Bryan Cranston’s Tony acceptance speech praises media

He never mentioned the President by name, but the now two-time Tony Award winner’s message was crystal clear.

Bryan Cranston may play a disgruntled broadcaster on Broadway, but in real life, he’s mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore.

The star of “Network,” the famed movie now turned play, made that very clear as he accepted the Tony Award for the best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play.

In the play, Cranston plays the evening news anchor and truth-teller Howard Beale. The movie and the play are a satirical take on the news media, the struggle for ratings, and forecast the modern age of infotainment, reality shows, corporate takeovers and the commodification of anger.

“I would like to dedicate this to all the real journalists around the world both in the … print media and also broadcast media who actually are in the line of fire with their pursuit of the truth,” he said on Sunday night’s telecast of the awards ceremony. “The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people.”

He never mentioned President Donald Trump by name in his speech, but it was clear whom his comments were directed toward. As a candidate and after he was elected, the President has repeatedly attacked the press and referred to the press as the “enemy of the people.

Speaking to reporters after accepting his awards, Cranston called it “absurd” to think that the media is the enemy of the people and offered some insight into his motivations behind the speech.

“If that message keeps getting propagated over and over and over again, sometimes it starts to seep in,” he said. “The perception of the truth is often more important than the truth. Because if people believe it, it doesn’t matter really if it’s true or not. So, the opposite message has to be continued to put out there.”