Scott Jennings, a CNN conservative, stunned several panel members by challenging the idea that “the right” is to blame for the American public’s declining trust in the legacy media. He asserted that “mainstream” outlets themselves bear responsibility for their biased, pro-Democrat coverage.
“What the ‘right wing’ has taken advantage of is finally, the American people saying ‘enough is enough,’” Jennings said in response to fellow panelist and author Jeff Jarvis, who said that the “media” is “under attack” from conservatives.
“They’re tired of feeling like the mass media screams out one viewpoint versus another in political coverage. They’re tired of media institutions favoring one party over another. They’re tired of narratives over factual stories,” he continued.
Jennings then referenced a decision by “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens, who was responsible for the controversial editing of then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ pre-election interview, which reportedly included cutting portions of the interview that made her look bad, to step down from his position this week.
“If I had any advice for ’60 Minutes’ or anybody else, it would be, ‘Just cover the news and try to be fair about it and stop putting your finger on the scale, especially during campaigns,’” Jennings added.
At that point, Jarvis chimed in, saying that Jennings was “talking about the ‘old media myth,’ that you can have this thing that’s in the middle” politically.
He then referenced Walter Cronkite, the face of the CBS Evening News for decades, who he insinuated was not being even-handed during his coverage.
“People back in those days trusted the media, did they not?” Jennings fired back, though Jarvis disagreed.
“Look at the Gallup polling,” Jennings shot back, referencing a recent survey from the polling firm that found trust in the U.S. media has been falling for years and is now at a historic low.
Host Abby Phillips then interjected, claiming that “a lot” of the media distrust “is driven by your side of the aisle,” which stunned Jennings.
“I’m sorry, you think it’s driven by the rhetoric and not the performance?” he fired back, leading Phillips to double down: “Absolutely!”
“My point is this,” Jennings said later. “If you’re CBS or any other news outlet, the reason that you have lost trust ought to be obvious to you. And the way to fix it also ought to be obvious to you. And it has nothing to do with Donald Trump, but everything to do with the product.
“Just try to make a better product that appeals to more people, and the way you appeal to more people is by not crapping on half or more than half of the country because of their values and political viewpoints,” he said.
WATCH:
Beltway and legacy media outlets, as well as veteran political reporters, are increasingly covering scandals that rocked President Joe Biden and Democrats ahead of the November election, shedding new light on issues that Republicans have long criticized and opposed.
“A full 4½ years after The Post’s bombshell series on Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling schemes, The New York Times has deigned to take an interest in the former First Son’s corruption,” the New York Post’s editorial board wrote in a piece last week that was highly critical of The New York Times for reporting on Biden corruption allegations years after other outlets had already uncovered reported details.
“We’d say the Times’ willingness to at long last cover this comes better late than never, but it only published the story now that it doesn’t remotely matter anymore,” the editorial board continued.