Media Bias: Stephanie Ruhle says 'Obamagate' story was 'made up'

With the Neutral Zone Infraction, Just the News tries to do its part to maintain the line between fact and opinion in American journalism by blowing the whistle each week on an egregious example of slanted coverage by reporters. This week's offender: Stephanie Ruhle.

MSNBC anchor and NBC News Business Correspondent Stephanie Ruhle said that the "Obamagate" story was "completely made up" by President Trump and his supporters.

"This morning nearly 86,000 Americans have died from coronavirus. More than 36 million have lost their jobs in the last eight weeks," Ruhle said during her Friday morning program on MSNBC. "But the president and his allies are laser-focused on a different story, one they completely made up, something that they now are calling 'Obamagate' — it means nothing."

Ruhle then aired footage of President Trump discussing "Obamagate," and when asked to specify the crime, Trump responded, "You know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody."

Ruhle disagreed with the president: "No, we don't," Ruhle said. "The president has called it the greatest political crime in our country's history, but it's not."

Prior to showing a clip of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Ruhle said that the other cable channel "has gone all-in on this completely nonsense story."

"We learned a lot more about the corruption that spawned the Russia hoax that consumed three years of the country's time," Fox's Carlson says in the clip.

"No we didn't," Ruhle said after airing the clip.

Ruhle's comments appear to represent judgements and opinions that violate the key journalistic principle of neutrality.

Just the News reached out to MSNBC for comment but has not yet received a response.