Trump calls out 'dishonest' news networks, celebrates firing of Andy Lack
President Trump addresses his relationship with the media during Oval Office meeting.
President Trump sounded off on the ousting of NBC News chairman Andy Lack and other members of the media while taking questions from the Oval Office on Thursday.
When asked by a reporter how much influence Fox News has over his thinking of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump responded by saying it's "no different" than other media outlets, referring to himself as "well-versed."
However, the president quickly took aim at several other networks.
"Some are fake. If you look at CNN, it's fake news. If you look at MSDNC -- I call it MSDNC, you know what that means, right? Democratic National Committee," Trump said. "If you look at NBC, NBC to me is very dishonest news. That's why they fired Andy Lack, I guess. You'll have to ask them, but Andy Lack was a hack and they fired him and they did a big favor to the world and to this country. No, I find NBC to be dishonest, I find -- which is a Comcast division. I call it Con-cast with an 'n,' I don't use the 'm' I always call it 'Concast.'"
CBS NEWS DENIES STAGING LONG CAR LINE FOR CORONAVIRUS TESTING IN ON-AIR REPORT
It was announced earlier this week that Lack was leaving the network by the end of the month as part of a major shake-up at Comcast’s NBCUniversal.
Lack “decided to step down and will transition out of the company at the end of the month,” the company announced in a statement on its organizational restructure taking effect immediately.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting about the coronavirus response with Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Trump went on to praise ABC News anchor David Muir for the "very fair" interview he conducted with the president earlier this week, calling him "good" and "professional."
However, he then blasted CBS News over claims that the network staged a long car line for coronavirus testing, something the network denied.
"CBS is having a hard time, but they're not getting it straight. In fact, last night, I read where they did a false report where they actually got people to make it look like it was -- did you see what happened?" Trump asked. "They got people, let's get some people because they want to make it look like it was turmoil. And they do that with this Whtie House all the time. They love the word 'chaos.' When there's no chaos whatsoever, they love the word 'chaos.' But what happened at CBS yesterday was terrible, where they got a lot of people to try and pretend like it was a mass amount of chaos and disorder. You saw that. It was terrible."
He added, "So the news media in our country is a mess, but they fired Andy Lack and that was a good thing. That's a big step forward."
KAYLEIGH MCENANY RIPS MEDIA FOR DOWNPLAYING CORONAVIRUS WHEN PRESSED ON HER PAST RHETORIC
On Wednesday, the right-wing watchdog group Project Veritas accused CBS News of staging a long line for coronavirus testing at a Michigan medical center for a report that aired last Friday on "CBS This Morning."
In a video released by Project Veritas, numerous hospital staffers are heard mentioning that they had to find "fake patients" for the line by relying on medical personnel to drive up with their cars and that staff "pretended" to administer tests on the drivers.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
CBS News flatly rejected the claims.
"CBS News did not stage anything at the Cherry Health facility. Any suggestion to the contrary is 100 percent false," the network said in a statement. "These allegations are alarming. We reached out to Cherry Health to address them immediately. They informed us for the first time that one of their chief officers told at least one staffer to get in the testing line along with real patients. No one from CBS News had any knowledge of this before tonight. They also said that their actions did not prevent any actual patients from being tested. We take the accuracy of our reporting very seriously and we are removing the Cherry Health portion from the piece."
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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