CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on Monday night admitted that he “muted” the President of the United States on Twitter because Donald Trump represents “annoying people” you don’t want to hear. Talking to Stephen Colbert on the Late Show, the journalist allowed, “I have actually muted the President on Twitter. Don't tell him.”
Cooper elaborated, “You know when you get annoying people tweeting you, you don't want to delete because that tells them you deleted them. So, if you just mute them, they think you're still following them and you don't actually see their tweets.”
Asked about the fake news claim, Cooper asserted that the network was objective:
I didn't have a great relationship with the Obama White House. I used to interview President Obama on the campaign trail, before he became president. I did a report on the BP oil spill. I spent two months in New Orleans straight, just doing nothing but BP oil spill basically every night. And the White House stopped talking to me for years.
For not having a “great relationship” with Obama, Cooper sure could praise him. On February 25, 2009, he said of the President’s address to Congress: “A rousing speech, took us up to the mountaintops.”
After a town hall meeting with Obama in 2016, Cooper actually admitted that journalists are people who “agree” with the Democrat.
From my perspective, I wanted an intelligence discussion. I wanted him to actually address people who disagree with him, not just people who agree with him that so often happens at, you know, a presidential news conference or presidential announcement.
CNN journalists tend to get irritated with the fake news claim. On February 17, 2017, Don Lemon cut off a GOP guest for deriding the network’s “fake news.”
A partial transcript is below:
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Late Show
3/6/17
12:01AM ETSTEPHEN COLBERT: My first guest tonight is an Emmy award-winning journalist and host of Anderson Cooper 360. Please welcome back to the show, Anderson Cooper! All right. So, Anderson, hi, good to see you again.
...
COLBERT: You guys are the fake news. Right? There’s a lot of fake news out there.
ANDERSON COOPER: The original fake news, according to the president.
COLBERT: You are the original fake news. We'll get to that in just a moment and your fakeness. But how was your weekend?
COOPER: My weekend, you know, it was fine. It was weird, though. The President started tweeting at 6:50-something AM.
COLBERT: 6:35.
COOPER: Right. I was actually --- I had flown to Phoenix, I was doing an investigation for 60 Minutes all weekend, so --- and I have actually muted the President on Twitter. Don’t tell him.
COLBERT: What? You can do that?
COOPER: I muted him. Yeah. You know when you get annoying people tweeting you, you don't want to delete because then that tells them you deleted them. So, if you just mute them, they think you're still following them and you don't actually see their tweets. [Cheers and applause]
COLBERT: But Anderson, then the tweets can get backed up and you get an infection. Laughter Okay, so– So, you muted him.
COOPER: I muted him. I go to Phoenix. I was spending all weekend working on this story. So, I wasn't aware of all that was going on. I get back Sunday and finally turn on my phone again and I'm like, what the — what?! What?! And Arnold Schwarzenegger, too?
12:06
COLBERT: Let's get to the fake news thing. How does it feel, you guys at CNN? Because say what you will about CNN, over the years, it's not like you were raving ideologues over there. You were kind of, like, the vanilla envelope of news.
COOPER: Middle of the road.
COLBERT: It does the job.
COOPER: We are fair and we’re accurate.
COLBERT: Were you going to say balanced?
COOPER: No, I wasn’t. I believe that’s trademarked.
COLBERT: Are you surprised you guys are the bad guys as opposed to MSNBC? They must be so jealous of how much you get attacked. Because all bad publicity —
COOPER: The thing, is Donald Trump watches CNN, which is why he talks about it so much because he actually watches it and even when he's railing against it, he's watching it. I've had him watch my show and tweet about people I'm interviewing while I'm interviewing them. “Oh, that guy is a jerk Anderson Cooper is interviewing, what a waste.” Things like that while you're interviewing him. It’s very strange.
COLBERT: Surprised he said that. I've never been on your show. you know, what about — does that change the way you report your show, knowing the president is watching you guys at CNN, do you try to get a rise out of him?
COOPER: No, you do your job. You want to be tough and — I mean, look, I didn't have a great relationship with the Obama White House. I used to interview President Obama on the campaign trail, before he became president. I did a report on the BP oil spill. I spent two months in New Orleans straight, just doing nothing but BP oil spill basically every night. And the White House stopped talking to me for years.
