CNN anchor Brian Stelter claimed Wednesday that anchors on his network veered into “opinion” territory in order to expose liars.
Stelter made a brief appearance on ABC’s “The View” to discuss media and and its impact on the political climate in the United States. (RELATED: CNN Guest Says There’s No Network On The Left Dedicated To Tearing Down Trump)
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Host Sara Haines referenced Stelter’s recent book, “Hoax,” and asked what he thought about the media’s role in the divisiveness that has become a part of American political culture.
“You write about the struggle between the journalism side of Fox News and the opinion side,” Haines said, noting that many networks seemed to have similar problems drawing a hard line between what was news and what was opinion. “Do you think that contributes to the misinformation and extreme divisiveness we’re seeing in politics today?”
Stelter said that he did think that was an issue, adding that he routinely spoke with his staff on “Reliable Sources” to make sure that he did not become “part of that problem.”
He then went on to argue that when he did present his opinion, it was his way of “cutting through all the noise” and “trying to defend truth and decency and democracy.”
“There are some hours at CNN that have a lot more point of view these days. Some of the anchors, including you know yours truly, I’ll start with a monologue talking through the president’s lies and trying to debunk them,” Stelter explained. “The reason why we have these monologues is because it’s the best way to cut through all the noise and get to the news. To say, for example, the media is not the enemy of the American people, or the enemy of Republicans. The media is the enemy of liars, and we can debunk lies through these essays. But it is an issue, I do agree that it’s an issue that sometimes it all sounds like opinion, even though I think what we’re doing is trying to get perspective on the news, trying to defend truth and decency and democracy — which frankly wasn’t as necessary five years ago as it is today.”
“True that,” Whoopi Goldberg agreed.