Shep Smith Says Journalists Shouldn’t Be Subjected To Donald Trump’s ‘Belittling’
The blowback from President-elect Donald Trumps press conference on Wednesday continues.
In a segment on Fox News, anchor Shep Smithdiscussed Trumps response to a question from John Roberts, the networks chief white house correspondent, who had asked about a BuzzFeed articlealleging Trump has deep ties to Russia and Russia has compromising information on him.
The highlight of the segment, however, was at the end of Smiths commentary on Trumps denigrating remarks on journalists.
Smith said, on behalf of Fox News, that CNN followed journalistic standards in the report it published which was distinctly different from BuzzFeeds. CNNs story, unlike Buzzfeeds, did not include the full, unedited dossier of unverified allegations made about Trumps ties to Russia.
Smith added that no journalists should be treated in the way Trump treated CNNs Jim Acosta.Acosta had said Wednesday that Trumps press secretary threatened to have him thrown out of the press conference if he questioned the president-elect.
Smiths full quote reads as follows:
Further … President-elect Trump today told CNNs Jim Acosta that his organization amounts to fake news. CNNs exclusive reporting on the Russian matter was separate and distinctly different from the document dump executed by an online news property. Though we at FOX News cannot confirm CNNs report, it is our observation that its correspondents followed journalistic standards and that neither they nor any other journalists should be subjected to belittling and delegitimizing by the President-elect of the United States.
Reactions to Smiths statement have been mixed, but many support his decision to speak on the president-elects behavior:
If you missed the conference, you can see Trumps interaction with Acosta here.