Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter tried very hard to defend Sarah Huckabee Sanders against the mean and terrible reporter, Brian Karem, who had the nerve to press Sanders on whether she, as a parent, had any empathy for what the immigrants at the border are suffering.

Karem, who is my hero of the day, was blunt: "I have an apology to make. I apologize to every human being who has had to suffer, who have less -- who has less than I do. And I did not come to the table sooner. I'm sorry to those people for waiting so long and holding my temper. I am sorry that I am extremely angry with this administration that has lied to me, continues to lie to me. I'm sorry as a reporter that for so long I thought that the idea was to -- I was struggling to do my job, I forgot my job is to comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable and ask questions for those who have no voice."

In other words, no. He is not at all sorry that he pressed Sarah Huckabee Sanders on whether or not she is a human or a drone.

Dang, Brian Stelter. I mean, you could stop there, but no. "I respect what you are saying," he said without conviction. "You came across as a caricature for many of the people that are watching who feel journalists are trying to make it about themselves, to get more attention."

Don't you love that framing? In case you were wondering, that's the framing coming from Trump, coming from Sanders, and coming from Fox News. Stelter could get no satisfaction or humility from Karem, though.

Stelter, incredulous, asked: "You don't think that's legitimate [criticism]?"

And Karem once again hit it out of the park. "I don't. It's not legitimate. We have been playing by the old rules for so long that we forgot where we are with this administration. For fact, it was Sarah Huckabee Sanders who brought her family into the press room. She beat us over the head with it. We have been berated, lied to, insults. We have been told we have less credibility than the President of the United States. We have been lectured at. That office used to be an office of information. It is now an office of disinformation. It's an office of propaganda. We should push back harder. I have heard from numerous -- I think the vast majority of Americans are as inflamed by this issue than any other. It's a basic question of humanity. It must be addressed."

I just had to quote the whole thing, because Brian Karem gets it. Huckabee Sanders is constantly hammering these guys with her little kids, and how she's a parent, and blah-dee-blah-blah. Yet on an issue where actual FAMILIES are being impacted, she can't even answer a simple yes or no question.

And so, with that, Brian went full Fox News on Karem, playing all the criticisms leveled by Fox yakkers whose heads are so far up the Trump administration's butt they can't see anything but crap.

Shame on Brian Stelter. Shame for giving legitimacy to Fox News' Goebbelsian tactics.

And as Karem points out, the question was pretty simple. Does she have empathy for parents and children torn apart for political reasons? Yes or no? This again prompted Stelter to defend the indefensible, by claiming she was just angry about being interrupted. Please.

And again, Karem refused to play the game.

"She refuses to answer any question she feels uncomfortable with," he replied. "There have been people who interrupted her, including Jim Acosta, April Ryan, Jonathan Karl. Those questions she doesn't like to answer because they put her in a position of having to answer honestly. That's something that this administration is not prepared to do."

I cannot get used to the idea that the White House press office is not prepared to tell the truth about ANYTHING. Literally nothing. Apparently in the White House, they've decided they have to lie about enough things that they should just lie about everything. It's a damn good thing we have the Brian Karems of the world to put them on notice that we, the people, are tired of being lied to.

What has happened to Brian Stelter? If he keeps this up, he'll go full Howie Kurtz on us.