Several mainstream media writers released new anti-Donald Trump books with plenty of red meat and supposedly startling revelations--proving that six months out of office too many can’t quit him. But polling in July shows fewer than one-quarter of Americans trust the news media.
As I note in my book, “Abuse of Power: The Three-Year Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump,” the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC and the networks were breathlessly talking about impeaching Trump before he came into office. Trump’s bashing of the media – or punching back as he would see it – didn’t create the crisis in public confidence. But media coverage of Trump didn’t help.
“The liberal media figures went all-in on impeachment from the start. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow essentially became the Alex Jones of the Left,” the book says in describing the meltdown. “The New York Times adopted a slogan and even sold t-shirts that said, ‘Truth: It’s More Important Now Than Ever.’ So, the truth wasn’t important prior to 2017? The Washington Post adopted a new slogan, ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’ as if the paper alone protected us from Trump’s despotism. It’s a near certainty that MSNBC talking heads would have invoked Nazis if John Kasich or Jeb Bush had been elected president in 2016. However, it was disappointing seeing CNN’s downward spiral from its primetime lineup, as well as Brian Stelter’s clownish show.”
It’s not even a defense of Trump to be skeptical of such “scoops” in the new books by reporters from the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and another by Michael Wolff. Just since Trump left office, an inspector general report refuted the supposedly shocking story about Trump ordering the tear-gassing of protesters for a photo op. Before that, special counsel Robert Mueller shattered the hyping of supposed Trump-Russia collusion. MSM had to correct endless stories on Russia, a claim Trump hid climate data, even about overfeeding fish in Japan, and on ...
“Abuse of Power” references Media Research Center data showing TV news coverage of Trump made three times as many references to impeachment after the Mueller report concluded no Russia collusion as had made before the Mueller report’s release. This was based on an evaluation of network newscasts from Jan. 1 through May 31, 2019. Impeachment was talked about on an average of 22.4 stories on network newscasts per month after the Mueller report, more than three times the average of 7.7 stories before the report.
A recent Gallup poll showing 21% of Americans trust newspapers and 16% trust TV news suggests Donald Trump's rants about “fake news” weren’t the reason for America’s declining confidence in the press since the numbers remain low without his platforms. It’s not as if Trump has the full support of the other some-70% that don’t.
In what is perhaps cold comfort, Gallup found public confidence dropping across multiple institutions--particularly in Congress, public schools, and the medical system.
But the woeful lack of introspection and doubling down among top media figures is apparent just in recent days.
Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, insisted coverage of the Jan. 6 select committee hearings be more lopsided against Republicans. Also, NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd scoffed at the notion of liberal bias as a Republican talking point to deceive a gullible public.
Skepticism of public institutions is healthy, but it should have an endgame of encouraging improvement.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a retired brigadier general, has seen the consequences abroad when people simply reinforcing their worldviews.
“As a person who served in uniform overseas, I used to speak to interpreters that would talk about news reports and people would say ‘you can’t trust this source because it’s controlled by such and such party,’” Perry said in an interview for “Abuse of Power.”
“I thought: How sad that people are left to shop for the news that reinforces their own views,” Perry added. “Now, 15 years later, that’s what we have in the United States. Even if a report is debunked, journalists continue to ignore the facts and continue to believe the narrative. Too much of the media operates for whatever narrative they are for or against. That does a disservice to the public.”
The Gallup poll found that the military (69%) and despite a year of being battered by the leftwing commentators, the police (51%) have the highest level of public confidence. Congress is worse, at 12%, while the presidency and the U.S. Supreme Court perform better--36% and 38% respectively.
So, there might be enough introspection to go around.
“Abuse of Power: Inside the Three-Year Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump” e-book version is available for a limited time for just $2.99.