Several media outlets like ABC, CBS, and USA Today have recently terminated the live-stream broadcast of President Donald Trump and his administration.
On Nov. 5, President Trump was discussing allegations of election irregularities, when he was cut off by a variety of media anchors. Lester Holt from NBC told viewers that they had to “cutaway—because the president has made a number of false allegations.”
Most recently, on Nov. 9, FOX News cut off a press conference where Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany spoke about election integrity. She detailed allegations of irregularities happening in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
After cutting the briefing short, Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto said, “unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.”
We spoke to Frank Lee, the president of the Organization for Justice and Equality for his take on the matter. He said media agencies, in interrupting live streams, are acting like government-run media in a dictatorship.
“What they did was actually shameful and is censorship and affecting our democracy to a large extent.”
He further added, “the professional way to handle this is to just broadcast the press conference and ask questions at the end or to refute him afterward.”
Lee challenged the justification that networks could and should stop broadcast on the claim that the speakers lacked evidence. Referencing the pending lawsuits, he questioned if these anchors had read and understood all of the legal claims to be able to determine if there were truly was not enough evidence of irregularities and fraud.
He went on to say that the role of the media is to show the “reasons of both sides” and let the viewers judge and make their own decisions. Not to impose or dictate viewpoints to the public.
We also spoke to Orelan Kohele an author and President of non-profit the Eagle Forum’s California division. She said she was “outraged” at what she called the “disrespect” shown by reporters.
“What a shameful display that is to the rest of the world for what kind of reporters we have here in the United States. Incivility and disrespect do nothing but demeans the person from whence it is coming. So this is just a reflection on these reporters.”
Koehle added it’s not within the right of the media to pre-determine the validity of claims, and then control whether or not the public gets to see the information. She said the media as a whole has liberal leanings, “and they believe that anyone that does not go along with them obviously does not deserve to be heard.”
“The key principle is that we want to be able to live in a democracy without censorship and that’s why we got to really voice our strong opposition to this type of practice,” clarified Frank Lee.
