For those who either didn’t watch Tuesday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight or want to relive it, The Federalist’s Sean Davis made a rare TV appearance and absolutely lambasted the liberal media for their years-long narrative that the President and his team colluded with Russians, calling this falsehood “probably the biggest, most consequential screw up of the last 25 to 50 years.”
“I think, this is probably the biggest, most consequential screw up of the last 25 to 50 years. It is difficult to really comprehend or overstate the damage that the media did to the country, to their own reputation to the Constitution. This was an absolute catastrophe,” Davis first explained, elaborating on his column about this subject in The Wall Street Journal.
Carlson replied that he “know[s] liberals who feel that way, but I don’t know anybody running a media organization on the left who’s willing to admit it” considering recent comments from The New York Times’s Dean Baquet, The Washington Post’s Marty Baron and CNN’s Jeffrey Zucker who’ve “all bragged about what a great job they did.”
And based on the results of a CNN poll released Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Eastern that revealed 56 percent still think the President hasn’t been exonerated on collusion, CNN viewers are still clinging onto hope because collusion is all they’ve known for over two years.
As for the FNC segment, Davis replied to Carlson’s point that it’s easy to see why they haven’t considered self-reflection because many “were given Pulitzers” and “showered with adulation by their peers.”
“There is no incentive in the mainstream media for them to have gotten this right. All the incentives were in the wrong direction, whether it was traffic or viewership or just ideology. There was no reason at all for them to get this right,” he added.
Concerning the massive ratings drop MSNBC saw, Davis chalked it up to children when they learned that “the tooth fairy isn’t real” because “[t]heir bread and butter in the age of Trump is to ratchet up the hysteria to get people completely freaked out, so they feel like they have to watch the news every day and every minute to figure out what’s going on.”
Later, Davis concluded:
For all the talk about how Donald Trump has eroded and damaged our vital norms and institutions, it’s the media themselves who ended credence to his charge that they were the fake news media. It’s the media themselves who broadcast to everyone, “You don’t need to trust us. We’re not trustworthy.” I don’t know how they come back from this.
To see the relevant transcript from FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight on March 26, click “expand.”
FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight
March 26, 2019
8:28 p.m. EasternTUCKER CARLSON: Sean Davis is co-founder of The Federalist which you should read if you don’t and he just wrote a great piece to The Wall Street Journal describing the collusion debacle as “a catastrophic media failure.” And even that may be an understatement. We’re happy to have him join us tonight. Sean, as you wrote this piece, you obviously collected what you’ve been watching and thinking about for the past couple of years. How big was your conclusion? What is the magnitude of the screw up here?
SEAN DAVIS: I think, this is probably the biggest, most consequential screw up of the last 25 to 50 years. It is difficult to really comprehend or overstate the damage that the media did to the country, to their own reputation to the Constitution. This was an absolute catastrophe.
CARLSON: I don’t know any — and I know liberals who feel that way, but I don’t know anybody running a media organization on the left who’s willing to admit it. I mean, just today, there was a piece in which Dean Baquet of The New York Times and the editor of The Washington Post and Jeff Zucker of CNN all bragged about what a great job they did. How could they say that?
DAVIS: Well, why wouldn’t they? They were given Pulitzers. They were showered with adulation by their peers. They were able to pat each other on the back and tell them that they were heroes, that they were going to bring down the next President and hold him accountable. There is no incentive in the mainstream media for them to have gotten this right. All the incentives were in the wrong direction, whether it was traffic or viewership or just ideology. There was no reason at all for them to get this right.
CARLSON: So the Mueller report summary comes out Sunday afternoon, and the next day shows on CNN and MSNBC dropped by as much as 50 percent in viewership just on the news. Doesn’t that kind of tell you everything about their incentive to pretend that there is collusion and that there is a conspiracy? Their audience goes away without it absolutely.
DAVIS: Absolutely and we saw the reaction was like a — a children [sic] finding out the tooth fairy isn’t real. Their bread and butter in the age of Trump is to ratchet up the hysteria to get people completely freaked out, so they feel like they have to watch the news every day and every minute to figure out what’s going on. They did a huge disservice to their audience and to the country with their antics and their conspiracy spreading over the last two years.
CARLSON: It — I mean, it’s hard to know what comes next, certainly in this environment. But I mean, when the smoke clears, and Trump is gone, or what, you know, whatever happens in the next 10 years, where do you go for news? Will anyone ever believe CNN assuming it still exists or The Washington Post or The New York Times ever again? How could you?
DAVIS: Right and that’s their problem, is they didn’t just destroy their own reputations. For all the talk about how Donald Trump has eroded and damaged our vital norms and institutions, it’s the media themselves who ended credence to his charge that they were the fake news media. It’s the media themselves who broadcast to everyone, “You don’t need to trust us. We’re not trustworthy.” I don’t know how they come back from this.
CARLSON: It’s totally right. If you don’t want to be called the liar, stop lying. I guess, would be my advice. Sean Davis, it is great to see you. Thank you for that. Terrific to be with you tonight.
DAVIS: Good to see you. Thank you.
