Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com is taking its Trump stenography to new heights, effectively justifying President Trump's insulting tweets about MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski by publishing only the Trump administration's defense of them.
CNS' first article on the tweets was by Susan Jones, who uncritically recounted the tweets (but at least conceded they were "insulting"). Jones also tried to justify the tweets by calling Brzezinski "a liberal Democrat who has been particularly hard on Trump, saying outright, repeatedly, that he is a liar, incompetent, and probably mentally unstable"; Jones also sneered at her co-host, Joe Scarborough, dismissing him as someone who "also holds liberal views, although he calls himself a conservative."
Despite bipartisan criticism of Trump's tweets throughout the day, the only thing CNS found newsworthy was the Trump administration's defense of the insults. A later article by Jones touted White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' unequivocal defense of the sleazy tweets, as well as right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh's praise for Trump's aggressiveness against his critics.
From there, it was full stenography time. An article from Melanie Arter simply transcribed an exceprt from a Huckabee Sanders press briefing. Arter uncritically repeated Huckabee Sanders' claim that "The president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence," despite the fact that the statement is a baldfaced lie.
Arter also wrote up another transcription of the Huckabee Sanders' presser, this time trying to avoid answering a question about whether she thinks Trump's tweets are acceptable behavior by asserting that the only "perfect role model" is God.
In none of their articles did Jones and Arter mention the bipartisan barrage of criticism Trump has received for his malicious tweets. Being a loyal Trump stenographer is apparently more important to them than acting like a journalist, apparently.
UPDATE: Jones wasn't done blaming the victim, asserting in a June 30 article that Trump's "insulting tweets" were "provoked by their own insults of the president" and complaining that Scarborough and Brzezinski, in a Washington Post op-ed responding to Trump, "never addressed their own rantings and deeply personal insults directed at the president."
