It's not breaking news the liberal media despises Trump, who can seemingly do nothing to make them happy, but Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center says the mainstream media seemed to take a moment over the weekend to remember who was the real bad guy.
“On CNN and the broadcast networks that I took in Saturday night, it seemed like they were just trying to get their footing,” he recalls. “There were some notes of praise.”
One example happened on MSNBC, where “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough complimented Trump’s decision to hit Iran.
“I find it hard to believe,” Scarborough observed, “that Bush 41 and Bush 43, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, any presidents, wouldn't have felt compelled to take that strike.”
Over at CNN, a panel of liberals included Sabrina Singh, the former Pentagon press secretary during the Biden administration. She complimented the “professionalism of our military” during its Iran strike. That observation wasn’t a direct compliment to Trump, who is the commander in chief, but it likely sounded that way to CNN’s liberal audience.
According to Houck, the public was witnessing even-handed observations Sunday because the media was caught off guard by the air strikes.
Sometimes, when liberal reporters and correspondents are caught by surprise by events, Houck explains, “you can get some honest reactions out of these people.”
However, by the time the B-2 bombers were on the way home to Whiteman Air Force Base, the media was recovering from its shock and surprise.
“As you got into Sunday morning and Sunday night, and Monday morning,” Houck explains, “I think you see the narrative begin to emerge of a lot of these journalists behaving like negative nellies.”
That was evident Sunday morning on “Face the Nation,” the CBS program. During her interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a testy-looking Margaret Brennan challenged him over intelligence suggesting Iran is not close to a nuclear weapon.
“They have everything they need to build nuclear weapons,” Rubio shot back. “Why would you bury- why would you bury things in a mountain 300 feet under the ground? The only countries in the world that have uranium at 60% are countries that have nuclear weapons. Because they can quickly make it 90.”
On “The View” program Monday morning, ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl was the show’s guest.
A related MRC article described Karl as a “babysitter” for the angry, clueless co-hosts. They complained, for example, Trump had kept the strikes secret after publicly giving Iran a two-week deadline.
“I mean, look, the two weeks measure was clearly a bit of a head fake,” Karl had to explain.
When co-host Sunny Hostin complained President Trump attacked without congressional approval, Karl pointed out that “president after president after president” has launched military strikes without congressional approval.
Outside the White House, Trump told reporters Tuesday he was disgusted by "fake news" CNN and MSNBC for suggesting the B-2 strikes did not stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. The underground nuclear sites are "demolished" after the B-2 pilots did their jobs with precision strikes, Trump said.
"I think CNN ought to apologize to the pilots of the B-2s," Trump said. "I think that MSDNC [MSNBC] ought to apologize. I think these guys, really – these networks, and these cable networks are real losers. You really are."
