Kyle Becker 
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has gotten so brazen in her attacks on media outlets trying to hold the Biden administration accountable that CNN is even defending Fox News. Watch:
“White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had some, let’s call them choice words for her frequent press room rival, Peter Doocy, yesterday during a live taping of Pod Save America podcast,” CNN’s Victor Blackwell said in the clip. One of the hosts asked Psaki about the time the President was caught on a hot mic insulting the Fox News reporter.” [Clip starts]
“Is he a stupid son of a b*** (bleep) or does he play a stupid son of a (bleep) on TV?” the host asked Psaki.
“Well, he works for a network… that provides people with questions that, nothing personal to any individual, including Peter Doocy, but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a (bleep),” she said. [Clip ends]
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“Let’s bring in CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter,” Alisyn Camerota said. “Brian, obviously, Peter Doocy has been at times a thorn in the side of Jen. But doesn’t that come with the territory?”
“It does come with the territory,” Stelter said. “And I think the point she’s trying to say there is that Fox pushes story lines that are sometimes nonsense. Doocy does that in the briefing room. But still, she did it in a way playing to a liberal audience that certainly is going to cause a lot of outrage from Fox probably for the next few days, right?”
“Here’s what the network says in a statement. Fox telling me: ‘In his role as White House correspondent, Peter Doocy’s job is to elicit truth from power for the American public. His questions’ — they say — ‘are his own, he is a terrific reporter and we are extremely proud of his work.’ So basically, Fox is saying, hey, we don’t provide him questions. He comes up with them himself. So they’re defending his honor.”
“I think Jen Psaki is kind of like — remember in senior year, spring of your senior year, you’re about to graduate and you’re just tired of all this? I think we’re seeing that from Jen Psaki. She’s about to leave the White House. She’s going to go to a job — likely at MSNBC — so she’s kind of relaxing and maybe sharing how she really feels. But to be fair, she didn’t really criticize him directly. She was really criticizing Fox News as an organization,” Stelter remarked.
“Yeah, and let’s remember that the question was born out of what President Biden said about Steve Doocy,” Blackwell added.
“Yes, but that time — it’s Peter Doocy,” Camerota said.
“Yeah, Peter Doocy,” Blackwell responded.
“But Peter Doocy said something to the President like, do you think that the inflation is going to hurt your chances at the mid-terms? That’s actually a fair question. It rankled the President, but that’s not a below the belt, that’s not gotcha question, Brian,” Camerota noted.
“No, that’s not a gotcha question,” Stelter said. “There have been other times, though, where I think Doocy does advance right-wing talking points in the briefing room. But that’s his right and I think that’s the point. The tension there is to be expected. And it’ll exist whoever replaces Psaki as well. It’s just the same that she’s going to off to another channel and we won’t have Psaki versus Doocy anymore.”
“Yeah. Well, we should remember, and the President should remember that promise he made at the start of his administration,” Blackwellm said. “That anybody who disrespects someone, you’re out the door. These words were actually his. Brian Stelter, thank you.”
Strange days, indeed. That’s as close to a defense of Fox News that you’re going to get, particularly of White House correspondent Peter Doocy. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that CNN was rumored to have been in on the Psaki sweepstakes to recruit her for a position at the network, but obviously she chose instead ultra-left network MSNBC.
Syndicated with licensed permission from Becker News. Follow Becker News on Telegram.