Attkisson, Kurtz: 'Truth is a Casualty' in the Media's War on Trump

Ryan Foley | October 21, 2019
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After weighing in on the latest example of media malpractice, ABC's decision to portray footage from a Kentucky gun show as attacks on the Kurds in the Middle East, Full Measure host Sharyl Attkisson sat down with Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz. Before playing the clip of her interview with Kurtz, Attkisson noted that "the war between the media and Donald Trump sometimes looks like one of mutually assured destruction," stressing "sometimes, truth is a casualty." Attkisson asked Kurtz "did Donald Trump cause the media to descend into madness or just expose media madness that was already in existence?" According to Kurtz, "the media's credibility problems were maybe more like a fever and once Trump trauma took effect, that's what I call it, I think that he sort of made the media go crazy." Kurtz drove the media's Trump Derangement Syndrome back to the title of his book, Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War Over the Truth.  Kurtz contended that "it is hard to avoid the conclusion that so many journalists are invested in an outcome that either sees him driven from office or defeated in 2020." When Kurtz noted that "neither side has any incentive to end the war," Attkisson asked "so in some ways, both sides benefit?" Kurtz responded: "in some ways, both sides benefit but I'm not so sure the country benefits because...it's become harder for all of us to agree on a common set of facts. That's one of the casualties, I think, of this all-out war between Trump and the media." 

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