Brian Stelter attends the 11th annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute at the American Museum of Natural History on Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
It’s Christmas Eve, and seeing as Brian Stelter is the gift that keeps on giving, here’s yet another gift from our favorite media firefighter all wrapped in glittery paper complete with a shiny red bow.
As he often does, CNN’s resident clown chief media correspondent took to the Twitter machine Monday to complain about a column that appeared in the Philly Inquirer Thursday where the author took him and others to task for criticizing SCOTUS Justice Neil Gorsuch for appearing on Fox News a week ago to promote his book “A Republic, If You Can Keep It“, which was released back in September.
Here was the tweet he wrote at the time of Gorsuch’s appearance:
Justice Neil Gorsuch is on "Fox & Friends" right now. The Q: How is it appropriate for a Supreme Court justice to try to goose sales of his three-month-old book by chatting on one of the most partisan shows on TV?
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 17, 2019
My Red State colleague Susie Moore wrote about this the day Stelter posted the tweet, pointing out Stelter’s outrage was rather, ahem, selective:
Of course, Stelter didn’t take issue when Justice Gorsuch appeared on his own network CNN to hawk his book, “A Republic, If You Can Keep It,” in September. (Because CNN isn’t awash in partisanship.)
Nor, did he take issue with Justices Sonya Sotomayor or Stephen Breyer appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to hawk theirs.
Christine Flowers, the columnist behind the Philly Inquirer piece, made similar points in her write-up. This proved to be too much for poor Stelter, who went on a mini-rant on Twitter to air his grievances 4 days after the column appeared in the paper:
It is surreal to see 3 tweets, including one of mine, used as the basis of a long op-ed in the Philly Inquirer. Humble suggestion: Debate tweets here on Twitter! Use print editorial space for more important, and local, issues. pic.twitter.com/wbGbLgIvHi
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 23, 2019
Wow. The self-anointed king of ripping tweets posted by others including conservative commentators and Republican politicians on his weekly show “Reliable Sources” is upset someone is using one of his own tweets against him. Bless his heart.
Oh, but it got even better. Stelter followed up shortly thereafter by noting that there was an error (gasp!) in the print version of Flowers’ column:
Maybe this writer, @flowerlady61, knows something I don't — she says I'm "formerly of the NYT and CNN." Of course, by pointing out that she made a mistake, she'll say I'm "triggered." pic.twitter.com/JDxYYxzaCX
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 23, 2019
Keep in mind he wrote this in order to try (and fail) to discredit her entire piece, even though he routinely ignores it when others point out the frequent errors in CNN’s political “reporting” (including his), errors which have often discredited the entire “report” they gave.
Laughable.
And when someone had the nerve to do a simple Google search on Stelter to point out his hypocrisy? Well, he just wouldn’t have that:
You think the president is the same as a CNN journalist? That would be sad
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 23, 2019
Of course, Stelter frequently mocks other people’s tweets on his show, but here he is pretending otherwise. Umkay.
Flowers, to her credit, did not take Stelter’s criticism quietly:
I wonder if that space I am occupying in his brain rent free comes with a washer-dryer and street parking? https://t.co/oic4oqIZJ3
— Christine Flowers (@flowerlady61) December 23, 2019
I just saw the responses to @brianstelter. The Catholic part of me feels bad, because it ain’t pretty. The Brunette Italian B from Baltimore in me (the one without the gavel and Botox) is smiling.
— Christine Flowers (@flowerlady61) December 24, 2019
Here are few other sweet dunks on Stelter in the comments to his post:
Do you even watch your own show
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) December 23, 2019
Suggestion: CNN should avoid telling other media how to do journalism.
— Baseball Guy from Cali (@baseball_cali) December 23, 2019
— Random Stranger (@crystlgib) December 23, 2019
Sooo, if she quoted you speaking in public at an event, would that be surreal? Would you demand she only debate your tweets at a live debate in person?
— LastStraw (@GibbonsWaddams) December 23, 2019
I can say with 100% confidence that Stelter has a panel focused on or referencing tweets every Sunday. 90% of the time a trump tweet is displayed.
— Shaun Donovan (@Rockandopera) December 24, 2019
Red State’s Bonchie perhaps summed it up best in his response:
Your lack of self-awareness has to be a troll at this point.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) December 24, 2019
Gotta be. I mean, he couldn’t really be so utterly lacking in self-awareness, could he? 🤔
Related:
— Comedy Gold: Brian Stelter Upset Over Fox News Hiring Sarah Sanders, Gets Destroyed in the Comments
— Brian Stelter Keeps a Running Total of Mitch McConnell’s Offers of Thoughts and Prayers Because Journalism
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