Fox News’ John Roberts: The Press Should ‘Stop Whining’ and Just Do Their Jobs
Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts said at a journalism symposium today that reporters should just “stop whining” and do their jobs.
According to The Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple, Roberts — in discussing the press coverage of the Trump administration — talked about complaints that “we’re being excluded from this, or we’re not getting that or whatever.”
“The people who supported Donald Trump don’t give a damn what the White House press corps thinks,” he said. “They really don’t. So we need to get past that.”
Wemple pressed Roberts on what specifically he meant during the Q&A, and Roberts gave this response:
Just in terms of what I say is whining, it’s just a general kind of noise that maybe has diminished somewhat in the last couple of weeks. But it’s sort of this idea that we’re not being treated fairly, woe is us, we’re the White House press corps, we have a right to be doing what we’re doing, which we certainly do… You want to feel like you’re not liked? [Try] covering a war in Israel.
At one point, two of Roberts’ fellow panelists took issue with the characterization:
“It’s not whining to ask for an answer,” @AprilDRyan says at #Hurley2017 on White House reporter panel.
— Angela GreilingKeane (@agreilingkeane) March 9, 2017
“I would agree whining is bad, but there are First Amendment issues here,” @Sulliview says. #Hurley2017
— Molly Olmstead (@MollyOlmstead) March 9, 2017
CNN’s John King made similar remarks a few weeks ago about how if the White House makes reporters’ jobs harder, “we just need to work harder. We shouldn’t whine, we shouldn’t complain.”
[image via screengrab]
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