The media has made it acceptable to criticize President Donald Trump on a regular basis and his administration never had a honeymoon after it took office in January, media critic Howard Kurtz said.
Kurtz sat down with host Sharyl Attkisson for an interview that will air on this weekend's "Full Measure" and said the level of negative coverage against the president has blurred the lines between being a reporter and being an opinion journalist.
"Beginning with the transition and after the president took office, there was virtually no honeymoon, which is traditional. The negative tone has kept up," Kurtz said.
"They're snarky on Twitter, they're going on TV, they're slinging their opinions and these lines got blurred. President Trump has been obliterated because it is deemed acceptable in many quarters to say negative things about this president, to say snarky things, to doubt his word."
Former CNN anchor Frank Sesno told Attkisson the negative reporting of almost everything Trump does is unprecedented.
"This is a different ballgame. We've always had an aggressive press, we've always had a political press, we've always had a snarky White House press. But this is different," Sesno said.
Sesno concluded that Trump himself has caused the media to be so critical of him because of the way he treats them.
"I think it's different because Donald Trump has singled out the press and their treatment. He's declared war on the press," he said.
Kurtz concurred, saying Trump has crossed the line by using terms like "fake news" and "enemy of the American people" to describe the press.
Trump regularly airs his opinions of the American media on his Twitter account:
"Full Measure" airs Sunday on Sinclair stations nationwide, and is streamed live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. ET at FullMeasure.news.
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