Bryan Cranston calls out Trump's 'fake news' remarks at the Tony Awards: 'Media is not the enemy'
In his Tony Award acceptance speech on Sunday, actor Bryan Cranston threw a jab at President Donald Trump. He called out the president's claim that "fake news media is ... the enemy of the American people". He made this political reference as he picked up the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for his role of newsman Howard Beale in a stage adaptation of 'Network'.
Cranston dedicated the award to "all the real journalists around the world." "I would like to dedicate this to all of the real journalists around the world, both in the press, the print media, and also the broadcast media, who actually are in the line of fire with their pursuit of the truth," Cranston continued.
He then added: "The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people." The US President has tweeted several times and even publicly states multiple times that the "fake news media" is "the enemy of the people."
The actor then also spoke about his character in the production. "Howard Beale is a fictitious TV newsman who found his way in the line of fire because of his pursuit of the truth," he said.
'Network' is based on the 1976 film of the same name and follows journalist Beale as the television network he was once employed by exploits him for their own profit.
Cranston was not the only one to make use of the platform to voice opinions. 'To Kill A Mockingbird' actress Celia Keenan-Bolger also got political as she accepted the featured actress in a play award. "I grew up in a neighborhood where my grandparents had a cross burned on their front lawn because they were welcoming to black families that were integrating into the neighborhood," she said of her Detroit home. "They raised my mother and her siblings alongside those families and when my mother met my father, instead of moving to the suburbs they raised me and my brother and my sister in that same neighbourhood."
The actress concluded that her childhood made her victory as Scout even more "moving."
