Whoa. The gloves are off at CNN. This panel followed Anderson Cooper's interview with Kellyanne Conway in which she lied and complained bitterly about media coverage of Trump and particularly the whole golden shower-gate thing.
Carl Bernstein is really done with Kellyanne Conway.
CARL BERNSTEIN: Let's talk about what reporting is. It's the best obtainable version of the truth. That's what that story is. The best obtainable version of the truth is that the chief intelligence officials of the United States of America saw this material, thought that it deserved investigation, thought it ought to be brought to the attention of the President of the United States and to the President-elect. That is the best obtainable version of the truth. Another thing about anonymous sources, one of the great anonymous sources of our era is Kellyanne Conway. She does it every day. She has been an anonymous source for the last ten months particularly during this campaign when it suits her. and it's time to talk about what we do as journalists and what propaganda ministers do and that is what she is, is a propaganda minister. What we've seen here tonight is a deconstruction of the journalistic process. And we did our work and you can deconstruct it and it comes down to, look, the chief officials of the United States intelligence community believed they had something urgent enough to bring to the attention of the President and the President-elect of the United States. That is a story.
And THAT, my friends, explains why reporters bend over backwards to show their "respect for Kellyanne Conway." It's access. Suck up to Kellyanne Conway, because in return she's more than willing to be an "anonymous source" when you need confirmation for your producer. Period.
Bernstein's colleague on the panel flat out calls her a liar who is dangerous to our democratic free press:
I think what we just watched was extremely dishonest. It was dissembling and I think also dangerous. I've known Kelleyanne Conway for a long time. we're not best friends or anything but I've known her professionally, she is smart. She knows what she is doing, she knows there is a difference between Buzzfeed and CNN. She knows that. The fact is she kept conflating them intentionally. And particularly dangerous, this is a person who will be a senior adviser to the President of the United States in about five minutes, who is now claiming that reporters should be fired for writing a story that was critical of her boss even though she was unable to name a single thing wrong with that story. Every time she came back about you, it was about Buzzfeed, had nothing to do with CNN's reporting. This is not the government's job to be telling news organizations who they should be hiring and firing.
Memo to the rest of the media: we've had enough of your BS about how respected Kellyanne Conway is in "the business." We now know that whenever YOU push that line, you're protecting your access to a "high-level source" who is willing to whisper leads in your ear. And when I see you call that professional liar "respected"? I will call you out on it and link back to this. Because you are failing not only your profession, but our country, when you suck up on television to one Kellyanne Conway, Propaganda Minister for Trump, the end.