Pass the smelling salts: Chris Rock says Trump got one big thing right

BS BULLETIN:

Chris Rock says he is no fan of President Donald Trump, but credits him with getting one major issue right: “The news is fake.”
Rock made the comment in a new Variety interview while promoting Misty Green, the first movie he has directed since 2014’s Top Five.
The comedian went considerably further than simply agreeing with Trump’s criticism of the media, joking that getting that one thing right “almost clears him of all their other sins.”

Chris Rock has never been mistaken for a Donald Trump cheerleader.

But the comedian says there’s one subject on which Trump deserves some credit: the news media.

Rock made the unexpected concession during a wide-ranging interview with Variety published this week as he prepares to debut his new film, Misty Green.

“I’m not a fan,” Rock said of Trump.

Then came the surprise. Rock said it is strange when someone gets one thing right and that one thing “almost clears” the rest of his sins. “The news is fake. He got that right,” Rock said.

Rock’s comment came after Variety noted that he was among the relatively small number of Hollywood celebrities who publicly predicted Trump would win the 2016 presidential election.

It was hardly a wholesale embrace of Trump. Rock explicitly said he isn’t a fan and framed the comment as an acknowledgment of a single point on which he believes the president was correct.

But it’s still a striking assessment coming from one of America’s most recognizable comedians — particularly at a time when distrust of traditional news organizations has become an enduring part of the country’s political and cultural debate.

Rock, 61, was speaking to Variety primarily about Misty Green, his upcoming film starring Rosalind Eleazar. The movie marks his return to directing more than a decade after Top Five.

The interview ranged far beyond politics, including Rock’s thoughts on Hollywood, Los Angeles, his career and the infamous 2022 Oscars slap involving Will Smith.

But one sentence is likely to travel considerably farther than the rest: “The news is fake. He got that right.”