“The media don’t cover the issues that necessarily affect most Americans.”
Gage Skidmore/Flickr
While speaking at the Road to Majority Conference on Friday, White House Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway described how she interacted and dealt with a disgruntled media.
“I don’t know what’s got everybody so miserable,” she said after describing how she’s usually calmer than the people asking her questions.
She added that it was OK for the media to be skeptical of the president but indicated that the modern media was aggressive in doing things like asking “the same question 10 times.”
“Why the scowl in the face, and why […] the presumptive negativity?” she asked.
She argued that while the media ignored facts and figures important to the American people, it focused on topics that ranked low on Americans’ concerns.
“My main complaint has always been that the media don’t cover the issues that necessarily affect Americans,” she said. She added that the media’s own polling shows that Americans want different coverage than what the media mostly does.
Conway pointed to the record-low unemployment rate under Trump, saying that it was “incredible” how low it reached in May.
In the beginning of her time on the Trump campaign, she caught attention for her ability to deal with the press. Since then, she’s had a number of notable confrontations with personalities like CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Brian Stelter.
Conway’s Friday interview added to the Trump administration’s growing criticism of the media. Just on Saturday, Trump criticized CNN when one of the network’s reporters asked him a question about allies being “angry” with him.
When the reporter revealed his employer, Trump said:
“I figured. Fake news CNN. The worst. I could tell by the — I had no idea you were CNN. After the question, I was just curious as to who you were with. You’re with CNN.”
Last week, Trump also tweeted about CNN’s low ratings from May:
Real @FoxNews is doing great, Fake News CNN is dead! https://t.co/1p37tPiB3v
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2,2018
“Fake News CNN is dead!” he exclaimed.
Sam is a writer with IJR. Prior to joining IJR, Sam wrote for The Washington Free Beacon and Media Research Center. His work has been cited or feature… more
