Trump meets TV executives, journos, calls them deceitful liars

November 22, 2016

Washington, Nov 22: US President-elect Donald Trump has lashed out at top electronic media executives and journalists, terming them "dishonest" and "deceitful liars" after he invited them for a private meeting of minds.

"Instead of striking a harmonious tone to build rapport following the election, Trump was combative," The Washington Post quoted participants as saying.

"In a calm and deliberate voice, he told the group sitting around a conference table that they had failed to provide their viewers with fair and accurate coverage, and told them they failed to understand him or his appeal to millions of Americans," The Washington Post reported.

According to the daily, 70-year-old Trump repeatedly used the words "unfair" and "dishonest" to describe the coverage during yesterday's meeting in New York with television journalists and executives.

Prominent among news anchors were ABC News anchors George Stephanopoulos and David Muir; CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett; ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz.

Among the network news executives were CNN Worldwide Chairman Jeff Zucker, NBC News President Deborah Turness, MSNBC President Phil Griffin, ABC News President James Goldston, and the four top executives from Fox News, Bill Shine, Jack Abernethy, Jay Wallace and Suzanne Scott.

Trump is scheduled to meet 'The New York Times' reporters and executives today.

"It was like a f---ing firing squad," The New York Post reported based on information obtained from those inside the meeting.

"Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said 'I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed', " the report said quoting a source.

"The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down," the source added.

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 Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was [a] network of liars," the report said.

Kellyanne Conway, chairman of the Trump Campaign, however, disputed such reports.

"No, that's not true at all. I sat right to his left. He did not explode in anger. By the way, it's an off-the-record meeting so whoever said that and mischaracterised it should think twice," she said on Bloomberg Poetics.

Conway along with the incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus were present in the meeting along with the Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon.

"There was no need to mend fences. It was very cordial, very genial. But it was very candid and very honest. From my own perspective, it's great to hit the reset button," Conway said.

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Cut all ties with Israel and impose arms, trade embargo; history will record our action: Iran to Muslim countries

News Network

May 5,2024

Iran has urged Muslim countries to cut all relations with the Israeli regime as means of pressuring Tel Aviv to end its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Saturday, addressing the 15th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Gambia’s capital Banjul.

“Beyond doubt, this time period will also pass by, despite all its hardships and adversities for the Palestinian nation,” he said.

“However, the manner and quality of the role that is played by us, Muslim states, in the face of this crisis will go down in history,” the top diplomat added.

“Undoubtedly, severance of diplomatic and economic ties and [imposition of] practical arms and trade embargo [on Israel] serves as an important means of cessation of its genocide in Gaza and atrocities in the West Bank and the Noble al-Quds.”

At least 34,654 people have died in Gaza since October 7, when the Israeli regime began the war in response to al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

Despite the unabated campaign of bloodshed and destruction, the regime has so far fallen short of realizing its goals, including defeating Gaza’s resistance, causing forced displacement of the territory’s entire population to neighboring Egypt, and enabling the release of those who were taken captive during al-Aqsa Storm.

Amir-Abdollahian said Gaza’s developments proved that elimination of the Palestinian resistance “was nothing but an illusion.”

“Because the Israeli regime is not a legitimate government. It is only an occupying apartheid power,” he said, adding, “Passage of time is not going to lend legitimacy to an occupying power.”

The foreign minister asserted that realization of sustainable peace and security in the region was only possible through cessation of the regime’s occupation of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland, and manifestation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

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