Fox News and CNN hosts agree: Fox News would be thrashing Obama for Trump's North Korea policy
Fox News commentators and hosts have been pretty effusive about President Trump's diplomatic overtures to and warm relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, as The Daily Show playfully pointed out on Monday. They were not similarly effusive about similar but less grandiloquent efforts in the previous administration, as CNN media critic Brian Stelter noted more pointedly Monday afternoon.
"The coverage of Trump and Kim versus the coverage in the past, when former President Barack Obama would be willing to reach out to some rogue states or autocratic regimes, the hypocrisy burns," he said, playing some back-to-back examples. "You mash it up together, it looks especially bad for Fox, but on a daily basis, some of these talk shows, this is why it sounds like propaganda, this is why it sounds like something out of North Korea, because it is so dependent on who's in charge and what party they're in." Host Brooke Baldwin agreed: "If this were a Democrat stepping foot into North Korea, he or she would be excoriated."
CNN criticizing Fox News is not all that surprising. But Fox News hosts agreeing with the critique is something different. On Monday evening's The Five, Jesse Watters praised Trump for moving the Korean peninsula toward peace. "Historians will acknowledge that this step across the DMZ was a very powerful and important moment," he said. Greg Gutfeld said of course Democrats are attacking Trump, because in an election year "that's what you would do. And let's be honest, if it were the adversary, an adversary from your party on the other side, we would do the same thing." Watters laughed and added: "How dare Obama meet with a dictator and no preconditions!" "Exactly," Gutfeld said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The five hosts make some good points — Juan Williams argued that Trump is doing nothing to actually denuclearize North Korea — and you can watch the entire conversation, self-awareness and all, below. Peter Weber
-
A running list of the US government figures Donald Trump has pardonedin depth Clearing the slate for his favorite elected officials
-
Ski town strikers fight rising cost of livingThe Explainer Telluride is the latest ski resort experiencing an instructor strike
-
‘Space is one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement in Washington’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
-
Trump says US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after Maduro grabSpeed Read The American president claims the US will ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, contradicting a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Trump HHS moves to end care for trans youthSpeed Read The administration is making sweeping proposals that would eliminate gender-affirming care for Americans under age 18
-
Jack Smith tells House of ‘proof’ of Trump’s crimesSpeed Read President Donald Trump ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,’ hoarded classified documents and ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’
-
House GOP revolt forces vote on ACA subsidiesSpeed Read The new health care bill would lower some costs but not extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
