More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
According to former Obama State Department flack (and former Time magazine editor) Richard Stengel, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson refuses to answer shouted questions from hostile liberal NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, America’s top diplomat “empowers” authoritarian regimes around the world.
On Mitchell’s 12 p.m. ET MSNBC show on Friday, Stengel wailed: “And when people see that our own Secretary of State doesn’t bring journalists with him, that he doesn’t take questions, that he’s not transparent, what that does is it empowers these autocratic countries to not take questions themselves....it implicitly empowers these autocratic regimes.” Mitchell replied: “I agree with you completely.”