Axios Co-Founders: Sam Nunberg Interviews Are Why ‘America Hates the Media’
Axios co-founders Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei think the news media made a mistake on Monday by covering Sam Nunberg‘s hours-long meltdown to the extent it did.
After Nunberg announced that he would defy a subpoena to testify before Robert Mueller‘s grand jury, he ended up speaking to multiple news outlets and making all sorts of explosive remarks about President Donald Trump and the Russia investigation.
While Nunberg is a newsworthy figure who was talking about newsworthy topics, Allen and VandeHei wrote in their Tuesday newsletter that all this “awful scandal porn” explains why the political press is so unpopular.
“This is one of the reasons America hates the media,” they wrote. “Our entire industry lit itself on fire because a troubled Trump hanger-on made an ass of himself — live.”
They wrote that Axios got in touch with someone who knows Nunberg, and was not impressed that the media was “knowingly taking advantage of an obviously fragile man.” They also cited a question CNN’s Brian Stelter asked in his own newsletter:
“Now an ethical debate is raging in journalism circles. If your source seems drunk or drugged or just plain out of his mind, what is your responsibility?”
During Nunberg’s interview with Erin Burnett, the CNN host asked him if he was drunk, saying she could smell booze on his breath. Nunberg denied being impaired, though other associates of his told reporters they feared he was drunk and going off the deep end.
As Fox’s John Roberts pointed out, it is worth noting that Axios ignited yesterday’s media frenzy to a certain extent by reporting on the contents of Nunberg’s subpoena.
It should be pointed out that @axios started this whole ball rolling by publishing the contents of Nunberg’s subpoena….. https://t.co/XUZo29exC3
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) March 6, 2018
[Image via screengrab]
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