CAROL COSTELLO (HOST): Here's the thing. I, as a journalist, right? I ask the questions that are pertinent to the country. I don't go look at poll numbers and base my questions off of poll numbers because then I wouldn't be doing my job. My job is to find out information and bring it to people so that they can make decisions. My job isn't to ask questions that everybody wants me to ask because then I wouldn't be doing my job. My job is to get information that people don't know about and then they can decide what to do with that information.
CARRIE SHEFFIELD (NATIONAL EDITOR, ACCURACY IN MEDIA): I respect that. And I have a journalism degree. I worked at Politico. But what I'm saying is that the liberal media -- there is a big disconnect between what the people care about and what the mainstream liberal media says should be the agenda. And the way they present the things, it’s so liberally biased that that's why Trump, he is speaking directly to the people using social media, and they like what he's doing. So the liberal media might not like it and say it’s negative.
COSTELLO: He's speaking directly to one part of the population. Right, Angelo? It's one part, right? I get that some people feel exactly how -- I get that. But there's a whole other part of the population who doesn't feel that way.
ANGELO CARUSONE (PRESIDENT, MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA): That's right. And I think part of it is constitutional rights really aren't up for popular opinion either.
SHEFFIELD: I agree.
CARUSONE: That's why we enshrine certain things in the Constitution, right? So that it doesn't ebb and flow based off of either a demogauge or the winds of the time or whatever the public opinion is. That's how we ensure having a society that is durable and endures. That there are certain foundational bedrock principles. Journalism is one of the few jobs that's listed in the Constitution, right at the very beginning of the Bill of Rights.
SHEFFIELD: It's not journalism. It's freedom of expression.
CARUSONE: Yes -- freedom of the press is listed in there. I'm sorry to say that. And I think it’s very important to recognize that what we're really talking about here and what's at issue here is not whether or not the liberal media is too biased or talking about the wrong topics. We’re talking about retaliation and excluding an entire news outlet from participating in an event as part of punishment for doing their job, and then a broader context of which there is consistent attacks, more than 400 explicit attacks from Donald Trump himself since he's gotten into office. More than 15 percent of those are directed at CNN directly, I would point out. And I think the net effect of all those attacks – and we’re seeing this play out in this conversation right now with Carrie -- is that the more you attack the news media, the more you undermine their legitimacy, the more you justify and rationalize the kinds of actions that begin to chip away at bedrock foundational constitutional principles that are at issue here. And I think that applies across the spectrum regardless of the what the politics are.
