The Slatest

Today in Conservative Media: Trump’s Press Conference and Obama’s Farewell

President Barack Obama walks onstage to deliver his farewell speech at McCormick Place on Tuesday in Chicago.

Darren Hauck/Getty Images

A daily roundup of the biggest stories in right-wing media.

Conservative media was dominated by two stories on Wednesday: President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference, in which he addressed new stories about his alleged collaboration with Russia, and President Obama’s farewell speech.

Trump held his first press conference in six months on Wednesday. During the presser, his lawyer offered an explanation for how Trump would mitigate the conflicts of interest between his business holdings and his position atop the executive branch of U.S. government. But much of the press conference was dominated by questions about claims from a dossier—reported by BuzzFeed and CNN Tuesday night—that alleges Trump’s campaign coordinated with the Russian government because Russia had compromising information on the president-elect (all of which is unverified). During one exchange, CNN reporter Jim Acosta tried to ask Trump a question, which the president-elect refused to answer. Trump said, “Your organization is terrible. … Don’t be rude. … You are fake news.” Acosta replied that Trump’s conduct was inappropriate.

Conservative media sided with Trump. Breitbart’s home page called CNN the “Clinton News Network” in its headline, “Clinton News Network WH Reporter Melts Down, Screams at Trump.” The Daily Caller’s headlines read: “ ’Fake News’ CNN Reporter Tried to Ask Trump a Question—Trump Responded Like a Boss” and “The Media Is Outraged That Trump Refused to Call On CNN, but Where Was This When Obama Did The Same Thing to Fox News?

The sites also focused on the unverified nature of the claims in the dossier. The Daily Caller focused on how “Liberal Reporters Are CRUSHING BuzzFeed for Publishing Unconfirmed Trump Doc” and ran a separate piece on NBC News reporting, headlined,  “NBC News—of All Places—Derails the ‘Russia Compromised Trump’ Narrative.” Breitbart went with: “Trump Team Bashes CNN, Buzzfeed Over ‘Garbage’, ‘Fake News’” and “Mike Pence Blasts ‘Fake News,’ Media Seeks to ‘Deligitimize’ Incoming Administration.” National Review wondered if BuzzFeed’s piece was “the worst case of journalistic malpractice ever.”

Conservative media also dedicated significant coverage to deriding President Obama’s farewell speech on Tuesday night. On Fox News, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity questioned whether Obama’s show of emotion was “crocodile tears,” accused Obama of contributing to “racial division” in America, and called him the “most partisan person.” Ingraham slammed his legacy and said for all of his “strutting” he “destroyed the [Democratic] party.” National Review riffed on the closing line of Obama’s speech, “Yes we did,” with the headline “No, You Didn’t.” The post called Obama a “man who brought no new ideas or insights to the office, only a pointlessly grandiose sense of his own specialness.”

The Daily Caller published a post that counted how many times Obama referred to himself in his farewell address, writing: “Obama said ‘I’ 33 times during the speech, ‘my’ 20 times, ‘me’ 10 times, and ‘I’m’ or ‘I’ve’ 12 times.” The post goes on to note that “the president made a habit of focusing large chunks of his speeches on himself during his eight years in office.”