Ya can’t make it up.
It seems that wherever one turns in the traditional, mainstream liberal media things are in a mess.
Let’s start with the Washington Post. Here is the centerpiece of liberal media in the nation’s capitol, the place made famous in the day by its coverage of Watergate and the rise to movie celebrity of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
Acquired in 2013 by Amazon zillionaire Jeff Bezos, the relatively new owner has written a piece headlined:
The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media
A note from our owner.
Says Bezos in his piece, written as an answer to his furious employees angry not just that the Post did not endorse for president - but that it didn’t endorse Democrat Harris:
In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.
….Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.
Bingo.
And as fortune would have it, a number of media outlets in a fit of un-self awareness, quickly proved Bezos’ point after he had written that.
The subject at hand was a remark by former President Trump, attacking his GOP nemesis, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney. As reported -- accurately -- by Fox News, Trump said this of Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney at an Arizona event:
I don’t blame him (Dick Cheney) for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a very dumb individual. Very dumb, she’s a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.
The meaning was not only plain but common. His point -- and it is a point heard well beyond the Cheneys over the decades, and often at Dick "Five Deferments" Cheney when he was vice president -- is that war hawk Liz Cheney sits comfortably in Washington or Wyoming while wanting to send American kids off to combat, condemning them to death or disfigurement at the hands of a violent enemy. Yet never going herself. The point is one of the oldest in American politics when potential or actual war is on the horizon.
In the 1960’s anti-Vietnam war protestors targeted then-President Lyndon Johnson for the same criticism - that from the comfort of the White House or his Texas ranch LBJ was sending American kids off to die horrific deaths in Vietnam. Their chant: “Hey hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?”
But after Trump made his point, a point captured entirely on videotape, the media was swamped with these kind of headlines:
From the Drudge Report, as reported by Fox:
Drudge Report’s front-page headline on Friday morning declared in red font with all caps, "TRUMP CALLS FOR CHENEY’S EXECUTION,”
Also reported by Fox:
- CNN’s website featured a front-page headline, "Trump rages that ‘war hawk’ Liz Cheney should be fired upon." CNN's Jim Acosta sparred with a Republican guest on Friday morning about the clip, saying it was beyond the pale for Trump to call for Cheney to be effectively fired upon.”
- …Politico White House bureau chief Jonathan Lemire, who is also an MSNBC host, accused Trump of using "violent war imagery" to criticize Cheney. "Dangerous rhetoric there," Lemire said Friday morning on MSNBC after airing a partial clip of the soundbite.”
- “Four days out from Election Day and former President Trump is escalating his violent rhetoric, suggesting one of his most prominent critics, the former congresswoman Liz Cheney, should be fired upon," (anchor Kasie) Hunt told CNN viewers.
- “The New York Times featured a story headlined, "Trump attacks Liz Cheney using violent war imagery," and The Washington Post went with "Trump suggests ‘war hawk’ Liz Cheney should have guns ‘trained on her face.’
Then there was this from Reuters:
- “Reuters wrote that "Trump suggested Liz Cheney should face firing squad for her foreign policy stance.”
In other words? There was not a word of truth to the idea that Trump had advocated that “Liz Cheney should face a firing squad.” Liz Cheney herself accepted the lie and replied "This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death."
It would be one thing if all of this were an accidental one-off from a mainstream liberal media that mysteriously heard the entire tape of what Trump said and somehow didn’t hear him accurately.
But alas, mainstream liberal media bias -- and not just toward Trump but on more topics than one can count -- is as common as rain in a hurricane.
Which is exactly what the Washington Post’s new owner Jeff Bezos was getting at when he wrote this:
Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.
Meanwhile, across the country, the Los Angeles Times is facing a staff rebellion because it too refused to endorse a presidential candidate. CNN headlined:
Two more Los Angeles Times editorial board members resign amid turmoil over blocked Harris endorsement
And as mentioned earlier in this space, CBS and the New York Times have been facing staff rebellions for daring to disagree with liberal dogma in running the network or the Times.
All of which is to say, the mainstream liberal media is a mess. As Bezos indicates, readers and viewers don’t trust the news that is being reported by these various outlets. So as a result, as Bezos says, “In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress.”
This is not a small deal. Among other things this mess has the potential, helped by the 21st century technology of podcasts and websites, to drain traditional media of their readers and viewers - never to return.
In fairness, Mr. Bezos, in his new role as owner of the venerable Washington Post, appears to recognize the problem.
The question is: What can he -- or will he -- do about it?
Stay tuned.
