CNN's Alisyn Camerota was once a frequent face on the Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends." When she moved to CNN's "New Day," however, she saw more than just a move to a different network but a different kind of show.
She told colleague Brooke Baldwin that she would frequently get pitched for interviews with Donald Trump, but when she moved to CNN, they stopped. She called his office and asked what happened and was invited to meet personally with Trump.
She was forced to explain the role of the free press to the man who would later become president. She described "Fox & Friends" as a "morning show" and her transition to CNN being a move to a "news show."
In an op-ed, she noted that she then tried to explain the role of the free press to the president, but it didn't work because he was more focused on the way he personally was being treated.
"I explained to him that the rules had changed. He was now a presidential candidate and I was now the anchor of a news program at a news network, rather than simply a morning show host who didn't have to follow journalistic standards," she wrote.
"Now it is my job to point out the hypocrisy of elected officials and/or candidates," she told Trump. "I'm tasked with highlighting discrepancies in the public statements and promises of candidates. It's the duty of journalists to be watchdogs of government, not lapdogs. That's our job. I understand you may prefer a fluffy feature piece, but this is the big leagues and the ballgame has changed."
"You're so mean to me now," Trump told Camerota.
So, she gave up the noble effort many have attempted when trying to explain something to Trump.
"I could never have predicted at that Trump Tower meeting that we'd find ourselves here, with the President of the United States blaming the press, while taking no responsibility for the toxic tone of the rhetoric," Camerota closed her piece saying. "I could never have predicted that at the end of a bloody and tragic week, a US President would claim that hurtful words matter only when he's on the receiving end, not when he delivers them. I would never have believed that the most powerful man in the world would think his own words have no power."
Read the story at CNN.com and watch her interview with Baldwin below:
