We are unpacking a new feature where 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. Amid the election results, the media meltdowns were extensive, so as expected the competition was fierce. Let’s scratch our heads and hold our noses as we delve into the mayhem.
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The Contenders:
CNN – As the numbers poured in, Kasie Hunt tried mightily on election eve to boost Kamala’s chances. She failed, and dealing with the after-effects was not pretty. At one point in Georgia, Trump held more than a 120,000 vote lead with 100K votes outstanding, but CNN would still not declare him as winner. When Trump himself declared victory just ahead of the official call, Jake Tapper was stammering. Jake and John King had an awakening when looking at Kamala’s failure to improve at all on Biden’s numbers. The days following were filled with grousing panels and many arguments as Scott Jennings sat back and toyed with the various partisans all week.
NEW YORK TIMES – The so-called paper of record left a poor historical skid mark. The day before the election the live coverage was threatened by a strike from the tech workers. The staff was carping how the paper was not anti-Trump enough to their liking. This was hilarious, given the hyperbolic editorial demonizing Trump days before the election. After his victory, the Times stayed consistent with bitter coverage and exposing its bias.
CBS NEWS – Across its various shows the network made it clear how it opposed Donald Trump – mornings, nighttime, and during election coverage. Margaret Brennan gave a pompous diatribe to Americans that we are not as smart as she is regarding economics. After the election the network that gave us the fraudulent “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala lectured us about misinformation. Looking at Trump’s victory, Major Garrett delivered an angry editorial that should be embarrassing to anyone with integrity.
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And this week’s Dis-Honoree:
MSNBC – That MSNBC would earn recognition was essentially assured going into the week, and the Trump victory made it a lock. The network divorced from reality did not disappoint. Rachel Maddow was an early participant where she went from calling Trump a fascist to suggesting a fascist clamp down on Elon Musk. But that was back when they felt Kamala had the chance to win.
As reality arrived, common sense departed, and the network names were consistently unhinged. Joy Reid saw Florida become an “extremist right-wing fascist” state because it voted against killing babies that are viable. On the network that delivers fear and anger about Trump on a daily, near-hourly basis, Claire McCaskill declared Republicans won on a message of fear and anger.
Alex Wagner looked at the results and stated this was due to those damned uneducated people voting wrong. Stephanie Ruhle joined in with the blame, scorching both the voters and Elon Musk for running a propaganda platform. (Oh, oh Stephanie…) When analysis was done on the result it was – of course – blamed on racism. But then when it was revealed how well Trump did with black and Hispanic voters, Joy Reid arrived – to still blame it on racism.
Then in the aftermath the network moved from bitterness to comedy. As the expert pundits attempted to grapple with the aftereffects they strained to sound logical. Joe Scarborough attempted to shrug off concerns about the economy as a reason, but in mid-rant Scar-Joe was corrected that butter actually cost more than twice as much as he stated, and then he changed his message on the fly. After pushing Never Trumpers like Liz Cheney and others for years, Jen Psaki has come to the realization these people are not at all influential. Rachel Maddow looked at a Trump victory and declared there was a need to “Unburn” bridges between MAGA folks.
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The woman who has led the Trump = Nazi charge for years now wants to “unburn” the divide that she herself helped create. Sure Rachel, we’ll see how well this goes for you.
