'It's a version of working the refs that we saw in 2015 and 2016,' Stelter tells ABC News, 'but it's more disturbing now because he is the president and he's using his presidential platform in order to bully news outlets.'
"He doesn't want the news. He only wants the pro-Trump opinion. He only wants the propaganda on the air," Stelter told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein."And when he sees news on the air, when he sees Democrats speaking, when he sees news anchors reporting on some inconvenient scandal, he does lash out."
Stelter’s book is an account of the president’s relationship with the media, mainly with Fox News, and how it has played into his time in the White House.President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a campaign rally in Winston Salem, N.C., Sept. 8, 2020 "Well I think I'm of the view that Fox has a monopoly position... I think Fox has tremendous power from that point of view, but there's also the sense of fearing their audience," Stelter said. "I had a longtime commentator there say to me, 'The audience has been radicalized,' and a veteran staffer say, 'I feel like Fox has been held hostage by its audience.' And that is exactly the wrong attitude, the wrong approach to have.
"I think he's reacting more to what he hears on Fox, sees on Fox, that then drives his Twitter feed, drives his day. It sometimes drives the rest of us in the media to react to what he has heard on the news and the country suffers as a result, because we end up getting distracted," Stelter said.
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