(NewsNation) — CNN’s handling of a recent interview with former President Donald Trump‘s spokesperson is evidence that journalism is vanishing right before us, Bill O’Reilly told NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert.”
The network booted the campaign’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, from its show after she refused to adhere to topics laid out by host Kasie Hunt. Instead, Leavitt repeatedly claimed Trump would face a “hostile environment on (CNN)” during Thursday’s presidential debate.
“She should have allowed that interview to go off because it was good television, all right,” commentator and journalist O’Reilly said. “So, just for audience and buzz, you let it go on.”
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Leavitt also accused the moderators, CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, of spreading biased coverage of the former president.
“Ms. Hunt made a huge mistake by aborting the interview,” he said. “She should have let it go and said, as [Vittert] and I pointed out, ‘Why did he agree [to the debate]?’ Then, Ms. Leavitt would have to answer.”
O’Reilly shared that, as the interviewee, Leavitt had every right to ask Hunt about her colleagues’ previous coverage. Cutting the interview short, he believes, undermines political journalism’s purpose.
“Journalism in America has deteriorated to a point now where you don’t get those kinds of people on the air very often who are actually thinking people,” he said. “And the political process is the same.”
