A senior legal adviser for the Trump campaign silenced CNN's Brian Stelter in a long-winded, 14-minute debate over whether the network cares more about removing President Donald Trump than journalistic standards.
"You're not trying to do your job; you're not a journalist, Brian, you're an activist," Jenna Ellis told CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday. "That's the problem. You have an agenda, and your agenda is anti-Trump.
"The American people see through that, and they're very grateful that this president is finally holding the fake news media accountable, because you're activists. You're not reporting fact and truth."
Ellis' closing remarks came after Stelter admonished her, saying she was going to regret her challenging of anti-Trump media and talking about a lawsuit filed against CNN by the Trump campaign, alleging CNN published provably false statements.
Stelter defended publishing provably false statements because it can under the banner of "opinion."
"You won't even say, as a general statement, factually false statements shouldn't ever appear in a media outlet," she continued. "That shouldn't even be an argument."
Stelter then moved to end the debate and the segment after more than 13 minutes of back and forth.
Stelter said he brought Ellis on his media review program to talk about CNN's poll that listed Trump trailing Joe Biden by 14 points. The Trump campaign sent a legal letter to CNN, denouncing the fairness of the poll, which was signed by Ellis, Stelter noted.
"No pollster in the world would stand behind this as a legitimate poll, according to industry standards, so why would CNN publish this?" Ellis opened. "For one reason, Brian, and that's because they want to undermine."
Ellis pointed to other polls that use likely voters or at least registered American voters, instead of merely "adults." Adults can include people in America who are not registered to vote, not permitted to vote, and perhaps not even likely to vote.
Trump has fought hard during his administration to define America's borders and monitor illegal immigration. Those latter U.S. adults would be less inclined to support the incumbent in a poll.
"The only reason that CNN published this is because it's junk science, you know that, and you know that if your poll showed the inverse and showed that Joe Biden 14 points behind, you wouldn't have published this poll," Ellis said.
"So what America understands, Brian, is you're not journalists, you're not putting out facts, you're putting out activism. That's why you're fake news."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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