'CNN’s reporting was not fake news': Fox News' Shep Smith slams White House ban on news orgs

Fox News’ Shep Smith on Friday defended CNN and other media outlets against the Trump Administration’s decision to bar specific media outlets from attending a press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Smith noted the White House has “frozen out media organizations that president Trump has blasted as ‘fake news,’” opting instead to choose “hand-picked outlets to cover the briefing.” The Fox News host added the move was “highly unusual.”

Smith—who last week issued a passionate rebuke of Trump’s claim that the media is the “enemy of the American people”—explained that the outlets barred by the White House were many of the outlets who conducted extensive reporting into Trump associates’ ties with Russia, and those who use off-the-record sources for background.

Referring to Trump’s CPAC speech Friday where the president once again railed into the “fake news media”/“enemy of the American people,” Smith tore into Trump’s go-to insult.

“Fake news refers to stories that are created by entities pretending to be news organizations solely to draw clicks and views that are solely based on nothing of substance,” Smith said. “In short, fake news is made-up nonsense delivered for financial gain. CNN’s reporting was not fake news.”

Smith launched into a defense of off-the-record sources.

Watch the video below, via Fox News: