CNN anchor John Berman said Monday that President Donald Trump’s morning tweet disparaging CNN by calling it a contender for the “fake-news trophy” constituted “an assault on journalism.”

Trump ruffled some feathers over at CNN when he unleashed a tweet Monday morning targeting the cable channel and broadcast networks that, he maintains, offer negatively biased coverage of him and his administration.

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“We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!” Trump tweeted.

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The offending tweet spurred Berman to comment on the president’s attack on “fake-news” outlets and coverage as he came to his company’s defense.

“With tax reform hanging in the balance, with a government shutdown looming, with North Korea still menacing, what is the president focused on this morning?” Berman said. “Let me show you. I will give you a dramatic reading of this right now.”

After reading the tweet aloud and showing it on the screen, Berman said he didn’t want to run “the risk of dignifying the statements that the president just made there” before proceeding to dignify the tweet with a response.

“Let me add that [Trump] must have read about all of this news coverage because he professes not to see any of it. He’s spending so much time reading documents,” Berman said, pointing to remarks Trump made to reporters aboard Air Force One earlier in November.

“Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television,” Trump had said. “People that don’t know me, they like to say I watch television — people with fake sources. You know, fake reporters, fake sources … But I don’t get to watch much television. Primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents. A lot.”

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“I actually read much more — I read you people much more than I watch television,” Trump added.

Berman sought to make a larger point about the president’s criticism of his company — an outlet Trump has long decried as “fake news” — saying that the president shouldn’t target biased coverage and journalists.

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“Forget that CNN is included in it, because that’s not necessarily what’s important here,” the CNN anchor said. “What’s important here is this is an assault on free speech, this is an assault on journalism. Any journalism that [Trump] doesn’t like.”

Berman brought CNN host Brian Stelter on the show as well, to discuss the president’s “assault” on CNN and journalism.

“This president is once again in one of these modes where he is assaulting the free press. And I think it’s astonishing for any, you know, leader, any public official,” Stelter said. “He tears down outlets other than Fox because he wants to inoculate himself from the challenges around his White House.”

Neither Stelter nor Berman addressed the fact that mainstream media coverage of Trump and his administration in general has been overwhelmingly negative, which lends some credence to the president’s complaints. The Media Research Center (MRC) released a study in April that found that 89 percent of ABC, CBS and NBC coverage of the president had been negative, representing “by far the most hostile press treatment of any incoming American president.”

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway chided Stelter for his network’s constant anti-Trump “spin” during an interview on the network earlier in November.

“CNN used to be a place where people can tune in and get the news all day long. Now they get spin and people’s opinions. I think CNN should own it,” Conway had said. “Why not say, ‘Look, it’s in our commercial interest at CNN to be anti-Trump. We’re profitable if we’re against the president; most of our viewers are against the president.’ Just own it.”

“The country doesn’t need you to spin and filter what the president just said anymore. They read his tweets when you read his tweets. It is a democratization of information,” Conway added.