Media bias seems to get worse by the week. Even a work week shortened by Labor Day delivered on that depressing trend.
Journalists cheered protests at the Supreme Court nomination hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh and swallowed a silly Internet hoax. Then there was the anonymous New York Times op-ed defending a “steady state” rebellion against President Trump. It was a new low for journalists devoted to overturning a democratic election.
Call it the pièce de résistance.
The New York Times trumped opposition leaders at CNN and The Washington Post. The three battle daily for liberal attention and journalistic kudos like unhinged “Bachelorette” finalists, each desperate to win favor.
The op-ed let the Times celebrate victory for now. It easily passed the Post with its snoozy new Bob Woodward book and CNN’s celebration for taking down InfoWars chief Alex Jones.
The Times said publishing an anonymous op-ed is a “rare step.” So rare, no one in journalism remembered anyone else doing it to attack the president of the United States. But then, we’ve only had President Donald J. Trump for about 20 months.
The op-ed brought out more insanity. MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace fantasized about removing Trump and said it was time for “a serious debate about the 25th Amendment in this country.” Fellow host Ari Melber combined with his guests to call the administration a “dumpster fire” 11 times in one segment.
Things were just as bad over at CNN. “Wolf” host Wolf Blitzer kept asking if America was heading to a “constitutional crisis,” as if a Times op-ed equaled the rule of law.
CNN Senior Political Analyst John Avlon gave viewers a “reality check” of what a 25th Amendment removal might look like if CNN staffers got their wish to get rid of Trump. Avlon had to admit the chance that would happen were “slim, to say the least.”
CNN’s website actually ran “7 terms you need to know to understand the anonymous NYT op-ed.” It included everything what an op-ed is, for the utterly clueless, and more talk about the unlikely use of the 25th Amendment. That didn’t stop headlines calling for it all week.
Naturally, the broadcast networks had their fun with the op-ed. The three evening news shows spent a total of nearly 15 minutes on the op-ed that night, precisely the celebration the Times wanted. ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl called the piece “a devastating portrayal of Trump the president.” As if we haven’t had any of those since Trump took office.
“The View” praised the op-ed, with co-host Sunny Hostin saying of the author, “this person is probably saving our country.” Host Whoopi Goldberg had the audacity to claim the opinion piece was “constructive criticism.”
“CBS This Morning” fill-in co-host Bianna Golodryga was a rare voice of reason about the op-ed. She worried it would exacerbate America’s “erosion of trust” in journalism.
She’s right.
2. ‘No, I’m Spartacus’: If the op-ed provided the drama for the week, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Kavanaugh provided almost everything else – from comedy to farce.
Journalists loved how Democrats turned the hearing into a circus, complete with hundreds of arrests and women dressed in outfits straight out of Hulu’s pro-abortion dystopia “The Handmaid’s Tale.” There were breathless reports of “chaos” or “fireworks” but at least it was “dramatic” enough to keep journalists happy.
In reality, it was a “was all carefully choreographed,” reported ABC’s Terry Moran, as Senate Democrats and their most-unhinged allies created a scene they hope will aid them in the midterms, after Kavanaugh is already sitting on the Supreme Court.
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo invented a new word when he whined that the hearing was a “traveshamockery,” because Kavanaugh wouldn’t answer questions that would then force him to recuse himself from future rulings.
This came after Cuomo accused the GOP of trying to “stack the courts across this country with white, male, young judges. For the record, Cuomo is also white and male – and at 48, he’s five years younger than Kavanaugh.
That wasn’t even the best part. The left flipped out over former Kavanaugh clerk Zina Bash, who they claimed flashed an “OK” sign during the hearing. (Hint: She didn’t.) “The gesture was declared a white-power symbol and ‘a national outrage’ by a #resistance tweeter who has 200,000 followers,” wrote Politico and coverage of the left’s “Self-Own” went downhill from there.
According to The Washington Post: “Liberal activist and author Amy Siskind, in a now-deleted tweet, wrote that Bash’s hand symbol should ‘disqualify’ Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.” It was too much for CNN’s “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter, who called out those involved for their “‘white power symbol’ nonsense.”
Bash got the last laugh, appearing to genuinely use the symbol during the next day’s hearing in a championship level act of trolling.
New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker delivered more farcical comments as he laughably claimed “I am Spartacus” for releasing Kavanaugh emails that he claimed could get him kicked out of the Senate. Only the emails had already been cleared for release. Once more, reporters ran with the fake news to promote the likely presidential candidate.
3. Obama’s Back: There is no one the media adore more than President Obama. It was love at first sight. Obama gave a speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004 that got him the nomination four years later. The New York Times still calls it “The Speech That Made Obama” and NBC said it was “electrifying.”
Now Obama has returned and journalists have visions of a rainbow-hued Camelot once more dancing in their heads. He spoke in Illinois Friday criticizing Trump and said “the politics of resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party." The media have been pretending that is true for years, so they loved it.
CNN depicted the battle as “Obama and Trump fight for America's soul.” CNN host and former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones loved it and explained how “democracy is at risk.” Fellow host Brooke Baldwin called the speech “incredible.”
And Politico was giddy, claiming in a headline: “Obama vs. Trump: The clash everyone's waited for arrives.” By “everyone,” what Politico meant was “journalists.” Conservatives never wanted to see Obama again.
Then there was NBC News, which ran a headline on its website about Obama bashing Trump: “Obama slams 'crazy stuff' coming out of Trump's White House.”
Then NBC used a bizarre pair of headlines on stories about the president: “Fear and loathing on the Trump campaign trail” and “Analysis: President Donald Trump appears to be trying to scare up a midterms win. Literally.” The “analysis” (Journalism code for opinion) claimed: “President Donald Trump's weapon of choice is fear.”
It’s not Trump’s weapon of choice. It’s the news media’s.
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