Early Monday afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump reportedly met with top executives and anchors from the top five television news networks for an off-the-record discussion. Though there was plenty of speculation beforehand, the reason for the meeting was unknown.
After the meeting wrapped up, sources told the New York Post that the conversation was basically a group excoriation to members of the media for their coverage of Trump's campaign.
"It was like a f-----g firing squad," said one source.
The source added, "Trump started with [CNN President] Jeff Zucker and said ‘I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed.'"
Another source gave the same recap to The Post, explaining that the meeting was held in a large board room with around 3o to 40 people, including popular news anchors from all the top networks.
"Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong.’ He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was [a] network of liars," the source confirmed.
Trump also mentioned NBC reporter Katy Tur, who he has recently been at odds with after calling her out by name at a campaign rally for being dishonest and unfair.
He did not mention her by name, but the source added, "Trump didn’t say Katy Tur by name, but talked about an NBC female correspondent who got it wrong, then he referred to a horrible network correspondent who cried when Hillary lost who hosted a debate – which was Martha Raddatz who was also in the room."
It is unknown how this will affect coverage or access to the Trump administration, but certainly troublesome to those who worry that Trump may overstep his bounds when it comes to constitutional First Amendment rights.
