NewsNation host and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams accused Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi of publishing a “hit piece” on the new cable news network for which he is a prime time host.
Abrams said Farhi’s piece, which profiled NewsNation and its efforts to provide a moderate alternative to CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, provided an unfairly pessimistic view of those efforts and the network’s ratings. He also decried the Farhi piece for fixating on NewsNation’s hiring of Chris Cuomo, who often features Bill O’Reilly and other former TV news figures with controversial pasts.
Abrams, who gave Farhi an interview for the article, accused the media reporter of “sandbagging” him.
“He reached out claiming he had ‘no particular angle in mind at this point, just what is NewsNation and what’s it trying to do? How does it fit into the cable satellite news ecosystem?’” Abrams said. “I generally liked his work, so I agreed to do an interview and presumed he’d be doing a big-picture piece about the mission of this network and the results so far. And there’s no doubt that any fair piece would say that when it comes to ratings, ‘we still have a ways to go to catch up with Fox and MSNBC.’”
Instead, Abrams said Farhi’s article bashed NewsNation for hiring former CNN host Chris Cuomo and described its effort to attract moderate audiences to the network as a failure:
It was chock full of personal attacks and references to ‘disgraced this and that’ from someone who clearly doesn’t like Chris. But even with that in mind, if the focus is on the impact of hiring Chris Cuomo, then the ratings he cites, which became the focus of the piece, must also relate to the time since Chris Cuomo started here. Beginning of October, Right. But of course, that isn’t what happened. Regardless of what you think about Chris. The results speak for themselves, which is what makes the piece seem so clearly agenda driven.
Abrams accused Farhi of writing a “hit piece,” saying the Post reporter chose to focus on a negative outlook instead of NewsNation’s viewership gains on its cable news competitors.
That wasn’t the narrative that The Washington Post was seeking. Why? Well, part of it appears to be political, because rather than showing the different kinds of voices we have on this show or others, which every news rating agency has said is more balanced than any of the other cable news networks. Farhi spends a lot of time talking about appearances that conservative Bill O’Reilly made on Cuomo’s show and suggests that the network somehow defies its mission by presenting opinion, which we openly welcome and admit we do. In fact, I do it every day on this show, except, the only opinion he cites to make the point — in addition to O’Reilly — is one from former Fox News host Leland Vittert, asking a question that suggests left-leaning media bias. The Washington Post and Fieri clearly disapprove of O’Reilly and Vittert’s politics.
Abrams said he had invited Farhi on to discuss his article, “but he politely declined, saying his story spoke for itself.”
“It takes time to establish brand recognition and trust,” said Abrams. “But based on the direction we are going compared to the other three networks, it sure seems like any objective observer would say it appears to be working. The non-biased, non-agenda-driven headline might have said, ‘Chris Cuomo’s new cable news home woos moderates. They have a ways to go, but the wins sure seem to be going their way.’ But then again, I do have a bias here, so you can judge for yourself.”
Watch above via NewsNation.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
For more latest TV News Click Here