On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour,” anchor Brian Williams argued President Trump’s criticisms of the media were “Because when you reduce the media enough in prestige, they — when they do report facts, those facts are diminished.”

During a discussion on Trump’s press conference earlier in the day, USA Today Senior Politics Reporter Heidi Przybyla stated, “[T]he press provided basically the most essential task that the Founders intended for us to do, which was, we outed a public official, who was lying to the public, about the nature of his contacts about what many would define as a hostile foreign power. That is the most basic function of a free press in this — in our society, and the president’s response to that was to have a semi-meltdown, and to accuse us all of purveying fake news, when in fact, his own actions, which were to fire General Flynn, proved that that news was spot on. It was 100% accurate.”

Williams then added, “Because when you reduce the media enough in prestige, they — when they do report facts, those facts are diminished.”

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