Brian Stelter Makes Whopper of a Claim About CNN's Tucker Carlson Coverage, but Then Receipts Get Flashed

If you didn’t know any better, you’d think the initials “CNN” stood for “Carlson News Network” the way they’ve been obsessing over the popular Fox News host over the last few weeks.

Viewers pretty much cannot turn on the channel without eventually coming across some sort of rant from the jealous anchors about whatever subject Carlson has chosen to focus on on any given day. While there’s nothing wrong with a news network devoting a few minutes to criticizing a fellow media figure in and of itself, the sheer amount of time and segments they’ve spent trying to dunk Carlson just over the last week alone smacks of a deeper issue at the network. And you’d think by CNN’s own “we must focus on the pandemic” standards that they’d have more pressing things to devote that much valuable air time to.

But they’re acting like they don’t, and the reasons why are obvious. They need a replacement for Donald Trump now that he’s no longer in office. So they’ve settled on Tucker Carlson as the next right-wing “boogeyman” who everyone must fear.

So with all of that in mind, it was rather amusing earlier today to see CNN’s resident media hall monitor trying to cover for his network by covering up how often they “report” on Carlson.

It all started after independent journalist Glenn Greenwald made the same point several of us here at RedState have about how CNN needs a “new Trump.” Greenwald cited a clip from Stelter’s “Reliable Sources” program from Sunday in which Stelter basically confirmed it by arguing that “Carlson was the new Trump.” Greenwald also noted how it was a “bit bizarre” that a rival network would give so much free publicity to their competitor:

With their ratings in free fall, they desperately need "the new Trump." They tried to make it Marjorie Taylor Green but nobody cared about a first-term backbencher, so they're now auditioning Tucker for the role. A bit bizarre for cable hosts to elevate another TV host this way: https://t.co/FCGiZWKqiH

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 16, 2021

A petulant Stelter responded by claiming that Tucker was in the news and because of that CNN was reporting on him. It was a strange defense for him to argue considering the fact that it is other “news” outlets like CNN who turn Carlson’s comments into news stories:

Ratings are not in free fall, Glenn. They're just coming back to pre-election levels, as expected. I am covering the news, not conducting "auditions." Tucker is big media news. If you don't agree, say so. But don't dream up sinister motives and claim to know what's in my head.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 16, 2021

When another Twitter user pointed out that it was a “self own” for Stelter to make such an admission about their coverage, Stelter then pretended that CNN’s coverage of Tucker Carlson boiled down to that lone segment Greenwald cited:

It was one segment on an hour long show that's one hour of a 24 hour network.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 16, 2021

As per the norm, when Stelter is called on his own words, he begins to lie or otherwise try to weasel out of them. In this case, he just flat out lied, and the numbers prove it:

Except no. You aren't the only one on the network covering Tucker Carlson's rants. Cuomo and Lemon have and so has Keilar. Stop with the gaslighting! https://t.co/wdf0X2b65p

— Sister Toldjah Le Pew 😁 (@sistertoldjah) March 16, 2021

Here’s a start:https://t.co/BwrpUfQsuJ

— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) March 16, 2021

Tucker has been mentioned by name on CNN (between 5 am and 11 pm) 42 times from Sunday until now https://t.co/CpQ14ebAf5

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) March 16, 2021

That’s not to mention all the time Stelter and his sidekick Oliver Darcy spend on Twitter talking about and analyzing Tucker Carlson’s commentary. The tweets probably number in the 100s if not thousands between what they write themselves and what they RT about him.

The irony of all this is that just hours prior to Stelter boiling down the network’s stories about Carlson down to a few minutes out of one hour-long program, CNN “New Day” co-host John Berman did a segment where he essentially accused Carlson of wanting to kill people.

Stelter and the rest of the clowns at CNN can pretend they don’t need Carlson for their show prep, but the ratings – and the receipts – prove otherwise.