John Kelly singles out Fox News: ‘You’re not an informed citizen’ if that’s all you watch

(U.S. Department of Energy Flickr + U.S. Customs and Border Protection Flickr)

During a speaking event Wednesday, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly defended the demonstrably left-wing establishment media while simultaneously attacking President Donald Trump and Fox News.

The remarks were reportedly made during a speech and follow-up Q&A session at Drew University in Morristown, New Jersey, according to The Atlantic.

“The media, in my view, and I feel very strongly about this, is not the enemy of the people. We need a free media,” he said in rebuttal of the president’s oft-maintained refrain that the media often act as enemies of the people.

He added, “That said, you have to be careful about what you are watching and reading, because the media has taken sides. So if you only watch Fox News because it’s reinforcing what you believe, you are not an informed citizen.”

The remarks earned him some praise from the left-wing Twitterati, who interpreted him as having said that only watching Fox News makes you an idiot:

He was right in the sense that it’s imperative that everyone obtain a mixed diet of news from conservative, liberal and libertarian sources. This allows everyone to better understand all sides of an issue and thus more easily reach an educated conclusion of his or her own.

What was odd was how Kelly purposefully singled out Fox News, when the facts — as any genuinely informed citizen should already know — show that it’s consumers of left-wing media who tend to boast far less diverse news consumption habits.

A study conducted last year by a team of New York University researchers found that that conservatives on the social media platform Twitter tend to be “more likely to follow media and political accounts classified as left-leaning than the reverse.”

Similar studies have uncovered similar results:

Following the election of Trump to office in 2017, numbers expert Nate Silver openly admitted, “There really was a liberal media bubble.”

Because of the preponderance of liberal Democrats, the establishment media became victim to groupthink, thus creating an echo chamber so deep that the president’s unexpected victory spurred an earthquake of shock and tears among the left.

For months, members of the left had been hearing from the left-wing establishment media that Trump stood no chance of winning. Had they been listening to conservative outlets as well, they would have realized beforehand that this presumption was wrong.

The same thing happened with the Russian collusion delusion hoax and conspiracy theory, as well as the impeachment drive, which many liberal Democrats genuinely believed would somehow lead to Trump’s removal from office.

But for reasons that remain unclear, Kelly chose to direct his remarks at Fox News and its seemingly better-informed viewers …

It’s also unclear why Kelly also reportedly defended disgraced former U.S. National Security Council member Alexander Vindman by stating it was correct for him to make a fuss about the phone call last year in which the president had asked Ukrianian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into credible allegations of corruption surrounding former Vice President Joe Biden.

Besides describing the request as an “illegal order,” Kelly also added, “We teach them, ‘Don’t follow an illegal order. And if you’re ever given one, you’ll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss.'”

The request was not in fact illegal …

The former chief of staff, who was booted from office in early 2019, also misportrayed the remarks Trump had made years ago in which he’d warned that rapists, drug dealers and murderers were among the illegal aliens who were exploiting then-President Barack Hussein Obama’s lax border security.

“In fact, they’re overwhelmingly good people,” Kelly said. “They’re not all rapists and they’re not all murderers. And it’s wrong to characterize them that way. I disagreed with the president a number of times.”

But the president never said they’re “all” rapists and murderers …

After word of Kelly’s remarks emerged Thursday morning, the president responded by accusing him of having been “way over his head.”

Look:

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles