Kim Strassel: Mainstream media no longer questions the powerful
Wall Street Editorial Board's Kim Strassel on FBI whistleblower testimonies and the abuse and retaliation they experienced
The Wall Street Editorial Board's Kim Strassel joined "America's Newsroom" Friday to react to how the media has handled whistleblower claims about the FBI and said the media is in "lockstep defending the FBI." Strassel was asked about the broadcast networks ignoring the explosive House hearing testimony on their nightly newscasts.
KIM STRASSEL: If you think about how far we have come in the media. I mean, what does the media exist for? It's supposed to be there to question government power. And among the agencies that have the most power in government are those of law enforcement. And yet we have a media that is now in lockstep defending the FBI, as it has essentially been doing ever since Trump took office and we first got this Russia collusion hoax that came out, and apparently, it's not done doing it. Look, these guys brought some very legitimate concerns. I thought it was really unfortunate that Democrats immediately tried to attack their legitimacy instead of listening to them and hearing them out. And one other thing that came out of this, too, though, is that we need to look at the guys at the top of the FBI. There's a tendency to say the entire FBI is rotten. What we do have, in fact, are a lot of agents, hardworking men, and women that are trying to do the right thing and what we're hearing again and again, and it's what we got out of the Durham report, is that it is Washington, D.C. executive headquarters.
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace (Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Image)
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace was among those to call into question the FBI whistleblowers who spoke at the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, saying they were "guilty of insubordination."
She complained about the recent hearing which sought to divulge alleged corruption within the FBI on her show "Deadline: White House" with former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman. While the agents who testified were referred to by Republican House members as "whistleblowers," Democrat members objected to the term.
Wallace echoed that criticism, pointing out that it was "not in dispute" that these FBI officials were "guilty" of insubordination.
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