CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter excoriated Fox News for
broadcasting an allegedly �incendiary� phrase that he said CNN would �never�
repeat on the air. Unfortunately, Anderson Cooper had used that exact
terminology last Thursday, and a review of network transcripts shows that CNN
hosts have repeated it at least half a dozen times in precisely the way
Stelter called unacceptable.

Stelter dedicated part of the January 23 episode of �Reliable Sources� to
reading banners Fox News had posted on the screen during the past week,
including one that read, �The Biden administration is a clown car driving off
a cliff.� An outraged Stelter said, �That�s the great example of the
incendiary rhetoric that you would have never seen, let�s say from another
channel during the Trump years or now during the Biden years.� Such language
illustrates �the imagined drama that Fox presents every day� in the �Fox-
uverse,� he added.

But his colleagues at CNN have used that exact phrase � and many worse ones �
about former President Donald Trump, Trump administration officials, and
Republican congressional leaders as recently as three days earlier:

CNN senior media reporter @oliverdarcy compares the way Fox reports
crime in the US to an Instagram filter, saying the final product is
distorted and "no longer reflects reality."
pic.twitter.com/S9QcwZvLD2

� Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) January 23, 2022

Anderson Cooper (�Anderson Cooper 360� on January 20, 2022): Anderson Cooper,
who replaced Chris Cuomo as CNN�s top-rated host, likened a report about the
2020 Trump campaign to a clown car last Thursday. �It�s like a clown car on
fire,� Cooper said in exasperation. �Yeah,� agreed a giggly Pamela Brown,
CNN�s senior Washington correspondent, who then apologized for being unable
to respond to Cooper�s next question. �Sorry, I was thinking about the clown
car on fire analogy,� she explained.

I bet the DOJ, the FBI and the CIA are still investigating DID TRUMP
KNOW? ?????? Like a clown car on fire': Cooper reacts to Giuliani's
fake electors plot https://t.co/AC7hPwu0qD via @YouTube

� Kiki Melendez (@kikimelendez) January 21, 2022

John King (�Inside Politics� on December 16, 2021): John King used the
analogy to make the first year of the Trump administration seem worse than
Joe Biden�s first year in office. King noted that Republicans faltered on
their �central promise� to �repeal and replace Obamacare� in 2017, while
Biden failed to pass the �Build Back Better� act in 2021. But at least last
year, �we have not had the clown car routine that that was that debate� over
Obamacare, King said. Still, he considered Biden�s inability to pass his
signature social spending legislation as �a major failure.�

Don Lemon (�Don Lemon Tonight� on November 29, 2021): �The GOP is just a
circus right now. That�s just the honest truth. It�s a clown show,� Lemon
declared last November. �The GOP is just loading up the clown car of their
never-ending circus.�

Anderson Cooper (�Anderson Cooper 360� on September 16, 2021): Last fall,
Anderson Cooper cited anti-Trump biographies such as �Peril� by Bob Woodward
as evidence the former president became mentally unhinged in his last days in
office. �I mean, we knew it was, you know, a clown car going on and possibly
going off the cliff,� Cooper said. �But I mean, it�s extraordinary to see
this reporting � Woodward and Costa also report on the former President�s
mental faculties.� Cooper use the exact analogy which Stelter condemned Fox
News for making. Stelter did not condemn Anderson Cooper for �exaggerating�
or �inventing� concerns about President Trump�s mental health, a frequent
topic of CNN speculation since 2015.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (�Don Lemon Tonight� on July 19, 2021): Not
every use of this �incendiary� phrase came from one of CNN�s anchors, but it
sometimes came with their approval. During an interview with Don Lemon about
the congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot, Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said, �I think Kevin McCarthy has decided his role as
the minority leader in the House of Representative is to essentially be
chauffeur of the clown car.� Not only did Lemon not push back, but Brianna
Keilar decided to reair that soundbite on CNN�s �New Day� the next morning.

.@RepAOC on GOP Jan. 6 committee picks: "Kevin McCarthy has decided
that his role as a minority leader in the House of Representatives
is to essentially be chauffeur of the clown car."
https://t.co/FD0xnPT6xS pic.twitter.com/z9XcHb5G4g

The Hill

Van Jones (�The Van Jones Show� on November 10, 2018): Former Obama
administration Green Jobs Czar Van Jones opened a 2018 episode of his
eponymous CNN show by applying the �incendiary� phrase to Donald Trump. �We
had an insane clown car of a presidential press conference, after which Trump
just up and fired Jeff Sessions,� Jones told CNN�s viewers. �Now, that�s a
decision that could derail Bob Mueller�s Russia investigation, which could
lead to a full-blown constitutional crisis.� In reality, the Mueller report
would conclude that its �investigation did not establish that members of the
Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.�

Brianna Keilar (�Wolf� on July 19, 2017): While guest-hosting Wolf Blitzer�s
afternoon show in the early days of the Trump presidency, Brianna Keilar used
a familiar phrase while discussing the Trump campaign�s alleged ties to
Russia with CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash. �Dana, when you look
at Republicans on Capitol Hill, how are they reacting to what � it�s almost
like a clown car, right?� Keilar asked Bash, who did not rebuke her
colleague�s choice of words.

Of course, �clown car� is far from the most offensive or polarizing phrase
uttered on CNN. The Lincoln Project�s co-founder Rick Wilson called then-
candidate Donald Trump a �douche canoe� who lacks �gravitas� in 2015, while
anchor Jim Acosta has earned CNN a reputation as a home of rampant profanity
for repeatedly using the phrase �bulls**t� on the air.

Stelter�s comments came during a segment in which Washington Post columnist
Catherine Rampell insisted that stories about illegal immigration, Joe
Biden�s mental fitness, and public schools teaching ideologically polarizing
concepts like Critical Race Theory had been �exaggerated� or �invented out of
whole cloth� by Fox News and others.

This is not the first time Brian Stelter has condemned other media outlets
for sins committed by his own network. Last September, Stelter bashed other
news outlets for spreading a �faulty media narrative� about Border Patrol
agents allegedly whipping Haitians attempting to enter the United States
illegally in Del Rio, Texas � an error CNN network had repeatedly reported
for much of the previous week.

--
Let's go Brandon!