With our new weekly feature we assess the news landscape from the past seven days and ascertain if one news organization rose up by lowering itself on a consistent basis. Donald Trump’s announced choices for cabinet and agency positions continue to have the press losing their composure, so the competition remained fierce, but one outlet had serious issues throughout the week. Let’s scratch our heads and hold our noses as we delve into the mayhem.
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THE CONTENDERS
ABC News – While we barely acknowledge the daytime hen-fest “The View,” the network considers it part of its news division. This is why we have to note that on the show, hostess Sunny Hostin was compelled to issue an on-air legal retraction to comments made in the prior episode – twice in the same week. (And now even more!) On “Good Morning America,” Democrat loyalist Mary Bruce continued the canard that Pete Hegseth has a white supremacist tattoo. (It’s the Jerusalem Cross.) Reporters Ike Ejiochi tried placing the blame of Laken Riley’s immigrant killer on Donald Trump.
New York Times – The lingering anxiety from the election was still being highlighted. The paper was certainly bothered and lacking in objectivity in criticizing Trump’s various cabinet choices as abhorrent. Hilariously, the outlet complained that liberals (who dominate on most social media) are somehow ostracized. More comedy was seen as they tried to fact-check RFK Jr. on his claim of the ingredients in Froot Loops cereal and instead proved him correct.
CBS News – Scott Pelley began his segment on “60 Minutes” concerning the ongoing identification of victims at the World Trade Center site with a rant on Trump’s cabinet selections. One inept report had the journalist suggesting randos on social media expect Trump to hand out stimulus checks even as the headline debunks the story that need not have been written. In reports on the Laken Riley murder verdict, the network would identify her killer as an illegal immigrant. In that fake Trump health crisis generated by the press at Mar-a-Lago, the whole hysteria was started by a CBS crew on site.
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WINNER
MSNBC
– The champ this week going away is the dissolving news network that is the favorite of Joe Biden. As ratings continued their slide following the election, on “Morning Joe,” the wedded co-hosts made the announcement they had visited Donald Trump last weekend – which turned many heads and had many turning off their TV — that very hour.
Parent company Comscat-Universal announced it was spinning off its cable channels into an independent entity, causing anxiety to shoot through the network. The divorce looks significant as the network appears to be required to drop its “NBC” label from its name. A sign of things to come was Rachel Maddow signing a new contract that pays her $5 million less than her previous deal.
While all of this played out, there was no indication of the players involved changing their behavior. At MSNBC Digital, they had to alter a headline sympathetic to Laken Riley’s killer. One segment had historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat saying Pete Hegseth was not qualified to be Secretary of Defense because he once sold soap in the shape of a hand grenade. Joy Reid and her guest suggest Trump won the election due to racism towards…Barack Obama…? Stephanie Ruhle bizarrely yet accurately, in an anti-MAGA rant, described herself as a “fat chicken.”
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