Apparently if you just look CNN’s Brian Stelter in the eye and lie, it’s no big deal.
At least that appears to be the operating theory of Media Matters honcho Angelo Carusone. Appearing on Stelter’s Reliable Sources Sunday morning Carusone said this about his drive to terrorize Sean Hannity sponsors, as reported in Mediaite.
“When Stelter asked if he thinks it’s appropriate to ‘take away’ any commentator’s advertisers, Carusone actually said he doesn’t, but explained, ‘At some point, you are forced to do it’”
Put aside the fact that Hannity is #1 in the cable war ratings and CNN would love to take him down. What is striking is Carusone’s implication that he is only doing it in this unusual case because, well, just this time “you are forced to do it”.
This is a bold faced lie.
In 2010, reported right here in the left-wing rag Raw Story was this:
Exclusive: Law student puts price tag on Glenn Beck’s words
The law student in question was, yes, the self-same Angelo Carusone. And his target of the moment was Glenn Beck. But the story says this as well:
“One idea that is not on the table is giving up the StopBeck campaign. On the contrary, Carusone is mounting similar campaigns targeting Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and CNN. Carusone only started with Glenn Beck, he says, because “he made himself an easy target.”
Note that this story ran in Raw Story in 2010 – seven years ago! And there, on the record, is Angelo confessing that he is, in the writer’s description, “mounting similar campaigns targeting Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity,Rush Limbaugh and CNN.”
And what did Carusone look Brian Stelter in the eye and say? Mediaite said it this way:
“When Stelter asked if he thinks it’s appropriate to ‘take away’ any commentator’s advertisers, Carusone actually said he doesn’t, but explained, ‘At some point, you are forced to do it.’”
“At some point”? Angelo saw a point in doing this seven years ago. Let’s see. In 2010 Hillary was Secretary of State. Her e-mail scandal and her Uranium One scandal were totally unknown to Hannity or anyone else in the media. Roy Moore was an Alabama politician unknown beyond Alabama. And Donald Trump was a real estate guy and TV host in Manhattan. None of which were Hannity topics.
Yet in fact there was Angelo Carusone plotting to target Sean Hannity. Not at “some point” but right then in 2010.
Which is to say that Sunday morning Angelo Carusone sat down on the set of CNN, looked Brian Stelter and the CNN audience straight in the eye and brazenly lied. And almost as bad? He was never called on it.
Wow.