ANDERSON COOPER (HOST): I want to ask you on this other subject, of what something Steve Bannon said today, an interview he gave to The New York Times. He said, quote, “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated, and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.” When you hear Steve Bannon --
JEFFREY LORD: You were in favor of that, aren't ya, Christiane?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I would say no chance on that, Steve, buddy. But look, seriously, Steve Bannon is playing the role that he set out for himself. There is obviously some kind of strategy here, although it's hard for me to comprehend it because, you know, I operate in the truth and the fact-based universe.
But he's playing a strategy which involves creating straw men and women, creating an enemy out of the press, and then, you know, dividing, diverting, obfuscating while other things are going on. That's the only thing I can imagine -- obviously there are many other -- I want to say totalitarian regimes in the past which use this same kind of strategy.
And I mean -- if I was going to be funny, I'd say that he's angling for an order of merit from president Sisi, Putin, Erdogan and all the others. That is how they treat their press. That is what they believe the press should be, a compliant state propaganda unit in the service of the president.
It is not the tradition of the American press. So of course we're not going to shut up, and why should we? And what have we done wrong? And why should we be humiliated About what? The story was right, we reported the story, whatever it is, we got it right.
