Ben Carson renews attacks on media scrutiny Story highlights …..Ben Carson said media scrutiny of his history is helping his presidential campaign …..Carson lashed out at news organizations that have investigated his youth
Ben Carson on Sunday continued to push back against journalists as he criticized recent scrutiny of his descriptions about his youth. The retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential contender insisted at a political rally and on three morning news shows that reports about his claims about a violent youth, a Politico report about a scholarship offer to West Point and a story about a Yale class are actually helping his campaign. Speaking to reporters after a political rally in Puerto Rico Sunday morning, Carson pushed back on the notion that the scrutiny on his past is “getting under his skin” — but then launched into an angry and mocking critique of the media coverage this week. “It’s not particularly getting under my skin, obviously it’s helping me,” said Carson, who on Saturday thanked a “biased media” for helping him fundraise $3.5 million last week. “But I simply cannot sit still and watch unfairness. I am always going to call that out when I see it.” On Thursday, CNN’s Scott Glover and Maeve Reston reported that nine friends, classmates and neighbors who grew up with Carson could not confirm accounts from his 1990 autobiography “Gifted Hands” of a childhood of violence, including an attempted stabbing and punching a classmate in the face with his hand wrapped around a lock. The next day, Politico published a story claiming that the Carson campaign admitted that he “fabricated” an account of applying and being admitted to West Point — a headline the outlet later softened. Source: CNN
