhaps it’s time for CNN to move on to holding the current administration accountable.”
In March, federal judge Laurence Silberman warned that “ideological homogeneity in the media—or in the channels of information distribution—risks repressing certain ideas from the public consciousness just as surely as if access were restricted by the government.” He noted the leftist bias that pervades Big Tech and the legacy media, arguing that “one-party control of the press and media is a threat to viable democracy.”
Sycophantic journalists such as Stelter give cover for Biden’s radical agenda and demonize the president’s opponents. While these journalists constantly condemned Trump’s supposed “attacks” on the press, they act like cowed state media outlets when a Democrat is in office.
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