During an at times contentious exchange today on CNN’s Reliable Sources, The Hollywood Reporter columnist Michael Wolff criticized host Brian Stelter over the style and approach Stelter has taken of late on his program.

Wolff came on to essentially make the case that the media as a whole has been overreacting to the presidency of Donald Trump and what it means to journalism as a whole. After Stelter explained that the editor of the New Yorker told him that this is “an emergency” and that “journalists have to act differently,” Wolff dismissed it as the editor just being “personally offended and upset.”

While Wolff did admit that he is “sucking up a bit” in order to get access to the White House, he said he didn’t necessarily know if he was going easy on the White House to gain that access. He further noted that this is something they’ve done with every administration. This then turned into a conversation about whether the media was at war with Trump.

The discussion eventually switched to Wolff’s take on the CNN senior media correspondent’s coverage of the media under Trump. The writer’s criticism of Stelter in a recent Newsweek piece was also brought up. When asked by Stelter what he he thought was wrong with his style or substance, Wolff gave the following response:

I mean this with truly no disrespect, but I think you can border on being sort of quite a ridiculous figure. It’s not a good look to repeatedly and self-righteously defend your own self-interest. The media should not be the story. Every week in this religious sense you make it the story. We are not the story.

When Stelter hit back, asking why there wasn’t room for one hour a week on CNN for this, Wolff responded by saying he loved the show but he wished Stelter “wouldn’t turn to the camera and lecture America about the virtues of the media and every one trying to attack it.”

Wolff would go on and say the front page of the New York Times now looks like 1938 Germany every single day, with Stelter pushing back against that characterization.

“No it does not,” he exclaimed. “Give me a break.

Watch the exchange above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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