On Monday’s broadcast of “The Five,” Fox News analyst Juan Williams stated that members of the media, most of whom are liberals are “disappointed” about Donald Trump’s presidency, but that it is the job of people in the press to hold the powerful accountable and not be their friends.
When asked if he thought journalists are angry about a Trump presidency, Williams said, [relevant remarks begin around 4:20] “I think they’re disappointed. If you want to know, I think most of them are liberals, if that’s your point.”
He continued, “But, what you’ve got here, going back to Friday when Trump came out, right, Trump goes after the press, despicable, these people are liars. They’re right back there. We’ve got them in a pen, and then the crowd hoots and hollers. He calls them out by name, and he talks about an anchor crying at the election. You know, — so, he’s playing a game with the press. The troubling part of it is, you know, if you look at PolitiFact, it’s like 70% of his claims, not true. And people say, well, it doesn’t matter. It’s Donald Trump. it’s symbolic what he just said. Don’t take him literally. But if you’re in the press, your job is to hold powerful people accountable. You’re supposed to call them out every time. You’re not supposed to be their buddy, but Trump only wants buddies.”
Williams later added, “[L]et’s imagine that Trump goes off the rails and becomes a demagogue, and the demagogue then has a populist base that says, no matter what he does, we love him. He can say whatever he wants to say. He is going around those terrible people in the mainstream press. Well, exactly then who is it that will say the king, the emperor has no clothes on?”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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