Hume criticizes 'inappropriate' behavior by reporters who helped Harris shop

Published February 20, 2019

Brit Hume: Fairness in news coverage isn't a policy, it's a skill

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume criticized a group of reporters who encouraged Sen. Kamala Harris to try on clothes during a campaign stop last week inside a South Carolina boutique.

“It is totally and obviously outwardly inappropriate for members of the media to come across and start recommending what the candidates should wear,” Hume told Tucker Carlson during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News' “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“Wait a second, wait, hold on. You were ABC News’s White House correspondent for 8 years. You never bought clothing for Ronald Reagan?” Carlson jokingly replied.

"I didn’t because I was covering (George H.W.) Bush and later (Bill) Clinton, and I never recommended clothing to either one of them," Hume said. "This kind of chummy, let's go shopping stuff is obviously something inappropriate."

Hume called the reporters behavior "embarrassing" in a tweet following the encounter.

"So now journalists are going shopping with Harris, helping pick out clothes and then putting out glowing tweets about it," he wrote.

The reporters - CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston; NBC News political reporter Ali Vitali and CBS News political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns – joked about the incident on social media but have received criticism from some within the news industry for crossing an ethical line.

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Journalists typically interact with candidates while on the campaign trail, but recommending outfits can be considered a breach of journalistic integrity.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/brit-hume-criticizes-outwardly-inappropriate-behavior-by-reporters-who-helped-sen-kamala-harris-pick-out-clothing-on-campaign-trail