CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter excoriated Fox News for broadcasting an allegedly “incendiary” phrase that he said CNN would “never” repeat on the air. Unfortunately, Anderson Cooper had used that exact terminology last Thursday, and a review of network transcripts shows that CNN hosts have repeated it at least half a dozen times in precisely the way Stelter called unacceptable.
Stelter dedicated <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/rs/date/2022-01-23/segment/01">part</a> of the January 23 episode of “Reliable Sources” to reading banners Fox News had posted on the screen during the past week, including one that <a href="https://twitter.com/ReliableSources/status/1485326898498617350">read</a>, “The Biden administration is a clown car driving off a cliff.” An outraged Stelter said, “That&#8217;s the great example of the incendiary rhetoric that you would have never seen, let’s say from another channel during the Trump years or now during the Biden years.” Such language illustrates “the imagined drama that Fox presents every day” in the “Fox-uverse,” he added.
But his colleagues at CNN have used that exact phrase — and many worse ones — about former President Donald Trump, Trump administration officials, and Republican congressional leaders as recently as three days earlier:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CNN senior media reporter <a href="https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@oliverdarcy</a> compares the way Fox reports crime in the US to an Instagram filter, saying the final product is distorted and &quot;no longer reflects reality.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/S9QcwZvLD2">pic.twitter.com/S9QcwZvLD2</a>
&mdash; Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReliableSources/status/1485326898498617350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2022</a></blockquote>
Anderson Cooper (“Anderson Cooper 360” on January 20, 2022): Anderson Cooper, who replaced Chris Cuomo as CNN’s top-rated host, likened a report about the 2020 Trump campaign to a clown car last Thursday. “It&#8217;s like a clown car on fire,” Cooper <a href="https://twitter.com/kikimelendez/status/1484547274931847172">said</a> in exasperation. ‘Yeah,” agreed a giggly Pamela Brown, CNN’s senior Washington correspondent, who then <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/acd/date/2022-01-20/segment/01">apologized</a> for being unable to respond to Cooper’s next question. “Sorry, I was thinking about the clown car on fire analogy,” she explained.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I bet the DOJ, the FBI and the CIA are still investigating DID TRUMP KNOW? 😂😂😂 Like a clown car on fire&#39;: Cooper reacts to Giuliani&#39;s fake electors plot <a href="https://t.co/AC7hPwu0qD">https://t.co/AC7hPwu0qD</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/YouTube?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YouTube</a>
&mdash; Kiki Melendez (@kikimelendez) <a href="https://twitter.com/kikimelendez/status/1484547274931847172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
John King (“Inside Politics” on December 16, 2021): John King used the analogy to make the first year of the Trump administration seem worse than Joe Biden’s first year in office. King noted that Republicans faltered on their “central promise” to “repeal and replace Obamacare” in 2017, while Biden failed to pass the  <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whats-in-joe-bidens-build-back-better-act">“Build Back Better” act</a> in 2021. But at least last year, “we have not had the clown car routine that that was that debate” over Obamacare, King <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ip/date/2021-12-16/segment/01">said</a>. Still, he considered Biden’s inability to pass his signature social spending legislation as “a major failure.”
Don Lemon (“Don Lemon Tonight” on November 29, 2021): “The GOP is just a circus right now. That&#8217;s just the honest truth. It&#8217;s a clown show,” Lemon <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnnt/date/2021-11-29/segment/01">declared</a> last November. “The GOP is just loading up the clown car of their never-ending circus.”
Anderson Cooper (“Anderson Cooper 360” on September 16, 2021): Last fall, Anderson Cooper cited anti-Trump biographies such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dem-congressman-blows-a-hole-in-bob-woodwards-new-book-peril">“Peril” by Bob Woodward</a> as evidence the former president became mentally unhinged in his last days in office. “I mean, we knew it was, you know, a clown car going on and possibly going off the cliff,” Cooper <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/acd/date/2021-09-16/segment/01">said</a>. “But I mean, it&#8217;s extraordinary to see this reporting &#8230; Woodward and Costa also report on the former President&#8217;s mental faculties.” Cooper use the exact analogy which Stelter condemned Fox News for making. Stelter did not condemn Anderson Cooper for “exaggerating” or “inventing” concerns about President Trump’s mental health, a frequent topic of CNN speculation since 2015.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“Don Lemon Tonight” on July 19, 2021): Not every use of this “incendiary” phrase came from one of CNN’s anchors, but it sometimes came with their approval. During an interview with Don Lemon about the congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1417540387552563203">said</a>, “I think Kevin McCarthy has decided his role as the minority leader in the House of Representative is to essentially be chauffeur of the clown car.” Not only did Lemon <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnnt/date/2021-07-19/segment/01">not push back</a>, but Brianna Keilar decided to <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/nday/date/2021-07-20/segment/02">reair</a> that soundbite on CNN’s “New Day” the next morning.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/RepAOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepAOC</a> on GOP Jan. 6 committee picks: &quot;Kevin McCarthy has decided that his role as a minority leader in the House of Representatives is to essentially be chauffeur of the clown car.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/FD0xnPT6xS">https://t.co/FD0xnPT6xS</a> <a href="https://t.co/z9XcHb5G4g">pic.twitter.com/z9XcHb5G4g</a>
&mdash; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1417540387552563203?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
Van Jones (“The Van Jones Show” on November 10, 2018): Former Obama administration <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2010/12/more-stealth-reparations-obama-enacts-van-jones-indian-energy-plan/">Green Jobs</a> Czar <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2009/09/conspiracy-czar/">Van Jones</a> opened <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/vjs/date/2018-11-10/segment/01">a 2018 episode</a> of his eponymous CNN show by applying the “incendiary” phrase to Donald Trump. “We had an insane clown car of a presidential press conference, after which Trump just up and fired Jeff Sessions,” Jones told CNN’s viewers. “Now, that&#8217;s a decision that could derail Bob Mueller&#8217;s Russia investigation, which could lead to a full-blown constitutional crisis.” In reality, the Mueller report would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/adam-schiff-biggest-problem-with-mueller-report-was-it-wasnt-brought-to-life-through-public-hearings">conclude</a> that its “investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.”
Brianna Keilar (“Wolf” on July 19, 2017): While guest-hosting Wolf Blitzer’s afternoon show in the early days of the Trump presidency, Brianna Keilar used a familiar phrase while discussing the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia with CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash. “Dana, when you look at Republicans on Capitol Hill, how are they reacting to what – it&#8217;s almost like a clown car, right?” Keilar <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/wolf/date/2017-07-19/segment/02">asked</a> Bash, who did not rebuke her colleague’s choice of words.
Of course, “clown car” is far from the most offensive or polarizing phrase uttered on CNN. The Lincoln Project’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/us/politics/lincoln-project-weaver.html">co-founder</a> Rick Wilson called then-candidate Donald Trump a “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9noJXJXdE">douche canoe</a>” who lacks “gravitas” in 2015, while anchor Jim Acosta has earned CNN a reputation as a home of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/can-partisanship-and-profanity-save-cnn-from-its-ratings-collapse">rampant profanity</a> for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-acosta-i-hate-to-use-the-word-bullst-here-are-8-times-hes-used-it-since-may">repeatedly using the phrase “bulls**t”</a> on the air.
Stelter’s comments came during a segment in which Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-guest-fox-news-invented-scary-stories-about-a-senile-president-and-crt-brainwashing-kids">insisted</a> that stories about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trafficked-how-joe-bidens-open-border-policies-have-fueled-americas-fentanyl-epidemic">illegal immigration</a>, Joe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-looks-like-hes-always-waking-up-from-heavy-anesthesia-foreign-media-sounds-off-on-presidents-cognitive-decline">Biden’s mental fitness</a>, and public schools <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-5-ways-the-media-is-trying-to-mislead-you-on-critical-race-theory">teaching</a> ideologically polarizing concepts like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-is-critical-race-theory-breaking-down-the-ideology-thats-hitting-schools-across-the-country">Critical Race Theory</a> had been “exaggerated” or “invented out of whole cloth” by Fox News and others.
This is not the first time Brian Stelter has condemned other media outlets for sins committed by his own network. Last September, Stelter bashed other news outlets for spreading a “faulty media narrative” about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hype-and-spin-counting-down-the-top-5-non-stories-of-2021">Border Patrol agents allegedly whipping Haitians</a> attempting to enter the United States illegally in Del Rio, Texas — an error CNN network had repeatedly reported for much of <a href="//AEA918A0-AD6A-4846-9325-7DC9929314A1/about%20the%20congressional%20committee%20investigating%20the%20January%206%20riot">the previous week</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Brian Stelter Claims CNN Would ‘Never’ Air An ‘Incendiary’ Phrase That Anderson Cooper Used Thursday

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Brian Stelter Claims CNN Would ‘Never’ Air An ‘Incendiary’ Phrase That Anderson Cooper Used Thursday