CNN’s Keilar Ridicules Tucker Carlson’s Criticism of ‘Partisan Junk Food’ With Brutal Montage: ‘That’s All His Show Is!’

CNN’s Brianna Keilar mocked Tucker Carlson’s news coverage with a video montage on Friday, as part of a lengthy segment that also took aim at Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch’s comments dismissing a post-election ratings decline at Fox News.

“Fox, facing a ratings slump after its de facto executive producer lost the presidential election, is leaning more heavily into its buffet of cultural war cuisine,” Keilar said on CNN Friday. “I know it’s about as predictable as singing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun really badly on karaoke night, and it’s predictably hypocritical to boot.”

At a conference on Thursday, Lachlan Murdoch said he wasn’t worried about the ratings of Fox News. He noted how MSNBC surged under President Donald Trump, and said Fox would play the same role of “loyal opposition” under Biden. That comment came the same day Jason Kilar, the CEO of CNN parent company WarnerMedia, made a similar remark about his own network. He said the coronavirus pandemic was “really good for ratings” — a comment he subsequently apologized for.

Keilar played a June 2020 clip of Fox News prime time host Tucker Carlson bashing reporters for feeding their viewers “partisan junk food designed to make them feel full even as they waste away.”

The Fox News host even went so far as to apologize to his viewers for “the extent” his own show participated in that form of reporting.

“To the extent his show has participated in it? That’s all that his show is, and his apology for any role in serving up partisan junk food was followed up with more partisan junk food,” Keilar said.

The CNN anchor played several clips of Carlson segments that followed his apology, which included the host lamenting the “canceling” of the Fourth of July, bashing the liberal “rage mob,” claiming Dr. Jill Biden is not a doctor.

“We’re pretty sure the pronoun thing will appeal to whatever tiny group of deluded unhappy people still believe that destroying nature’s gender roles is a form of liberation,” Carlson said in another clip, in a shot at the transgender community. “Talk about a war on nature.” Carlson additionally vowed, in the clips aired by Keilar, that he would exclusively refer to Vice President Kamala Harris as “the ex-girlfriend of Montel Williams.”

Holding back laughter following the Carlson montage, Keilar noted that in January, Fox News saw their worst comparative ratings in two decades, adding, “and now it’s going even further off the anti-truth rails in an effort to remedy that. Fox is going full Tucker.”

Fox News faced a steep decline in its ratings after the 2020 election. The network has recovered some of its viewership since, and placed first in prime time for the month of February.

Keilar went on to bash Carlson’s form of journalism, noting that he recently fended off a defamation case filed against him by arguing that his show offers “nonliteral commentary.”

Keilar later invited Stelter to discuss Murdoch’s statement on how Fox News plans to cover Biden. Stelter noted that the network spent years claiming they’re “fair and balanced,” but now openly cops to being the “loyal opposition” to a Democratic administration.

“By the way, who is Lachlan Murdoch’s closest friend or associate at Fox? It’s Tucker Carlson,” he added. “The channel is increasingly the Tucker Carlson Channel, and that tells you everything you need to know about the Fox News playbook right now.”

“Increasingly, Fox is moving into what the prime time has made them into. Murdoch admitted that the Fox audience, Brian, is disappointed in the election results,” Keilar said, and asked “How much does that factor into this strategy moving forward and the Fox lineup?”

Stelter called that “the big story,” noting that Fox News viewers do not want to hear negative stories about Republicans.

“This is all about business, all about profit. I think when people want to understand how this propaganda machine works, and when it doesn’t work, it’s about Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and how much money they can make from all of this,” Stelter said.

Watch above, via CNN.