Says they like to project his administration in turmoil

The President continued his attacks on the media Thursday during a briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic, calling CNN fake news, referring, as he often does, to MSNBC as MSDNC, and saying exiting NBC News president Andy Lack was "a hack."

He was asked by a reporter how Fox News had affected his thinking about the pandemic. The President said he watched Fox but that it had not affected him more than any other outlet, though they were "more honorable than some." He suggested that he didn't think much of most of those others.

Trump said NBC was "dishonest news," which was why they "fired Andy Lack."

NBC announced last week that Lack was exiting as part of a management restructuring.

Trump said he was only guessing about Lack's firing, and said the reporter would have to ask them, but then the President continued in the same vein. "Andy Lack was a hack and they fired him and they did a big favor to the world and this country," he said.

He pointed out that NBC was a division of Comcast, which he called, again as he has in the past, "Concast, with an 'n.'"

The President said CBS was having a hard time and "not getting it straight" with a "false report" where "they actually got people to make it look like there's turmoil."

The President actually had something nice to say about one outlet, ABC. Anchor David Muir had interviewed the President May 5. "I thought he gave me a very fair interview," the President said. He called Muir a "very good professional. I've had very good relationships with him, as you know," he said.

But his final pronouncement was that the news media "is a mess."