CBS correspondent admits 'maybe we went about covering' Michael Avenatti 'the wrong way'
The disgraced anti-Trump lawyer received a 2.5-year prison sentence for his Nike extortion plot
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A CBS News correspondent appeared to acknowledge on Friday the media's failure in its fawning coverage of disgraced anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti.
Avenatti, who became a media darling as the outspoken attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison Thursday for his attempt to extort $25 million from Nike and could face more jail time with other pending legal woes in California.
After running a report about Avenatti's prison sentence on Friday's "CBS This Morning," co-host Tony Dokoupil pointed out how the lawyer had "big financial problems."
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"Maybe he needed some money and went about it getting it the wrong way," Dokoupil said.
"And maybe we went about covering him the wrong way," correspondent Jamie Wax responded.
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"I wouldn't say ‘we,'" Dokoupil pushed back. "I wouldn't say ‘we.’"
"The press, collectively," Wax jokingly corrected himself.
"It's a big tent," Dokoupil added, to which Wax agreed.
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Notably, Dokoupil's wife is MSNBC anchor Katy Tur, whose network embraced Avenatti's presence, welcoming him on-air over 100 times in a single year. NewsBusters reported "CBS This Morning" interviewed him six times from 2018 to 2019.
However, no media organization gave Avenatti a bigger platform than CNN, which invited him for interviews a whopping 122 times, according to the Media Research Center. The network’s in-house media critic Brian Stelter declared Avenatti was a legitimate threat to challenge then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
"Looking ahead to 2020, one of the reasons why I'm taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news," Stelter told Avenatti on-air.
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A 2019 Washington Free Beacon video showed numerous examples of mainstream and liberal media members drooling over Avenatti, calling him a "beast," the "savior of the republic," and "Donald Trump's worst nightmare."
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.