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Professor Who Called Acosta Treatment ‘Truly Shocking’ Now Wants To Ban Fox News From White House

Brian Stelter, proud boys, CNN
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Zurawik believes Fox News deserves to be kicked out of the press pool because the channel aired complaints of voter fraud.

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The same professor and media critic at The Baltimore Sun who was appalled when the Trump White House revoked CNN’s Jim Acosta’s press credentials likened Fox News to the Proud Boys on Sunday on CNN, telling anchor Brian Stelter that the news organization doesn’t deserve access to the White House press pool because they “put people on their shows telling the big lie.”

“I don’t think any company is actually going to remove Fox News from the cable lineup, but there are you know these questions as Fox radicalizes and as it becomes even more and more of a political tool…should it be a part of the White House press pool? Should it be afforded the privileges that come with newsgathering, even though they do have some news reporters at the White House?” Stelter, who previously entertained a big tech crackdown on conservative media, asked.

“I really do. I think it’s a discussion we need to have,” David Zurawik said, noting that Fox News CEO Lachlan Murdoch said that the news outlet is “the loyal opposition.”

“You look it up in the dictionary, loyal opposition is a political term. It’s the party that opposes the party in power, but even in that system, primarily parliamentary systems, it says that they share the same larger values for the culture and the society,” Zurawik said.

In 2018, Zurawik wrote that the administration’s decision to pull the infamous CNN correspondent’s press pass after he yanked the microphone away from a White House intern was “truly shocking” and a decision that “cannot be allowed to stand without being fiercely challenged.” Acosta’s credentials were eventually restored.

Now Zurawik believes Fox News deserves to lose its journalistic credibility and kicked out of the press pool because the channel aired complaints of voter fraud and concerns about election integrity during and after the 2020 election. 

“When you put people on your show telling the big lie as they did with the president, former president, when they put them on putting that lie on for people who tried to shut down the government on January 6, you’re not supporting democracy. You’re not supporting the larger values of this culture. They don’t even stand up as an opposition party but there’s nothing journalistic in what Lachlan Murdoch said,” Zurawik told Stelter. 

The best way to wipe Fox News out of the industry, Zurawik said while likening the media organization to the far-right group, Proud Boys, is to cut off their access to the White House.

“You know what? I say they, you know what, let’s take them at their word. Let’s not let them on the plane. You want to let the Proud Boys on your plane? On Air Force One? No, I don’t think so. These guys are doing the same thing,” Zurawik concluded.