Former United States president Jimmy Carter sat down with Howard Kurtz on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” to talk about his relationship with the press during his presidency and what he thinks about today’s media. When Kurtz asked Carter about cable news, the former president said,

“The talk shows with Glenn Beck and others on Fox News, I think, have deliberately distorted the news.  And it’s become highly competitive.  And my Republican friends say that MSNBC might be just as biased on the other side in supporting the Democratic Party, the liberal element.”

When explaining to Kurtz the harsh words in his book about the press, Carter said:

“I came in at a time when the press was in the post-Watergate period, and when two reporters in ‘The Washington Post’ had become famous because they had revealed some secrets that had brought down the Nixon administration. And when I got there, shortly thereafter, I think a lot of the reporters were looking for something within my administration that might be scandalous or put them in the headlines as very notable investigative reporters.”

The CNN video is after the jump…