I & I Editorial BoardYou’d think the mainstream press would have learned a lesson or two after committing so many embarrassing mistakes in its effort to “get” Donald Trump and cover up for Joe Biden over the past eight years. But no. It’s already back to its old and terrible habits.
Shortly after the election, Vanity Fair published a story that led with this admonition to the press: “Every outrage and insult can’t be a five-alarm fire, as it’s critical for the media to stay focused on the most serious threats to America’s democratic institutions.”
Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson cautioned her colleagues to “watch and restrain headlines on stories that are needlessly hyperbolic or over-the-top negative.”
Brian McGory, former Boston Globe editor, said it’s “time to cover his actions and policies, his successes and his failures. To do it through as conventional a lens as possible, while not normalizing mayhem, and a willingness to acknowledge when things go well.”
But instead of heeding this advice, the mainstream press went right back to its frantic Trump-hating roots.
News stories assume the absolute worst about Trump. Reporters run with thinly sourced stories to attack him. They freak out about everything he says. Stoke panic at every turn. Endlessly predict doom and gloom. Play up astroturf protests. And studiously ignore whatever successes Trump does achieve. When context is needed, it’s ignored.
This makes it all but impossible for the average American to know what they can trust, or when there actually is something to be concerned about. When everything is a crisis, nothing is.
When rogue federal judges started routinely issuing universal injunctions against Trump executive orders, a practice that is legally suspect and was extremely rare until Trump showed up, the story wasn’t how these judges wildly overstepped their bounds, it’s that Trump was creating a “constitutional crisis.”
When an illegal immigrant from El Salvador (widely depicted as a “Maryland father”) is deported back to a maximum security prison in his home country, the press acts as though any American citizen could suffer the same fate.
When DOGE starts pruning the fantastically wasteful government and firing a few overpaid bureaucrats, the stories aren’t about the $2 trillion deficit that President Biden left Trump, but sob stories about laid-off workers and how “lives are at stake.”
When Trump decides to enforce Visa restrictions for foreign students in the U.S., the New York Times runs a story headlined: “Losing International Students Could Devastate Many Colleges.” Note the weasel word “could.” You could put anything after that.
Every soft economic number is shouted from the rooftops as a sign of a coming economic collapse. But when employment numbers come in higher than expected, or inflation lower than expected, it’s crickets.
The good news is that nobody seems to care. CNN asked the public something they’ve never done during a Democratic administration: Do you regret your vote? Turns out, nobody regrets voting for Trump or voting against Harris.
The public is far less dissatisfied with the direction of the country today – 52% say it’s on the wrong track vs. 64% a year ago, according to RealClearPolitics.
Our I&I/TIPP poll finds that the public overwhelmingly supports his actions on DEI, transgender sports, and border security.
Are we saying Trump has done nothing wrong? Of course not. We have already pointed out how the unfolding of his tariff plan has been a complete mess and that he’s losing the narrative on the economy.
The fact that Trump is deeply underwater on his handling of the economy should be a wake-up call to the administration that it so far seems unconcerned about, but which poses enormous risks to his term and the future of the Republican party. You’d never know that, amidst the constant screeching about how the sky is falling whenever Trump opens his mouth.
But what else can the mainstream press do? After having predicted the end of democracy and the rise of “fascism” should Trump be elected, or reelected, they have a vested interest in proving themselves right.
If that means distorting the truth behind recognition, sacrificing basic journalistic standards, undermining the safety and security of the country, driving their reputations deeper into the mud, so be it.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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The Fake News is indeed the enemy of the people. So says our MAGA POTUS and he is 100% correct!
The liberal media missed an opportunity to write screamingly outraged headlines about how badly President Trump insulted the Easter Bunny. They could have said that the Easter Bunny has been the “guide dog” service animal for every president since… uh… well… Joe Biden. The Easter Bunny is used to having the privilege of helping the president find his way off stage without stumbling over any sandbags, wandering into any potted plants, shaking hands with any invisible people, or grabbing any handfuls of bare Transexual boobies. It was a terrible slight when President Trump rebuffed the Easter Bunny and did not allow him to carry out his traditional Easter duties.
Most people don’t even believe what “conservative” media, like FNC has to say. They especially don’t listen to mainstream liars. Even the Left doesn’t believe them!
I&I, not only are you right-you are darn right.
The legacy media is due the opprobrium it has earned with articles on “Russia, Russia” collusion (which proved not to be true); with Hunter’s laptop that 50 intelligence (?) agents said was Russian dis-information-this while the FBI assured us it was Hunter’s and it was real; the lawfare waged against Trump; the COVID and it’s so-called vax- which all the legacy media lauded with Fauci and the legacy-medical “experts as “safe and effective.” when it was shown to be neither.
Additionally, these stalwarts of journalism told us masks, lockdowns and keeping kids from in-person learning was the way to go. No investigative reporting was done on these issues; just mis-educating and propogandizing its readers was done.
Reporters had turned away from journalism and towards PR.
I&I and podcasts (and perhaps newspapers like the Epoch Times) give us-the facts, and any facts which are really more issues that need clarification is pointed out.
The podcasts are very competitive and those who swim towards advocacy without showing proven facts will be left downstream.
This is what newspapers (and TV reporters) use to do. The times they are a-changing and many in the legacy press and the press on TV haven’t. Or maybe they have.
They’ve gone away from printing facts and towards choosing to print (or televise) advocacy.
I’d like to say, “May the best man win”-but I think we (the readers) already have. For sure, the laggards in the main-stream-media (MSM) have been eliminated and we now have been re-introduced to facts and objectivity. And non-censorship.
Meanwhile, the MSM from objectivity has just turned objectionable.
This bottom-line reasoning shows just why, in order to keep a free society, competition is necessary. Recall, there wasn’t any competition in the social media until Elon (a true American hero) bought Twitter.
He, I believe, is the forerunner (and is the pioneer who took the arrows) for allowing alternative views and facts to be printed and heard. The varied podcasts are the result.
The upshot is that other social media fell over themselves to get away from censorship-when Elon provide a forum for all opinions. Their echo chambers couldn’t compete.
Thus, the MSM has lost the trust it once had; only the idiotic elites and those who digest TDS, still follow the legacy news. Twitter changed everything.
I hope everyone goes onto Twitter. Elon saved our free-speech society and I believe we all owe Elon!
Well done. Congratulations. And, between us, let’s not forget what Elon’s DOGE is exposing. Abrams bequeathed $2 billion, with a B? Kick-bacs from NGO’s plunging into the pockets of politicians. On and on. Elon Musk is a national treasure and should be treated so and perhaps will be someday, not soon enough. Keep writing and exposing. Never back down.