Some terrible things are likely to result from the terrible results of the Democrats’ election. One might be the assumption that these bad results reflect a media that’s too hostile to the Democrats.
Greg Sargent The Washington Post tweeted this lame summary from former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer: “Republicans have a massive communications advantage…[Glenn] Youngkin used the right-wing media to communicate his MAGA credentials to the base without offending Independents and Trump-skeptical Republicans.”
Democrats will say bizarre things when they lose. Pfeiffer is saying with a straight face that Republicans have “created a powerful, self-serving media infrastructure,” and apparently the Democrats have nothing resembling a Democrat media.
The night after the election results, I was pleased to be invited to join the Paley Center’s Media Impact panel on Zoom to discuss media coverage of the Biden White House. The idea that politicians never think the media is fair was the starting point. While this may be true in some cases, it doesn’t mean much. Republicans expect aggressive unfairness. Democrats are looking for cheerful compliance.
Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist announced that the press under Biden had transformed from “cartoonish hostility to gentle sycophancy.” That’s quite right. I said it changed from “frenzied resistance” to “assistance.” The media have reverted to Helper mode. They were committed to uncovering the rot under Trump. They are committed to explaining the plans under Biden.
Sean Spicer, a former Trump Press Secretary and author who was also a Newsmax host and presenter, skillfully explained how media has moved beyond telling facts and offering analysis and opinions. He said the difference in reporter tone between a Spicer briefing and a Jen Psaki briefing is “embarrassing,” and the difference is “not debatable.” Under Trump, “it was advocating why he was wrong, and under Biden, it was why he was right.”
New York Times opinion editor Patrick Healy bizarrely denied there had been a “reset” in the media’s orientation under Biden. Biden did not have a honeymoon with the media, he claimed that there was an extended period of intense coverage due to the Jan 6 riot. There was intense coverage of violent Trump fans and Trump’s election denials, but not of President Biden.
But then Healy claimed something I could not abide, that no national media organization today “can really survive….if you’re not telling the story in a good-faith way on people of both sides.”
However, in reality the TimesAnd The Washington Post paraded about in the Trump years telling bad-faith stories about Republicans, under pompous slogans like “The truth is more important than ever” (the Times) and “Democracy dies in darkness” (the Post). I explained that they clearly sought to establish an anti-Trump subscriber pool. I said “I don’t think anybody believes that The Washington PostAnd The New York Times are here to represent all of us.”
Healy shot back: “Tim, what do you have against democracy? You are against truth! I don’t understand you,” and then he smiled. The point he was missing, probably on purpose, was that these slogans announced “We are democracy and truth. You Republicans are dictatorship and lies!” Humility is not in their marketing plan.
The press was then asked for suggestions on how it could improve. Conservatives are skeptical about the suggestion that the liberal media would really seek to build confidence if they were to try to give the Republicans more respect and equal treatment. They are committed to making the world “a better place” by their lights, and sticking to the Lester Holt mantra that “Fairness is overrated.”
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