Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon ripped CNN on Thursday at the same event where the network’s president, Jeff Zucker, called cable news rival Fox News “a complete propaganda machine.”
Hours after Zucker took the stage at the Financial Times “Future of News” conference in New York, Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, turned Zucker’s insult around and called CNN for a “propaganda outfit” and scolded Zucker for his comments.
“Did anybody at CNN, did any editor, any newsperson, any anchor, anybody get fired for the awful mess they made of the 2016 campaign, which was a disgrace to journalism? No,” Bannon said. “That is a propaganda outfit. Every night it’s ‘Hate Trump.'”
Steven Bannon hitting back against Jeff Zucker’s remarks earlier today when he called @FoxNews a propaganda network. #FTFutureNews pic.twitter.com/DEF6G9JEsE
— Elizabeth Mendez (@izziemae) March 22, 2018
Bannon said it was “totally absurd” for Zucker to dole out the “propaganda network” blame and blamed the “opposition media” for cheering Zucker on rather than to hold him accountable.
During his remarks earlier in the day, Zucker did acknowledge that Fox News had some good reporters, but opined that their work is overshadowed and equated Fox News to a state-run agency in Russia.
“There are a handful of good journalists there, but I think they are lost in what is a complete propaganda machine,” Zucker said.
