Media top headlines July 9
The New York Times getting criticized for defending 'pornography literacy' for first graders, ex-CNN regular Michael Avenatti getting prison time for Nike extortion, and The Lincoln Project's co-founder saying the Capitol riot was worse than 9/11 round out today's top media headlines
A CBS News correspondent appeared to acknowledge on Friday the media's failure in its fawning coverage of disgraced anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti.
Avenatti, who became a media darling as the outspoken attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison Thursday for his attempt to extort $25 million from Nike and could face more jail time with other pending legal woes in California.
After running a report about Avenatti's prison sentence on Friday's "CBS This Morning," co-host Tony Dokoupil pointed out how the lawyer had "big financial problems."
"Maybe he needed some money and went about it getting it the wrong way," Dokoupil said.
"And maybe we went about covering him the wrong way," correspondent Jamie Wax responded.
"I wouldn't say ‘we,'" Dokoupil pushed back. "I wouldn't say ‘we.’"
"The press, collectively," Wax jokingly corrected himself.
"It's a big tent," Dokoupil added, to which Wax agreed.
Notably, Dokoupil's wife is MSNBC anchor Katy Tur, whose network embraced Avenatti's presence, welcoming him on-air over 100 times in a single year. NewsBusters reported "CBS This Morning" interviewed him six times from 2018 to 2019.
However, no media organization gave Avenatti a bigger platform than CNN, which invited him for interviews a whopping 122 times, according to the Media Research Center. The network’s in-house media critic Brian Stelter declared Avenatti was a legitimate threat to challenge then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
"Looking ahead to 2020, one of the reasons why I'm taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news," Stelter told Avenatti on-air.
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A 2019 Washington Free Beacon video showed numerous examples of mainstream and liberal media members drooling over Avenatti, calling him a "beast," the "savior of the republic," and "Donald Trump's worst nightmare."
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.