BRIAN STELTER (HOST): It's just wrong and petty. Obviously, we saw many members of the media[[,]] out with the Coast Guard, out with other rescuers. I'll just show one of many examples, CNN's Anderson Cooper was up in those helicopters with the Coast Guard, observing rescues, in some cases broadcasting them live using new technology that we really hadn't seen in past natural disasters. Obviously, many members of the media were out in the winds, and out in the flooding afterwards, but the president just couldn't resist that slap at the press. Let me bring in Will Bunch for more on this. Will is a national columnist, for Philly.com, that's the Philly Daily News and the Inquirer, and he wrote about journalists stepping up in this time of crisis in Texas and Louisiana. Will, great to see you.
WILL BUNCH: Hi Brian. Thanks for having me.
STELTER: You connected this to the president's past rhetoric about the members of the media being “enemies of the American people.” What was your message for President Trump?
BUNCH: Right. Well you know, the Thursday night before Hurricane Harvey struck, when the storm was baring down on the the Texas coast, he had this rally in Phoenix, where he basically egged on a crowd to chant no offense to anyone, “CNN sucks,” right? And this has been the theme of so many of his rallies that journalists are the enemies of the American people. And those words were still ringing in people's ears and they were still ringing in my ears when I watched the TV that weekend and I saw clips like the Ed Lavandera clip that you showed, or Brandi [Smith] -- I forget her last name, from KHOU in Houston --
STELTER: Brandi Smith -- getting a rescue crew to head over to a man whose truck was high in floodwaters, yeah.
BUNCH: Yeah, absolutely, and remember, she was doing this while -- her station was broadcasting while water was rushing into the first floor of their station. So, it just led me to ask, and I wrote this piece -- who are these enemies of the American people and how helpful is this rhetoric? And look, I've been a journalist for a long time, I don't want to go around saying that all journalists are heroes. They're not, we saw some very heroic things, but I think the point that needs to be made here is that journalists are human, and we saw an army of journalists descend on Houston with an instinct of wanting, for the most part, to help people. Whether in dramatic ways that you showed, but also just giving information to people: which roads are roads closed, where are shelters open, where's the storm heading next. We're having a debate in this country right now about journalism and whether people are our enemies or whether this is essential to democracy and I think we saw the essential to democracy side down in Houston.
