White House urges viewing of anti-CNN video 'whether it's accurate or not'
Sarah Huckabee Sanders urges people to watch video that shows CNN producer criticizing network’s coverage – despite not being able to vouch for its accuracy
The White House on Tuesday urged Americans to watch an online video made by an infamous rightwing activist known for using heavily edited videos to push conservative pet causes, despite not being able to vouch for its accuracy.
At Tuesday’s press briefing, the first on-camera briefing in a week, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used the lectern at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to attack CNN for purveying fake news and what she called the “Trump-Russia hoax”.
She then went on to cite a video being pushed by James O’Keefe, a rightwing provocateur who was convicted of entering a senator’s office under false pretences in 2010.
O’Keefe was initially charged with a felony for his role in an effort by conservative activists dressed as telephone repairmen to gain access to the telephone system in a federal building in New Orleans where Democratic senator Mary Landrieu had an office. He faced a maximum of ten years in jail but took a plea deal.
He also has been involved in much hyped videos purporting to show liberal activists making inflammatory statements that have often turned out to be misleadingly edited if not entirely false.
Sanders lauded the video, which apparently shows John Bonifield, a CNN health editor, complaining about the network’s coverage of the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia. Bonifield is not involved in the network’s Russia-related coverage.
“There’s a video circulating now, whether it’s accurate or not, I don’t know, but I would encourage everyone in this room and everyone in this country to take a look at it,” said Sanders. The White House spokeswoman pointedly declined to mention CNN by name and instead only referred to it as “that outlet that you referenced”.
The tirade came in response to a question from Charlie Spiering, a reporter for Breitbart, the rightwing online publication once run by top White House aide Steve Bannon.
On Tuesday the president went on yet another early morning Twitter tirade against CNN for “fake news” in the wake of the resignations of three journalists at the network over a story about a Trump aide’s ties to Russia. The story was posted to the CNN website on Thursday and was removed, with all links disabled, on Friday night. CNN said the piece did not receive sufficient editorial scrutiny, and was considered “a breakdown in editorial workflow.”
Trump posted three tweets in a two-hour period referring to CNN’s “fake news”, and retweeted a photoshopped graphic in a fourth tweet saying the same thing. In the White House press briefing, Sanders complained: “The constant barrage of fake news directed at this president, probably, that has garnered a lot of his frustration.”
Sanders also engaged in a heated back-and-forth with reporter Brian Karem at the briefing, when the journalist said her attacks on the media were “inflaming everybody right here and right now with those words”.
Karem went on to assert that “any one of us, if we don’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us.” The administration had “been elected to serve for four years at least. There’s no option other than that. We’re here to ask you questions. You’re here to provide the answers.”
The White House spokeswoman responded: “If anything has been inflamed it’s the dishonesty that often takes place by the news media, and I think it’s outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question.”
