While accepting the Fred Dressler Leadership Award from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications on Monday, legendary broadcaster Bob Costas took aim at the mainstream media, saying news outlets are guilty of "bothsidesing" President Donald Trump despite the very real threat he poses to the country's democratic order.
Specifically calling out coverage of Trump by ABC, CBS, and CNN, Costas noted that both "the free press" and "democracy" are "under attack."
He said ABC should not have caved to Trump in settling a $15 million lawsuit after Trump criticized the outlet over comments made by ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos, who said Trump had been found "liable for rape" when he was actually found liable for sexual assault against writer E. Jean Carroll.
He elaborated:
All they should’ve said was, ‘George misspoke. The president, that paragon of virtue, was only found guilty of sexual assault, not rape. So we stand corrected.' They didn’t have to pay a $15 million ransom.”
Costas also criticized Paramount—controlled by Shari Redstone—for attempting to settle another Trump lawsuit only for Trump to turn down the company's $15 million offer. Paramount is currently seeking a merger with Skydance Media, a deal that would require approval from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission.
He said:
“And did Shari Redstone, because she wants to affect a merger that Trump’s FCC can stand in the way of, did she have to besmirch and undercut the gold standard in our lifetime of broadcast journalism, 60 Minutes?”
"Paying $20 million in ransom to Trump is just the cost of doing business when there’s billions of dollars at stake. These are ongoing assaults on the basic idea of a free press.”
He added, criticizing bothsidesism in addition to Trump's actions:
"What also has happened here is that, because he is the president, to a certain extent, who he is and what he does, and what is done in his name, has been normalized so that responsible journalists have to pretend that there’s always two sides to this. There really isn’t two sides to much of what Donald Trump represents."
"If someone says – and the idea that you have to find somebody who will not just defend Donald Trump, but valorize it, even on CNN or wherever else, just in the name of being balanced– look, if someone is contending that the Earth is flat, in order to appear objective, you are not required to say, “Well, maybe it might be oblong.” No, it’s not."
"Certain things are just true. And regrettably, something that’s true in America right now is that the President of the United States has absolutely no regard, and in fact has contempt, for basic American principles and basic common decency."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Many applauded Costas' remarks and shared their own criticisms.
It was not lost on Costas that some fans would lash out at him since “he turned political."
To that, he said:
"If that’s what you think, and that’s how you think, and you think it in defense of that guy, I wear that as a badge of honor.”
Bravo, sir.
@LauraLoomer/X
