Veteran media observer Michael Wolff joined Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources” on CNN Sunday morning and went directly at the host and his weekly media criticism show, calling Stelter a “sort of quite a ridiculous figure” and saying his show is counterproductive and serves the narrow interests of the media. Wolff also found the time to compare the front page of the New York Times to 1938 Germany.
Wolff said the media’s fact-checking and calling out of Trumpworld’s lies just made journalists seem like they were overreacting — and an easier target for the president’s base.
“What we think is debunking Donald Trump turns out to be supporting Donald Trump,” Wolff said.
Later in the interview, Wolff called out Stelter in a January Newsweek article for being an out-of-touch media person with “personal grudges,” which Stelter read from later in the interview.
“Do you feel that my style is wrong, or my substance is wrong, trying to fact-check the president?” Stelter asked Wolff after.
“I mean this with truly no disrespect, but I think you can border on being sort of quite a ridiculous figure,” Wolff responded. “It’s not a good look to repeatedly and self-righteously defend your own self-interest. The media should not be the story. Every week in this religious sense you make it the story. We are not the story.”
After Wolff further criticized the media, saying, “The media does not need defending by the media,” he took aim at what he felt was a histrionic tone from the New Yorker and New York Times.
“The New York Times front page looks like it’s 1938 in Germany every day,” Wolff said.
Watch the full video above.