President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk across the South Lawn of the White House Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020, concluding their trip to Valdosta, Ga. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)
It’s highly unlikely that news organizations will start reporting real news. It comes as no surprise that bashing Donald Trump has been profitable for the media, as James Freeman notes in the WSJ.
There’s an emerging media narrative that Joe Biden is more difficult for the press to cover than Donald Trump because Mr. Biden allegedly has superior character and therefore generates fewer scandals. Accepting this spin naturally requires one to ignore the Biden family influence-peddling business.
Regardless of the medium – cable, Internet, print – what is the significance of news organizations that will not challenge those in power? It’s not just Biden vs. Trump, the Times and other anti-Trump media outlets are not taking up the gambit of exercising their “nonpartisan journalistic muscle,” continues Mr. Freeman.
“CNN and MSNBC Fret Over Post-Trump Future”
In the NYT, John Koblin and Michael M. Grynbaum write:
CNN and MSNBC thrived during the Trump years, reaching new heights in ratings and revenue while devoting countless prime-time hours to criticizing a White House antagonist their viewers just could not quit.
Now faced with a Trump-less future, top executives at the rival cable news networks have summoned star anchors and producers to private meetings in recent weeks, seeking answers to a pressing question: What’s next?
People at both networks know that viewers who abhorred President Trump may no longer need their nightly therapy sessions with Rachel Maddow or Don Lemon. And President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. seems unlikely to generate the 24/7 grist of drama and scandal that resurrected cable news, taking it from a dying medium to a focal point of modern politics…
Messrs. Koblin and Grynbaum might as well be writing about their own NYT.
The Elephant in the Room – Chinese Money and Influence
From Fox News:
The New York Times has yet to cover the growing controversy surrounding Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
From Kevin Brock, former assistant director of intelligence (FBI):
Swalwell’s prior experience in the world of foreign intelligence operations was limited to his role as a small-town councilman. Why then, you might logically wonder, was he assigned to the prestigious and sensitive intelligence committee? It wasn’t for his keen understanding of Russian tradecraft, that much we know. Think more along the lines of the business and philosophical interests of the China-groveling high-tech companies and socialist academic communities whose districts he straddles.
Will the incurious media report the news?
