The White House has lashed out at Erin Burnett after the CNN anchor used a segment of her primetime show to criticize Donald Trump’s new TV project.
Burnett, 50, said the 24-hours-a-day Trump TV—complete with reruns of supposed Trump highlights—is a “weird form of state TV,” and likened it to Kim Jong Un’s around-the-clock propaganda television station in North Korea.
“Right now, with everything going on, people want to rewatch his inauguration? It’s kind of reminiscent of what you would find in North Korea,” she said on Out Front on Tuesday. “That’s called KCTV, and it’s dedicated to airing pretty much every public appearance by their leader, whether it’s an amusement park or a military facility. And they repeatedly air Kim Jong Un’s remarks, again and again.”
“It sounds familiar,” she added.
When reached for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast that Burnett is “a racist and a r----d.”
A CNN spokesperson said in response: “Erin Burnett is an exceptional journalist who will continue to do what she has always done: ask tough questions, pursue the facts, and hold those in power accountable.”
Cheung, the 44-year-old son of Chinese immigrants, has publicly used the r-slur several times before, having directed it at members of Congress, a Senate staffer, and last month at the Daily Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles.
The White House launched the 24/7 streaming channel on Monday, days after the president banned reporters from CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House, spurring all television networks to halt their pool coverage of the president. Events shown on the channel so far include Trump’s Mt. Rushmore speech in early July, his second inauguration, and his banquet speech at the U.K.’s Windsor Castle last summer.
As Burnett spoke, scenes from some of the North Korean propaganda station’s broadcasts appeared on screen, showing the dictator touring a battleship, a skyscraper, and an amusement park.
Burnett noted that former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was outraged that networks would not simply give Trump, 80, wall-to-wall coverage and instead showed discretion while covering the president.
“I’ve gotten on the phone with the leadership of all those stations and said, ‘Why are you not taking the president’s remarks live?’” Leavitt told Fox News host Sean Hannity this week. “Like, just let your audience decide how they feel about this... For the president of the United States to address the nation, and for networks to make the editorial decision themselves that they will not cover it for their audience—that’s scary stuff.”
Trump’s repeated lies about issues like the 2020 election, however, have been a factor in why networks have occasionally denied the president airtime even when he requests it.
“The administration doesn’t get to decide what news organizations air,” Burnett said. “That’s not the way it’s ever worked, and it’s not a given that a Trump speech gets coverage... That sort of a situation would be state television.”
Burnett also drew attention to the meager audience Trump TV has pulled in since its launch. On Monday night, only a couple thousand viewers tuned in, with the total dipping under 1,000 early Tuesday.
“So after 24 hours, well, about 1,000 people are watching at last check,” Burnett said, before mentioning press coverage of the “ratings disaster.”
“And maybe there’s a reason for that: the actual content,” she said. “Trump TV has so far aired Trump’s inauguration, his new helipad dedication—which, by the way, because there was no pool, had no audio—his speech to the U.N.”
