Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter discusses what has basically become the merger of the Trump administration and state-run TV, a.k.a. Fox "News."

I don't disagree with anything Stelter says here, but he'd have a lot more credibility if his own network weren't constantly giving airtime to lying Trumpsters like Rick Santorum, Jason Miller, Corey Lewandowski, Anthony Scaramucci, Jack Kingston, et. al. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

STELTER: Fox and Trump, Trump and Fox. You know they're close. But do you realize just how close? This kind of relationship has never existed between a U.S. president and a TV network. It is unprecedented. It's sort of a love story, so let me count the ways.

First of all, the president loves Fox. He loves what he hears on Fox. He promotes the network and trashes its rivals, telling people when and where to tune in. A president has never endorsed a network like this before.

Trump watches Fox and tweets about it and watches some more. Sometimes he hears valuable information but other times he hears terrible misinformation. Sometimes he then spreads it in interviews on Fox and around and around we go.

Since becoming president Trump has been interviewed on Fox every 20 days on average. Now, some of these are not really interviews at all, they are more like chats, designed to promote his presidency. In this chat last week ,Maria Bartiromo sounded like she was the president, handing Trump talking points, watch.

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So let's take a closer look at this relationship. You can see how this back-scratching benefits both sides. Trump benefits from Fox's friendly segments and softball questions and then Fox benefits from Trump's preferential treatment and constant promos. If you plug Trump, he might plug your book or your show or you might attack your competitors. Or he might do both.

[...]

Ah yes, Sean Hannity. He defends Trump, bashes the media, turns a blind eye to Trump-world scandals and gives his guests free rein to calling for the jailing of Trump's opponents. And that's just on the air. When Hannity is off the air, he gossips with Trump and gives advice about who to hire.

So let's just underscore how weird this is. No TV host has ever had this kind of relationship with a U.S. president before. And to take it a step further, no network has ever propped up a president quite like this before.

Sure, Obama had big fans on MSNBC, but there wasn't this kind of constant coordination. No one ever thought Keith Olbermann was Obama's shadow chief of staff, but that's how some Trump advisers describe Hannity.

This is new and it's weird and we shouldn't get used to it. There's been almost a merger between a culture war TV station and a culture war president.

It's not a "culture war" station. It's a pro-Republican, pro-Trump propaganda network. Stelter went onto discuss Trump's hiring of disgraced Fox producer Bill Shine for the comms office, the consideration of Pete Hegseth for VA secretary, the consideration of Jeanine Pirro for an administration position, Jesse Watters' cozy relationship with Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle's relationship with Trump Jr. and others from Fox with huge conflicts of interest.

He also asked what Trump would do without Fox.

Sadly, he'd still have the pro-Trump liars and both-iderists on your network and others to rely on to carry water for him, Brian.