It was a classic case of liberal-media condescension to the great unwashed Trump masses during Wednesday's CNN This Morning. And what made it all the more outrageous was the obliviousness of it all.
Speaking about CNN as if it was above the commoners in the wider country, host Kasie Hunt said to her panel:
I have to say, I mean, we're sitting at this table, right? I mean, Kate [Bedingfield], you've worked, you've dedicated your career to electing Democrats the White House. Matt, you've done the same for Republicans. We're able to sit here and have a conversation about what's going to happen. To try to do it in a civil way, where we're operating kind of in the same world.
Operating in the "kind of same world," indeed! The world of political and media elitism. Along with Hunt, the panel was composed of Edward-Isaac Dovere, a senior CNN reporter, formerly of The Atlantic and Politico; Kate Bedingfield, Biden's former communications director; and Matt Gorman, who served as a communications person for the presidential candidacies of Republicans Tim Scott (SC), Jeb Bush (FL), and Mitt Romney (UT).
In contrast, Kasie kvetched, the American electorate was incapable of "civil" conversation - and it's all Donald Trump's fault. She gave as an example the situation in western North Carolina, where statements Trump has made have made people distrustful FEMA.
Dovere did his bit: "The reason why this began, with the hurricane disinformation about FEMA and everything, is because Donald Trump is talking about it."
Bedingfield's take was simultaneously the worst and the most hilarious of all: "This is why his continuing erosion of faith in the media is so dangerous . . . If there's not an independent arbiter of the facts, people cannot start from a place of -- we can't function as a society."
And just who should be that "independent arbiter of facts," Kate? CNN? MSNBC? The New York Times? If elected, perhaps Kamala Harris could create a cabinet-level Department of Truth to certify approved media outlets. And who better to head the department than Kate herself!
Gorman did push back. While not entirely lifting the onus from Trump, he said that the discrediting of the media has been going on for 30 years.
Thirty years. That roughly coincides with Brent Bozell's founding of the Media Research Center, NewsBusters' parent organization.
To the extent MRC/NewsBusters has contributed to the well-deserved discrediting of the liberal media's outrageous bias--something we document every day--we proudly accept responsibility!
Hunt ended the segment on an ominous note:
"It's just a reminder that 20 days to go, we are hurtling toward something, toward an unknown that has, you know, it's, it has the potential to be a really significant and potentially difficult chapter in our history."
Translation: If Trump doesn't win, he will stir up his stormtroopers!
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN This Morning
10/16/24
6:12 am EDTKASIE HUNT: Look, I have to say I mean, we're sitting at this table, right? I mean, Kate, you've worked, you've dedicated your career to electing Democrats the White House. Matt, you've done the same for Republicans. We're able to sit here and have a conversation about what's going to happen. To try to do it in a civil way, where we're operating kind of in the same world.
But increasingly, and Matt, I'm really interested in your perspective on this. Like, what happened with FEMA in the mountains of North Carolina this week really, for me, crystallized the degree to which people are living in alternate information universes. Where you have federal officials going in, trying to help, trying to give people money that they are entitled to as
Americans, who are the victims of this kind of a disaster.And they can't do it because there are people out there who think that FEMA is dangerous and a threat and they're going after them. Militia types. It just really kind of underscored to me the degree to which we are not -- two separate groups of people in America are living in two different worlds.
MATT GORMAN: Oh, there's no better example of this than Covid, right? I mean, imagine if you were, like, let's say, an investment banker living in Florida during Covid or a waitress in San Francisco. You live two very different existences for the better part of two years. And that would shape how you would probably view that event. I mean, it's so much, it's broader, it's broader than purely media. It's broader than where you live. It's broader than how you consume information, from whether it's media online or just the people you live around and talk to. We live in one country, but can have vastly different experiences.
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE: But there's an agency here though. Donald Trump is, he's not the only reason why this exists, that diversification of media, the people paying attention to different things, living different experiences in their lives.
But the reason why this began, with the hurricane disinformation about FEMA and everything, is because Donald Trump is talking about it. And we had a congressman from North Carolina who last week, a Republican congressman, had to put out a long statement on his website that began, the first thing was, no one controls the weather. That's where we are in 2024.
KATE BEDINGFIELD: Yeah, and this is why Trump's continued erosion of people's faith in institutions is so dangerous. I mean, this is why his continuing erosion of faith in the media is so dangerous.
Because if there is not an independent arbiter of the facts -- before you get about how to present them or your feelings about them or your opinion about them. If there's not an independent arbiter of the facts, people cannot start from a place of -- we can't function as a society. I mean, that sounds dramatic, but I think that that's true. And I think that the role that Trump has played in exacerbating and furthering this erosion of faith in institutions is really scary. And he wields an enormous amount of power. I mean, half the country feels incredibly, passionately about him and about his leadership. And he uses that to make it so that people in a hurricane-ravaged area don't trust that they can go get the help that they need.
HUNT: Very quickly.
GORMAN: Trump might have gotten the [inaudible], but this was happening for the last 30 years.
BEDINGFIELD: I agree with that.
GORMAN: He might have it, but [inaudible.]
BEDINGFIELD: No, no question. But he accelerated it, absolutely.
HUNT: Well, it's just, it's just a reminder that 20 days to go, we are hurtling toward something, toward an unknown that has, you know, it's, it has the potential to be a really significant and potentially difficult chapter in our history.
