CNN Pundits Gang-up On ABC's David Muir

CNN’s in-house media pundits went after ABC’s “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir Tuesday night in a rare attack on the mainstream media, but critics said it may have revealed more about CNN than about ABC News, according to Fox News.

Brian Stelter, the host of CNN’s low-rated “Reliable Sources” media show, and his sidekick Oliver Darcy, attacked Muir in their media newsletter for the way the “World News Tonight” anchor conducted himself during an interview with President Trump. Stelter had promoted the interview on Twitter, even bragging about the size of Muir’s nightly audience – but the pundit who has been dubbed media’s “hall monitor” apparently didn’t like what he saw.

Darcy, who has penned Stelter’s media newsletter fairly often lately, led Tuesday’s edition with a headline, “Muir’s miss,” and he proceeded to trash the ABC News anchor.

“David Muir had an enormous responsibility on his hands,” Darcy wrote before listing off a variety of topics that were in the news when Muir sat down with the president, such as the coronavirus death toll and Trump’s recent tweets.

“Muir's interview was an opportunity to prosecute Trump on these issues and his conduct amid the crisis. It was an opportunity to ask him important Q's and hold his feet to the fire… but Muir missed,” Darcy wrote.

Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson took issue with Darcy’s use of the word “prosecute” in Stelter’s newsletter.

"For [him] to call for reporters 'to prosecute' Trump is revealing, because to prosecute means to seek a desired outcome. Prosecuting Trump certainly is CNN's objective, but journalism should be about obtaining and revealing facts, not achieving predefined results,” Jacobson told Fox News. “This is another reflection of how broken CNN's news operation is."

“The interview didn't elicit any big news. Muir didn't challenge Trump in any meaningful way. And worst of all, Muir allowed the president to float brazen misinformation with no pushback to his 10 million+ viewers,” Darcy wrote before offering additional criticism.

“Here's an example: Muir asked Trump whether Americans will have access to testing as they head back to work. Trump said ‘they should have no problem’ an answer Muir simply accepted,” Darcy wrote. “Trump then bashed President Obama, claiming that he had inherited ‘broken tests’ from him. Muir didn't push back on this falsehood, only asking Trump what he had done during his term to stock the shelves.”

Darcy apparently didn’t like Trump’s response, and slammed Muir for not “interrogating” him.

Brian Stelter, David Muir, Oliver Darcy

NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck mocked CNN as a “farce of a network” for being upset about Muir’s performance.

“It's beyond parody that CNN thought Muir wasn't tough enough on Trump and have decided to raise hell over his supposed failure. One of the biggest issues with this farce of a network is, they all but demand other news outlets behave and go about their news presentations like they do,” Houck said. “In other words, what CNN wants is partisanship, yelling, relentless snark -- both from chyrons and talent -- making faces, and overall behavior that would resemble that of a juvenile.”

DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox News there “were places Muir could have pushed harder for insight from Trump, but the interview was not a softball.” He added that the ABC News anchor had a small window and made the most of it.