Brian Stelter speaks to Dean Baquet (CNN/screen grab)
New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet refuted President Donald Trump's claim that the paper was "failing," and noted that Trump's Twitter attacks were, in fact, driving subscriptions "through the roof."
CNN host Brian Stelter pointed out on Sunday that Trump had said at least 53 times on Twitter that the Times was "failing."
But Baquet insisted that Trump's assertion was factually incorrect.
"We're not failing at all," he explained. "In fact, our digital subscriptions are going through the roof. Even print subscriptions are up. We're a profitable company. We're a newsroom that's hiring. I mean, we're a big, vibrant, important newsroom."
According to Baquet, Trump's White House was engaged in "an effort to minimize the press."
"I think if you look at the pattern of the president's tweets, they're actually designed to minimize the institutions who are charged with holding him accountable," he declared.
Stelter wondered if Trump's attacks on the media showed that the president had "authoritarian tendencies."
Baquet agreed that the president's strategy was, at the very least, "troublesome" and "dangerous."
"Trump is the best thing to happen to the Times subscription strategy," he added. "Every time he tweets, it drives subscriptions wildly."
Watch the video below from CNN's Reliable Sources, broadcast Feb. 26, 2017.
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