Journalist Steve Krakauer and former CNN host Brian Stelter sparred Friday over Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s decision to give Daily Caller co-founder and Fox News host Tucker Carlson thousands of hours of Jan. 6 footage.
McCarthy gave Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, with Carlson confirming on-air his producers were combing through the footage.
Krakauer joined Stelter’s “The Fourth Watch” podcast to discuss his upcoming book, “Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People,” which details, in part, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Stelter asked Krakaeur about his thoughts on McCarthy giving Carlson exclusive access to the footage.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 13: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) holds his weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol June 13, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“I think it’s great,” Krakaeur said. “I wish everyone got ahold of them.”
“But that’s not what they’re doing,” Stelter said. (RELATED: ‘Erection’: Joy Behar Quickly Corrects Herself While Getting Worked Up Over Tucker Carlson And Kevin McCarthy)
“There’s a reason that CNN had lots of exclusives of certain January 6 footage and other news outlets had exclusives of about January 6 activity from the January 6 committee that they were getting fed so this is how it works,” Krakauer said. “It’s not ideal, but I favor more transparency across the board. I think there are still absolutely questions about January 6 that are not being addressed. I wish that they were in the January 6 committee.”
Krakauer then opined the media hyper-focused on the riot since Trump left office.
“I never really understood it other than the fact that Trump was gone so it became like this stand-in for Trump, but I do wonder about that and I actually hope-”
“It’s because it has never happened before in our lives and hopefully it’ll never happen again,” Stelter interjected. “It was a violent riot at our seat of power and it should have never happened. That’s why it was taken so seriously.”
Krakauer agreed that those involved should be prosecuted but said the press lacks “curiosity.”