This is could have been a headline in 2018, but it’s not, it’s right now.
The standard honeymoon period for a new president is 100 days. The question when Biden was inaugurated was how long would his honeymoon period with the mainstream media (MSM) last? Turns out not that long.
Trump didn’t last past day two with his obvious lie about the crowd size at his inauguration and the media was forced to check it.
Biden is hardly Trump.
With the Trump presidency covering it was a constant scramble of the media jumping through hoops practically hourly to keep up with the almost Shakespearian twists and turns of the past 4 years.
They, like the rest of us, were trying to make sense of something we in this country had never experienced before, a dictator in the White House and a complicit GOP.
It was a co-dependent relationship, although the media was constantly degraded by Trump and the administration, it also had to grapple with the fact that he did increase TV ratings.
Michelle Wolfe said it best at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD) in 2018 when she went for the elite mainstream media journalistic jugular. “You act like you hate him, but I think you really love him,” You helped create this monster and now you’re profiting off of him.”
And they did.
So, are they happy that Biden won and he does not refer to the press as the “enemy of the people?” Political writer Tom Jones asserted in 2020 that Trump would not be missed by most of the news media.
Well, I maintain he is.
Let’s face the cold hard truth. Like most fascists before him such as Mussolini, Trump knew how to play the media.
He knew he had to be covered, every tweet, every press conference. He cruelly used the Coronavirus press briefings as rallies when he couldn’t travel. He was good at two things, manipulating the media and having our full attention.
With Trump gone and Biden in you would think the MSM would be thrilled, instead, some have jumped full throttle into complaining about the treatment of them by the current administration. It of course isn’t all of them as journalists like Rachel Maddow and a handful of others are elated to be covering a White House that is telling the truth and is transparent in their efforts to reverse the damage caused by the previous administration.
It’s as if certain journalists crave the abuse heaped on them by the Trump regime.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times complained about hostile treatment by the “liberal” White House along with a host of other journalists. Others are quick to criticize Biden for falling short of expectations already.
We are still living through the toxic co-dependent relationship the media continue to have with Trump even though he is no longer president. It’s as if they miss him.
Oddly enough the court jesters on Fox News have accepted the fact that Trump is gone and have continued with their mendacious baseless war on the truth and facts. To them, it didn't matter if it was Trump or some other Nazi-like figure. Rupert Murdoch just needed someone to fill that role. Who cares who it was? The only qualification required was being white and male.
The MSM continues rightfully to give Trump coverage as he remains a political force within the GOP. However, this extensive coverage in order to placate his constant need for attention is no longer necessary. Neither is the soft balling.
The mainstream media even glossed over the outright lies Trump expressed at CPAC.
Reporting on the right-wing confab, CBS News used weak, vague language when noting that "unsubstantiated claims of interference" had been addressed at CPAC election panels. CBS made no mention of the fact that Trump told attendees the election had been stolen from him — that he already "beat" Democrats twice at the polls. ABC News noted Trump’s “false election fraud claims,” says Eric Boehlert of Press Run.
Does this present as factual journalism or brave truth-telling?
Of all platforms to suppress Trump and his lies, it is social media that is daring to defy and stop him. They do this on the heels of practically having created him. They want to put him back in the bottle.
It won’t be that easy.
The MSM is taking the bait for them.
Some recognize it.
Before the inauguration, Margaret Sullivan of The Washington Post opined “the media should — for once — decline to take the bait. Don’t allow him to become a self-styled president in exile, the golf-cart version of Napoleon on Elba. Do not set up a Mar-a-Lago bureau. Don’t have entire reporting beats dedicated to what he and his family members are up to. And for God’s sake, stop writing about his unhinged tweets.” Clearly, this was before the Twitter ban.
Granted political reporters will have to cover him, his legal battles and his presence within the GOP. However, there is no need to criticize the Biden administration in its infancy as if they are pining away for another Trump-like quick media ratings fix.
We have had enough. They shouldn’t turn a blind eye to any failings on the part of Biden, however fair coverage should be required by all newsrooms.
The Beltway media should be covering policy, the GOP’s failure to help Americans with financial relief, the war on the truth and the obvious rise of fascism in America.
The DNC is producing content every day about voter suppression tactics being used to subvert our democracy in upcoming elections. Where is the non-stop coverage of that?
It’s time for the Trump news cycle to come to an end and journalistic integrity to rise again.
If this isn’t addressed, the only thing worth reading will be how America, once a great nation, destroyed itself one story at a time.
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*Getty Images
*Originally written for MNT, updated with content not edited by MNT
as I’ve said I did read this after my tweet. Thx
Vey thought provoking article, I always enjoy reading Sona’s work.