White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders at Tuesday’s press briefing shut down a reporter accusing her and the Trump administration of “inflaming” the news media.
Brian Karem with The Sentinel Newspapers in Maryland interrupted Sanders as she was answering a question about whether President Trump has accepted the apology from CNN after the news network retracted a story alleging ties between a Trump ally and a Russian investment banker.
"All we are saying is I think we should take a really good look at what we are focused on, what we are covering and making sure it's accurate and honest," said Sanders. "If we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it's an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room. But news outlets get to go on day after day and cite unnamed sources, use stories without sources --”
"You're inflaming everyone right here right now with those words,” said Karem. “This administration has done that as well ... Why in the name of heaven -- any one of us are replaceable. If we don't get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. You have been elected to serve for four years at least. There is no option other than that.”
"We are here to ask you questions, you're here to provide answers,” he went on, "and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, 'See, once again, the president is right and everybody else is just fake media.' Everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.”
Sanders shut the reporter down with the following response:
"I disagree completely. First of all, if anything has been inflamed, it’s the dishonesty that often takes place by the news media. And I think it is outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question," she said.
Sanders then went on to answer other questions.
The rising tensions come as CNN deals with the consequences of poor journalism.
Three CNN reporters have resigned this week after publishing yet another Russia-Trump collusion article that was retracted.
According to CNN, “some standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published.”
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