Matt Schlapp Gets Skewered on Twitter For Bogus Comparison of Trump-Obama Media Outrage

Ken MeyerAug 3rd, 2018, 10:55 am

Media Twitter is raking Matt Schlapp across the coals after the American Conservative Union chief invoked Barack Obama to dismiss the indignation over President Donald Trump‘s attacks on the press.

Trump’s attacks on the press as the “enemy of the people” have been top of the news this week, especially after his daughter Ivanka Trump broke from him and said she did not agree with the label. That boiled into yesterday’s White House press briefing with a contentious battle between CNN’s Jim Acosta and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on the matter.

In light of the uproar, Schlapp got on Twitter for some first class whataboutism, asking why there was supposedly no outrage when the Obama-era State Department was monitoring former Fox News reporter James Rosen.

Dear WH press corps where was the outrage when Obama had James Rosen monitored? Or when he said leading cable news station not real news?

— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) August 3, 2018

Journalists and media figures of all stripes reminded Schlapp that there was plenty of condemnation for Obama at the time, and they also dragged him for implying a false equivalency between Trump and his predecessor in terms of who generated the most hostility towards the media:

When you have the memory of a goldfish https://t.co/8CDCIeC0Zy

— Quinta Jurecic (@qjurecic) August 3, 2018

This is a taste of what the coverage was like: https://t.co/rgAbpCCyuS

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) August 3, 2018

Was in the WH press corps during this and there was tremendous outrage https://t.co/QYHYteXqBr

— Sam Stein (@samstein) August 3, 2018

Everybody — along with the Obama administration’s surveillance of the AP — https://t.co/Fxaki5dRs8

— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) August 3, 2018

1. https://t.co/x7oZFH1IKB
2. https://t.co/oTFuyc9Auv

Any other questions?

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 3, 2018

There was widespread outrage among the press. The Obama administration never attempted to delegitimize the entire media and call them enemies of the country. https://t.co/UtLsC7Oljn

— andrew kaczynski? (@KFILE) August 3, 2018

Again, though, this wasn’t the the point addressed in the piece. The specific incidents she pointed to were exaggerated and misconstrued. If it’s a real problem, why not cite actual incidents? Why the need to embellish? https://t.co/v4vwtLYbJl

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) August 3, 2018

You’re kidding, right? The WH press corps absolutely pummeled the administration over Rosen. Was the lead story for days until DOJ backed down and changed the rules for media subpoenas.

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) August 3, 2018

If you don’t remember the WHCA and basically all major US media outlets vocally objecting to to the Obama admin’s seizure of Rosen’s phone records and freezing out of Fox, you just weren’t paying attentionhttps://t.co/T5auFqhQM5 https://t.co/xtV2xPcEqE https://t.co/X0i2FehF8Z

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) August 3, 2018

Easily answered on Rosen: “Journalists, First Amendment watchdogs and government transparency advocates reacted with outrage Monday to the revelation that the Justice Department had investigated the newsgathering activities of a Fox News reporter.” Washington Post, 5/20/13 https://t.co/70wCcRliRU

— Tim O’Brien (@TimOBrien) August 3, 2018