This is how much journalists don’t agree with President Donald Trump’s claims that the media “doesn’t want to report” terrorist attacks: Even Fox News is joining the chorus of voices slamming the White House for spouting blatant falsehoods onEven Fox’s Shep Smith Rejects Trump’s Terror Reporting Take: ‘Assertion Is False’ (Video) the matter.
Fox News’ Shep Smith blasted Trump and his administration on Tuesday, saying, “The president’s assertion is false.” He added: “The White House knows that it was false or could have learned that it was false with a quick Google check, but either did not do so or decided not to tell the truth.”
The host ran down the list of recent terror attacks the White House says went underreported — including the truck rampage in Nice, France; the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida; the 2015 attack in Paris; the Brussels airport bombing — and pointed out how Fox News covered all of them extensively.
The president made the claim in a speech on Monday at United States Central Command. The assertion was later backed by Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and The White House issued a list of 78 terrorist attacks it says were not covered by the media.
“You have seen what happened in Paris and Nice. All over Europe it’s happening,” Trump said. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it.”
Among the many journalists who were quick to rebuke Trump’s claim were CNN’s Brian Stelter, conservative radio host Joe Walsh and “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley.
“Today President Trump told a U.S. military audience that there have been terrorist attacks that no one knows about because the media choose not to report them. It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality,” Pelley said on CBS on Monday night.
Watch Fox’s Smith in the video above.