***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
During an appearance in New York on Monday, CBS journalist Lesley Stahl raised eyebrows when she claimed that President Trump had admitted to her he was out to protect himself from factual reporting with his combative stance against the press. But she had sat on the quote and didn’t say anything about it for two years and a 60 Minutes interview later.
During Wednesday’s S.E. Cupp Unfiltered, CNN senior media reporter Brian Stelter and HLN host S.E. Cupp bought into Stahl’s questionable claims and used them to bash the President as a beacon to authoritarian dictators the world over.
“So what I've been saying for 18 months is confirmed,” Cupp self-righteously declared. “President Trump's war on the media is intentional and the goal is to create confusion and sow distrust.” She suggested Trump said it “point blank,” but her evidence was Stahl’s account. “Yep, he said it. He wants you to be confused. And it's worked,” she proclaimed. “So basically, according to Lesley Stahl, Trump has admitted to manipulating people. How insulted should voters and viewers feel,” she asked Stelter.
Stelter was amused by her use of “insulted” for how Americans should feel. “I think insulted is exactly the right word. Because that is what it is. He's trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and according to Stahl, he admitted it,” he asserted. “This was only a few days after he was elected, by the way, before he even took office. That’s was before he started using the term fake news.”
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