CNN’s Brian Stelter took on Donald Trump this morning over the president’s criticism of the media’s recent treatment of Melania, but ended up punching himself in his proverbial nads by accident.
First up, here’s Stelter saying that the president conflated “random Twitter commenters” who came up with Melania conspiracy theories “with ‘the media’ here”:
Trump is conflating random Twitter commenters with "the media" here. A common tactic of bad faith critics. But disappointing to see POTUS do it. pic.twitter.com/7tWObMmUdD
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 6, 2018
Is he, shall we say, high? These were not just randos:
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/1004371343582879747
Unless Stelter consider former Obama official Jon Lovett to be a rando:
Melania is missing. It’s a cyber free for all now. https://t.co/TPrIFW6dm6
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) May 26, 2018
Or CNN contributor Joan Walsh:
Are they trying to cover up Melania's absence?
— Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) June 1, 2018
Or Ashley Feinberg, HuffPost:
I know we all know this but the Melania thing is legitimately extremely weird now and I don't buy the plastic surgery theory
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) June 3, 2018
Or Josh Marshall, TPM:
I think happily the Razor’s focus on “the stupidest possible scenario” wld point against a serious medical issue. That’s good. Other than that, no idea. She repatriated to Slovenia? https://t.co/w4rH36gqhp
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 1, 2018
Or Vox’s Matt Yglesias who joked about it:
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1002680719557218304
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Or The Daily Show’s Matt Negrin:
where is Melania
— Matt RATIO HOWARD SCHULTZ ON EVERY TWEET Negrin (@MattNegrin) June 1, 2018
Or how HuffPost covered it?
Melania Trump's missing act is making one comedian nervous. Very nervous. https://t.co/96lULGJX8v
— HuffPost Weird News (@HuffPostWeird) June 1, 2018
And how local papers covered it?
Where's Melania? Unseen for 22 days straight https://t.co/ORJZ7uO2Vc
— Columbus Dispatch (@DispatchAlerts) June 1, 2018
Show your work, Brian:
Brian can start by showing which random commenters he's referring to.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 6, 2018
It isn’t hard to find lots and lots of blue-check media people who were all-in on the speculation:
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/1004373714425778176
From all over!
By mainstream outlets, no less.
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) June 6, 2018
And on and on and on we could go:
"David Frum & Jamil Smith – Random Twitter commenters" https://t.co/HJRwnxQsqm
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 6, 2018
Talk about stepping on a rake:
We said you shouldn’t stomp on that rake but … here we are. https://t.co/1s05hHiXtW
— jon gabriel (@exjon) June 6, 2018
Stelter is pushing back, however, saying that no outlets reported her “near death”…
You're proving my point. This is a really important distinction. Bad tweets are not the same as "reporting" published by a real news outlet. And I know you know that! Does Trump?
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 6, 2018
…well it may well be the case that those words were never used, how else would you take a headline like this?
Melania Trump's unusual 25-day absence from public view following surgery for a "benign" kidney condition is raising questions https://t.co/E4WLk3gdrZ
— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 4, 2018
***
Related:
AFP appears to question just how serious Melania Trump's 'benign' kidney condition was https://t.co/daNRyGulZL
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 4, 2018
And we're DEAD! Brian Stelter gets called out in a SPECTACULAR way for going FULL Melania-Truther https://t.co/6yTj8MoY8y
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 4, 2018
Gossip CLOWN! Greg Gutfeld drops the MIC on Brian 'Hall Monitor' Stelter for his Melania Trutherism https://t.co/429ZJMUTVc
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 5, 2018
Brian Stelter, who didn't tweet about Puerto Rico for 7 months, criticizes media coverage of Puerto Rico https://t.co/OKKBi0GCeQ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 5, 2018
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