The New York Times is standing behind its reporting and its sourcing of stories the president continues to call "fake news." While allies on Fox News maintain the famous newspaper is simply out for President Donald Trump.
According to the Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik, Fox isn't exactly the bastion of honesty and integrity.
"You’re laughing?" asked host Brian Stelter.
"I’ll take these two reporters over Judge Jeanine [Pirro] and the kitchen cabinet on Fox News any day of the week," said Zurawik "The president should watch Showtime's 'Fourth Estate' to see how the Washington bureau of the New York Times, how seriously it takes its business."
He described Trump as someone from a "tabloid world" trying to play in the real world of actual journalism.
"All of this — it's the sleazy and bottom feeding and, I don’t want to say journalism, of information in this country," he continued. "He cannot -- and a lot of people around him, I think, cannot conceive of the high-end of American journalism. And those of us who go out every day with this mission and, by his standards, make lousy money and were fools and why the hell would we do this anyway. But we believe in the role we play in democracy. He doesn’t get that. He’ll never get that."
Reporter Olivia Nuzzi explained that while White House staffers are playing each other against themselves and trying to leak to manipulate reporters, that Americans should trust the integrity of The New York Times for doing their jobs ensuring they're accurate.
Like many papers, The Times has a standard for confirmation from more than one source before it publishes a story. The paper has never indicated how many unverified claims White House staffers our sources have given the paper that they did not print.
"I also, when you look at Sean Hannity saying, 'I have a message for the president,' it’s important to remember the president is likely watching," she continued. "It’s possible and even likely they have talked about this privately. Sean Hannity advises the president on a regular basis. And I think we do have to take what these people on Fox News say very seriously for that reason because it is directly into the president’s ear."
Zurawik noted that around this same time, Bob Woodward's book documents how agitated Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was "off kilter" because Trump was working to use his memo as justification for firing FBI Director James Comey.
"Plus, there is a documentary on Frontline coming out October 2nd that I screened and it dovetails perfectly how agitated Rosenstein was and how troubled he was," he continued. "That context triple checked with three of the best news sources or news platforms we have in this country. That says this is pretty good stuff. And it’s just ridiculous."
He went on to bash Pirro as nothing more than a gossip columnist.
"When you have Judge Jeanine up there -- I look at her -- that we even talk about a character like this," he said, dumbfounded. "She should be in 1940s New York sitting next to Walter with people feeding her tips for tomorrow’s gossip column and she’s in the world we live in! We have to listen to Judge Jeanine because she has access to this president and it’s insane. She’s an insane character for a serious journalist to even be considering for half a second but because she has this conduit part of this talkback loop."
He closed by saying the echo chamber between Fox, Sinclaire and Trump is the most unreliable and an outright joke.
Watch below:
