On Wednesday’s edition of The Five on Fox News, the panel had some harsh words for CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip for some of the things she said about conservatives during a recent interview with former MSNBC host Joy Reid.
As pointed out in this piece by Alex Christy, Phillip said “Conservatives are living in a completely different information world than liberals, and breaking that down needs to be done, because when you don’t ever even hear the facts, it’s hard to even know that you’re wrong.” She suggested conservative beliefs are based on conspiracy theories and that in order to prepare for her show, she needs to be up to date on what those conservative conspiracy theories are.
Jesse Watters got it rolling: “And this is why people don’t trust the media. CNN’s prime time host Abby Phillips strutting around like she is some kind of brave truth teller, schooling those conspiracy-believing conservatives. And she actually said it with a straight face to Joy Reid, of all people.” The ex-MSNBC conspiracy theorist.
Greg Gutfeld was first up after the clip, joking: “Abby Phillip talking to Joy Reid about truth is like talking to Brian Stelter about salad. It doesn’t match.”
He argued CNN is one of the tightest information bubbles around. “Did she study this sort of thing as they were happening? Like did she voice these concerns during the “fine people” hoax when CNN was covering that? Or the drinking bleach, or the koi pond, or collusion or laptop or “Biden is sharp.” Did she, was she ever addressing that during that time?. I think it is a bigger question than who is right or who is wrong. It’s that the mainstream media, there is no right or wrong. There’s just narratives, and they assign opinions to their anchors, who then believe they’re facts. And we are too smart for that. No one can do that, no one has ever told me what to think.”
Next up was Kennedy, who began by going after Joy Reid, and suggesting MSNBC was a tighter bubble than CNN. “And Joy Reid was so far left and so bat-poop crazy, they [MSNBC] poked a hole in the bubble and ejected her because she was nuts! So they are always operating under the assumption that if you repeat the same thing over and over and over again, it becomes your reality, and there’s a big difference between the power of suggestion and actual, objective facts. And Abby Phillip is unfortunately conflating and confusing the two.” Kennedy suggested that these networks insisted Trump could not be re-elected, and because they weren’t engaging with opposing views, they didn’t see defeat coming.
Not surprisingly, the liberal on the panel Harold Ford Jr., spoke in defense of Phillip, “I differ. I think what Abby Phillip did there was brilliant... I’ve said all along you can disagree with someone and not hate them, you can disagree with someone and when you do disagree you should learn, you should learn more about your position and the position of the person you are arguing with. She’s smart she’s thoughtful, and I applaud her for how she handled that interview.”
Ford is entitled to his opinion. I have referred to Philllip as “the soft-spoken, smiling, radical leftist.” She has lost much of that smile, and the voice does raise at times, almost exclusively when she goes after her “conspiracy-obsessed” conservative guests, especially CNN contributor Scott Jennings. In fact, it seems like she makes a point of badgering Jennings, talking over him and cutting him off repeatedly. A true “journalist.”
