Donald Trump continued his child-like tirade against specific media outlets Friday first during a speech at CPAC then by banning the likes of CNN and the New York Times from an off-camera gaggle with press secretary Sean Spicer.
WATCH: For the third time in two months, Fox News’ Shep Smith has stood up for a free press. “CNN is not fake news” pic.twitter.com/wbJmy7LMiD
— Yashar (@yashar) February 24, 2017
This prompted Shepard Smith of Fox News’ to once again come to the defense of the rival news network during a broadcast yesterday.
Via Entertainment Weekly:
“For the record, ‘fake news’ refers to stories that are created, often by entities pretending to be news organizations, solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance,” he said. “In short, ‘fake news’ is made-up nonsense delivered for financial gain.”
“CNN’s reporting was not fake news,” continued Smith, seen in video below. “Its journalists follows the same standards to which other news organizations, including Fox News, adhere. Senior administration officials regularly speak without attribution so that the public can be informed of what our government is doing — off the record. Just as CNN reports [Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince] Priebus sent officials to speak off the record against the Russia/Trump campaign reporting.”
This was the third such time Smith came to the defense of the rival network. Prior to Friday, Smith slammed Donald Trump and his administration earlier in the month for their treatment of CNN’s Jim Acosta for simply asking questions during a presser. Smith mentioned then that the President “owe(s) this to the American people” in reference to those questions.
Meanwhile Trump’s continued assault on the media only makes him look more foolish, especially after yesterday’s CPAC speech. There the President criticized the media’s use of anonymous sources, a practice he uses on plenty of occasions to further his own rhetoric.