CNN and FOX (FOXA) News battle every night on air, but now they’re also fighting in writing.
Fox media reporter Brian Flood published a story this afternoon which resurfaced old tweets from CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy in which he was critical of the network.
Before coming to CNN, Darcy worked at Business Insider and TheBlaze. The Fox article claims that while he was at those outlets, he tweeted that CNN personalities frequently made things up on air.
A number of conservative media personalities, from outlets like The Daily Wire and NewsBusters, began re-sharing Darcy’s “hypocritical” tweets overnight.
Life comes at you fast. https://t.co/jbfwWCc05k
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 6, 2018
The 2014 Darcy is gonna be super pissed when he meets the 2018 version of himself and sees who he works for https://t.co/Nc6JbzAivp
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 6, 2018
Ouch, @DonLemon. https://t.co/hlgcU3eQI1 pic.twitter.com/JOKL1PTRwY
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/JamesHasson20/status/1015095181455036421
The biggest “gotcha” for these conservative personalities was a 2016 tweet in which Darcy said CNN “invented things.”
“At what point does CNN not let people just make stuff up on the airwaves?” he asked.
But Darcy defended himself this afternoon, pointing out that he was referring only to pro-Trump commentators like Kayleigh McEnany.
And who are those "people" I was referring to? Maybe try reading the entire thread, instead of conveniently removing this one tweet from all context. I was referring to pro-Trump commentators. Please make that clear in your story. pic.twitter.com/GgF5hJzLWE
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 6, 2018
Other reporters both inside and outside CNN leaped to Darcy’s defense and pointed out that it was healthy for reporters to constructively criticize their employers.
https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1015286306144968706
Disagreement is usually considered healthy at most news outlets, unless it’s all top-down, adhering to claims that might not be true and increasingly in service of one person. https://t.co/98ckqA2Nhg
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 6, 2018
If your publication considers it a scandal for employees to have ever been critical of it, you're telling on yourself https://t.co/sQIS7KtXr0
— julia reinstein 🚡 (@juliareinstein) July 6, 2018
CNN also defended Darcy in a statement to Fox.
“Oliver was critical of CNN before, just as he is now,” the network said. “CNN is a place where opinions and ideas are valued. And we encourage staff to share their thoughts about the organization—both positive and critical. While this might seem like an exotic concept to you, we’d headline it ‘Media Reporter Does Job.’ This is a nothing story.”
CNN declined to comment further for Observer.
