The snotty and usually insufferably arrogant major news media may think they’re oh-so-on-point with all they put out there to the public, but the reality is more like how Trump, even for those in this profession who are not fans, plays them to the hilt, and still is.
He wins the news coverage game over and over again, even when the news about him is what most of us would consider bad.
Like this week. This week for President Biden and the Democrats has been one of the most consequential in U.S. history. With the rapid passage of an array of bills and their signing by Biden, this is one of the most important weeks for Democrats since the heady days of FDR and LBJ.
I don’t need to rehash all that’s been done this week that will better the lives of Americans, from the $2,000 cap on Medicare prescription drugs to a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act, to huge funding for renewable energy infrastructure and tax credits for electric vehicles and home energy efficiency measures and more.
In addition, Biden achieved the first significant legislation on gun control, on sorely needed veterans benefits, on aid for law enforcement and expanded benefits for survivors of families of the January 6 insurgency.
On the big stuff, it was mostly done without a single Republican vote, though when it did involve some bipartisan support, as minimal as it might have been, it was even more praiseworthy.
Our president never gave up on working the entire Congress to get real results for the American people — and he’s only 18 months into his presidency.
As Biden said prior to signing the biggest bill of all, the Inflation Reduction Act of over $300 billion on Tuesday, “the American people won and the special interests lost.”
He said it was the culmination of “the promise we’ve made for decades” proving that the promises of America are “real and just beginning” such that “we can all live lives of consequence” in an America “where everyone has an even shot.”
“Making progress is never easy,” he said, clearly pleased with the results that were achieved this week. “I believe in the very core of this nation.”
Awesome sentiments, just what the American people need to hear!
But you won’t find such high-minded phrases in the major media coverage of the event, whose faux cynicism reflects a fear of criticism from the other side, if not from their own corporate bosses who only grudgingly admit of anything good coming from Biden and the Democrats.
That’s why the Washington Post, for example, couldn’t even find a way to put the story of the monumental and historic Inflation Reduction Act on the front page this week. Incredible.
By contrast, it was Trump who got most of the ink that day and most of this week, required by his relentless howling to offer diatribes and excuses for the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property.
Trump has won this latest media competition, and Lord knows on the opinion pages, the talk is all about him, even if it’s about what a monster he is. To me, and to many of my friends, we simply can’t take it any more.
When is he going to get blasted off the news and opinion pages?
He’s like an STD lesion that just won’t heal, and that’s because the major media continues to glorify him, even if it’s about his multitude of crimes (that, by the way, delight many of his followers).
This problem applies to far more than just Fox News, OAN or Newsmax, although they, of course, are Trump megaphones. But to become president again, he needs more — to dominate the airwaves of the major networks.
The good guys need to get a lot louder and more strident. The very survival of democracy requires it. There is so much important good news happening now that the public needs to be exposed to routinely. I have been known to reprint verbatim huge chunks of speeches from Obama and Biden.
If good people are too timid to pick up the ball on this, then maybe we simply lose.
