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In one of the most asinine discussions about the liberal media’s credibility problem, CNN host Brian Stelter took to Reliable Sources on Sunday to defend his outlet and the rest of the media for the latest swarm of fake news stories plaguing the country. And offering no apology to the public for muddying the discourse, Stelter defended their precious anonymous sources while his guests claimed such reckless mistakes were why the public should trust what they say.
Stelter began the segment with a recap of what was fake about their story. “With ABC's suspension of Ross still in the headlines, I asked CNN if there would be disciplinary action against [Manu] Raju or his co-writer Jeremy Herb. A spokeswoman said no,” he said. According to Stelter, it was because the journalists followed the networks so-called “standards process.” But Stelter failed to mention that those writers issued the report without ever seeing the e-mail in question, just the description from those who saw it. What kind of ridiculous standard is that?
“Now the sources have been reliable in the past. But they were not this time. The spokeswoman said CNN had no reason to believe this was malicious, meaning the sources weren't trying to trick the reporters, the sources were just mistaken,” Stelter explained, defending the dead wrong source. And almost as though he was trying to get the attention off of CNN, he pointed to other news organizations that had pushed their own fake news.
Stelter didn’t seem bothered by the fact that CNN’s lack of transparency in sorting out the misinformation was further hurting their already tattered credibility.
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