Media
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 1.08.22

'Got Jack to Say': CNN Reporter's Attempt to Fact-Check Mary Katharine Ham Blows Up In His Face

'Got Jack to Say': CNN Reporter's Attempt to Fact-Check Mary Katharine Ham Blows Up In His Face

Media
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 1.08.22

Mary Katharine Ham is not simply one of CNN’s very few conservative commentators, she’s smart and she’s accurate, so it’s no wonder she made mincemeat of a network reporter after he tried ‘fact-checking’ her this week after she criticized the mainstream media for underreporting the 2017 attempted assassination of several GOP lawmakers.

Specifically, Ham’s criticism was based on the outsized attention that the same media outlets gave to the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, versus the attention paid to the June 2017 shooting.

The Blaze added:

In fact, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) highlighted the apparent disparity of attention given to the riots over the left-wing political activist who targeted Republican Congress members practicing for a charity baseball game in 2017. That shooting critically wounded Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was House Majority Whip at the time, and left three others injured by gunfire.

The perpetrator was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Last year, the FBI classified him as a domestic terrorist.

“An individual with a personalized violent ideology targeted and shot Republican members of Congress at a baseball field and wounded five people,” the report said, going on to categorize the shooter as a “domestic violent extremist.”

In response to New York Times columnist Maggie Haberman who sought to downplay the GOP governor’s remarks, Ham noted that she lives near the baseball field where the assassination attempt of the Republican lawmakers, who were practicing for the annual congressional softball game, took place. She said that in “under 48 hours, the news vans were gone.”

I was on TV, live from the baseball field where they played the game a day later, after almost being canceled by mass murder, but my topic was ‘Mike Pence reportedly hired a lawyer,'” Ham explained.

Ham noted further that her remarks were not intended in any way to downplay coverage of the Jan. 6 anniversary, but added that “Scalise’s return to Congress was very sparsely covered, and the anniversary [of his wounding] was barely mentioned.”

CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski tried fact-checking Ham.

“It looks you discussed the baseball game?” he wrote on Twitter, which included a screengrab of the conservative commentator.

The Blaze notes:

Ham quickly responded to her CNN colleague. She explained that the segment he posted was not the one she was referring to and highlighted a larger problem with Kaczynski’s attempted fact-check. Where was his criticism of Chris Cuomo and Jeffrey Toobin?

“Hi, Andrew. Yes, this is within 24-48 hrs that this was a story. This segment was based on the galactically stupid Sanford contention that it was *Trump’s rhetoric* that caused it, bc of course. Pointed out Nats Park hit bc it was overlooking the game & yet not focused on this,” Ham began.

“Do you need the rest of my itinerary from that day and the day after, which again, were basically the only days this was a national story, which was my point?” she added. “Got jack to say about Cuomo and Toobin, but gotta fact-check me when he’s got nothing.”

Regarding Cuomo and Toobin, Ham added, “One jacked off in front of female colleagues and one violated every conflict of interest rule in journalism, lied about it, and got fired, but I’m the issue bc I think the Congressional baseball shooting was covered too lightly and taxes are too high. Sure, dude.”

Poll

Join the Newsletter