Howard Kurtz: Why TV is energized by Mueller giving voice to his report
'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz weighs in on how both political parties are interpreting Special Counsel Robert Mueller's remarks during his public address.
Mueller Time came and went. Now it’s Impeachment Time, at least according to the “neutral” media.
Of course, now-former Special Counsel Robert Mueller never said President Trump should be impeached. But that didn’t stop journalists, who used every rhetorical trick in the book to push that narrative against the president.
Both MSNBC host Chris Hayes and CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger dissected Mueller’s Wednesday news conference about his report, relying on either “reading between the lines” or “If you read between the lines.”
MEDIA FLOODED WITH IMPEACHMENT STORIES, DESPITE TEPID BACKING ON CAPITOL HILL
It was reminiscent of the great movie “Network,” where the TV network entertainment division took over news and installed programs including “Sybil: The Soothsayer.”
The media didn’t stop there. ABC’s Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran did his own reading between the lines. “This is Robert Mueller saying to Congress do your job. It is time to take this up,” he said.
”CBS This Morning” co-host Tony Dokoupil also wanted the same kind of guesswork from reporter Major Garrett: “What words stood out to you? What messages were embedded in those remarks?”
NBC was thrilled by the idea of impeachment. “Today” host Savannah Guthrie followed suit, also interpreting what Mueller said. “He’s without using that word reminding folks that there is a process and it’s called impeachment,” she said.
Legal analyst Mimi Rocah couldn’t hide her hopes. “And I hope that now Congress picks up that mantle more and does it in a more effective way,” she said. “And I think that’s what Mueller was asking them to do.”
The mood was similar at sister network MSNBC where “Morning Joe” immediately shifted into attack mode. Branding expert Donny Deutsch wanted to shift the narrative away from impeachment, but not from the action. “It’s a losing word,” he told viewers. Instead, “you take the word impeachment, and you change it to ‘criminal activity.’”
What is especially humorous is that even The New York Times admitted that no one agreed what Mueller had said in his brief presentation.
Deutsch had grand visions of liberal success, all with a minor word change. “We are going to initiate and continue the ongoing Trump criminal investigations. Trump criminal, Trump criminal investigations,” he said.
The hour changed, but the script didn’t. MSNBC anchor Kasie Hunt kept talking the magic “I” word with her “Big Question.”
“What more do congressional Democrats need to hear before they make a decision about impeachment?” Hunt asked. She wanted New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to explain “why not begin impeachment proceedings?”
One of MSNBC’s resident RINOs (Republicans in name only), Elise Jordan, whined that Mueller wouldn’t testify and help undermine Trump. She compared his stance to a book author who said, "Oh, I’m not going to go promote my book, just read the book and you'll learn what it’s all about."
Contributor Malcolm Nance went even further, alleging Trump’s was utilizing a strategy of distraction that came “straight from the KGB playbook.” “There is a conspiracy out there,” he said, not seeming to care how silly that looked.
What is especially humorous is that even The New York Times admitted that no one agreed what Mueller had said in his brief presentation. The paper ran an analysis under this headline: “Mueller Delivered a Message. Washington Couldn’t Agree on What It Was.” That’s pretty much true of every major issue of the day.
The Times also published an opinion piece from Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky urging Mueller to get more political. “He is serving a vision of America that no longer exists,” Tomasky wrote, arguing that Mueller can’t serve the apolitical America by being … apolitical.
Media Can’t Cover Abortion Objectively
Few things motivate most journalists like backing “social justice” causes. One of their favorites is abortion. It doesn’t matter how extreme a liberal position is on abortion, journalists will back it.
With the passage of pro-life measures in several states, the media haven’t even pretended neutrality. The parent companies of NBC, ABC and CBS all threw in with the left on the debate and threatened to withdraw their tapings from Georgia because of a new pro-life law.
CNN flat-out denied reality in one abortion story, headlined “Pence discusses abortion with Trudeau, repeats Trump's 'infanticide' claim.”
According to CNN White House producer Kevin Liptak and reporter Caroline Kelly, Pence was “echoing false claims made last month by President Donald Trump about doctors killing babies that have already been born.”
If journalists were honest, they’d call this CNN story a lie. Because that’s what it is. Here, one more time, is the Jan. 30 quote from Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam: “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired.”
That’s precisely what Trump was addressing. But CNN has memory-holed it. Instead, anchor Jim Sciutto said new life-saving laws are “really turning back the clock, really to pre-1973, when that was the law of the land in a number of places.”
NPR brought on Dr. Colleen McNicholas, who performs abortions, and who referred to babies as “pregnancy tissue.” How many American women think their future babies are “pregnancy tissue?”
The CNN documentary series “United Shades of America” decided to emulate the rest of the press and ignore pro-life voices. Host and comedian W. Kamau Bell didn’t leave his pro-life interviews on the cutting-room floor, he just hid them in the online version of his documentary.
Hollywood joined the boycott calls. Director Ron Howard’s career has gone from playing Opie on the family-friendly “Andy Griffith Show” to telling Georgians he won’t film there because of pro-life laws won’t allow the butchery of more babies. That’s some character (or lack of character).
Run Across the Border
The immigration crisis is in the news again and that’s a perfect opportunity for the media to remind everyone they support open borders. Here’s just one excellent example.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour showed her liberal stripes in an interview with Europe’s open border queen – German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Amanpour piled praise on Merkel’s “compassionate, courageous migration program, allowing a million or more people in.” Nice and neutral, that.
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The CNN International anchor went further, describing Merkel in the eyes of those who love her: “Analysts and historians today describe you as the face of good Germans, good Germany.”
It’s a key reminder that most journalists are globalists, which is why they attack nationalists so strongly. Trump, of course, is a nationalist.
Hmmm.
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