CNN Reporter Responds to Trump's 'Dumb Bastards' Hit

CNN correspondent Brianna Keilar criticized President Donald Trump for mocking the cable news channel's judgment regarding its emphasis on the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, claiming he has "failed on most objective measures" regarding the government's response to the disease.

"There are 220,417 reasons to talk about coronavirus," the 40-year-old Australian-born Keilar said on air Tuesday. "There are nearly 60,000 cases per day in the U.S. and rising. The person whose response failed on most objective measures is not fixing his government's approach to the crisis. Instead, he is suggesting we ignore it."

Trump called CNN "dumb bastards" during a Monday campaign rally in Prescott, Arizona, deriding them for incessantly covering the issue to the near exclusion of everything else.

"You know why? They're trying to talk everybody out of voting," Trump said. "People aren't buying it, CNN. You dumb bastards."

CNN has been criticized in the past for overemphasizing, or fixating, on coverage of a single story to the near exclusion of else. Six years ago, it focused on the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines flight over the Indian Ocean, prompting Pulitzer Prize winning syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. to write: "Dear CNN, Enough already. Please, for the love of Cronkite: Give us a break from the missing plane."

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