President Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, former Fox moderator Heather Nauert, is under fire in a CNN report for “once” hosting a panel of “anti-Muslim” experts — the very same experts CNN has featured over the past decade.
According to the CNN report, Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, hosted a panel on Fox 10 years ago that discussed “unfounded conspiracy theories that Islamic fundamentalists are secretly trying to destroy America by changing the country’s institutions and culture and imposing Sharia law.”
Among those interviewed, said the report, were “anti-Muslim activists Frank Gaffney and Robert Spencer, as well as Canadian journalist Tarek Fatah, who is a prominent Muslim critic of aspects of Islam.”
The story suggested that Nauert’s role in the 2009 Fox webcast “Terror from Within” could complicate her confirmation hearings.
However, those same experts have been used many times by many news outlets for years.
And CNN is one of the outlets that has relied on them repeatedly, according to a search which showed they have appeared in news stories and on the shows of Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer.
Gaffney, for example, has appeared in at least four CNN reports since 2010. Spencer has been in at least two and Fatah four in 2006-2007.
The CNN report lead the State Department to charge that Nauert is being held to a CNN double standard.
In a statement to CNN and distributed by White House allies late Monday, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said, “TV anchors host debates with guests who hold different, and at times, controversial opinions. That does not mean the moderator agrees with the views expressed. Incidentally, the very same guests she interviewed have appeared on CNN multiple times. Furthermore, Heather repeatedly made clear that she was not maligning any faith; her segment examined taxpayer dollars that went to both churches and mosques.”
