Journalists being disrespectful
by digby
… are doing their jobs:
Hey US media folks, here, I would argue immodestly, is how you interview a Trump supporter on Trump's lies:pic.twitter.com/D8qElaic7o— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 14, 2018
A journalist for Al Jazeera media network might have found the secret to interviewing spokespeople for Donald Trump: Asking them to provide the facts that back up their claims.
Mehdi Hasan, who hosts the show “UpFront” on Al Jazeera English, did just that during a Nov. 9 interview with Steven Rogers, an adviser for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
Hasan thought it was pretty good, as he pointed out in a tweet of a clip from the segment.On the show, Hasan got Rogers to admit the president’s claim that the United States is the only country in the world to offer birthright citizenship is completely wrong.
“No, it’s false. It’s a misstatement,” Rogers conceded, then tried to spin things to the right. “That doesn’t mean it’s a lie, OK?”
Hasan also grilled Rogers about Trump’s false claim that Californians were rioting in protest of their cities’ sanctuary city policies.
When Rogers tried to argue that there were “street skirmishes” in Oakland because of undocumented immigrants, Hasan shut him down hard.
“The spokesman for the California Police Chiefs Association says that there were no riots taking place as a result of sanctuary city policies,” Hasan pointed out. “There were no riots. [Trump] just made it up.”
Rogers wasn’t able to counter Hasan’s facts, notably Trump’s false claim that U.S. Steel would be opening up six steel mills.
“Look, I don’t know of what context these statements were made, but I can tell you this: The president of the United States has been very responsive to the American people, and the American people are doing well,” Rogers said.
Hasan snapped back, “The American people can be doing well, and the president can be a liar. There’s no contradiction between those statements.”
This is how it’s done: