From the February 26 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:
Fox's Lisa Boothe Defends Trump's Attacks On The Press: “What Is He Supposed To Do?”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
CHRIS WALLACE (HOST): That brings up the question, Juan, are all of these attacks -- because certainly if not for the first two weeks, certainly for the last two weeks, so many attacks on the media, so many attacks on political opponents -- are they serving this president well, politically, or do you think it's getting in the way of his agenda?
JUAN WILLIAMS: Well, I think obviously with the base, demonizing the press, it seems to me be a continuation of the campaign in which he goes after Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, even the intelligence agencies that are looking into his ties to Russia. But even as it feeds the base and their distaste for mainstream media and persuades them, “listen to me, don't listen to the press and my critics,” it serves as a distraction, a distraction from the fact that he has accomplished so little of the pledges that he made to his backers during the campaign. Obamacare, tax reform, build the wall, these things haven't happened. There's a fact-check out today, Washington Post, that says that he has only done about 10 percent of all of the things that he said that he would get done in the first 100 days.
WALLACE: Well, it's only been one month.
WILLIAMS: Right, but I think it's critical to understand. He was talking about things that he would get done out of the box that would transform this government. Drain the swamp, but there's so little progress on that front. And when we come back to the press, we see a very interesting thing here. The Quinnepiac poll this week showing that despite his constant attacks, saying the press is the enemy of the American people, Steve Bannon telling the press, “shut up, youwere wrong about the election, so just shut up and listen,” guess what, the American people still trust the press and First Amendment rights more than they trust this president.
WALLACE: Lisa?
LISA BOOTHE: I actually disagree with Juan here, surprising. But no, I think that President Trump actually has a lot of room to run. Because if you look at polling, Democrats are really the only group of voters that trust the media. You look at the most recent Gallup poll regarding the media, only 14 percent of Republicans trust the media. Only 30 percent of independents.
WALLACE: But to a certain degree, that's beside the point. He's not going to, as I said in my conversation with Corey Lewandowski, he can bash the press all he wants, it doesn't create jobs.
BOOTHE: It doesn't create jobs, but what it does do -- but OK, so, but also what is he supposed to do? You look at the general election, 91 percent of the coverage was negative towards him. You look at the fact that --
WALLACE: He's president. Forget it.
BOOTHE: I understand that, but I know, but this coverage has carried into his administration, as well. There's been a lot of completely, blatantly false stories out there regarding made-up meetings between Steve Bannon and General Kelly. There has been information surfacing the dossier, which every publication said is unsubstantiated, unverified. There's been numerous reports not that have true. And I think John Dickerson was were correct when he said that the media ruined their reputation on their own. So I think there's a general lack of distrust with the information that has surfaced.
Previously:
Fox's Newt Gingrich: “This Is A Real War” Against The Media
Trump Just Blacklisted Media Outlets. We Warned You This Would Happen.
Trump At CPAC Calls Media Outlets “Enemy Of The People,” Demands They Stop Using Unnamed Sources