The liberal media’s crusade against Donald Trump backfired spectacularly. Twice.
Their attacks didn’t just fail but helped elect the man they despised most. It wasn’t simply bias that did them in, but their wholesale abandonment of their founding principles.
Back in 2016, Trump cracked their code. He’d say something outrageous enough to dominate coverage, yet not so crazy it would offend his base. The media couldn’t resist. They gave him more airtime than all his primary opponents combined, thinking they’d destroy him. Instead, they made him president.
But that was just the opening act. In 2024, instead of learning from their mistakes, they created an alternate reality – a progressive bubble so disconnected from reality that it collapsed in the face of the growing conservative media.
They buried stories about inflation when Americans couldn’t afford groceries. They insisted crime rates were falling while cities descended into chaos. When illegal immigration hit historic highs, they blamed Trump for opposing a weak border bill that wouldn’t have fixed the problem. They went far, far beyond America on race, sex and transgenders as well.
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And no fantasy bubble was bigger than the one protecting Joe Biden’s mental health. In a world with real journalism, his declining mental state would’ve been major news. Anyone with eyes could see the confused look, brain freezes, and wanderings.
Then we all watched that bubble pop during a single debate. If they’d been honest about Biden’s condition earlier, Democrats could have embraced actual democracy, and held an actual campaign to choose their candidate.
Instead someone, perhaps Biden, chose a vice president with a 37% approval rating, who had the neither the policy positions nor the verbal skills to win.
Nevertheless, she wasn’t Donald Trump, so they immediately branded her a girl boss. And doubled down. Every Trump utterance became a “threat to democracy.” Every policy proposal spelled the “end of the republic.”
They found Nazi symbolism in New York’s famous Madison Square Garden. They flogged an insult comic’s insult as proof of Trump’s racism and floundering campaign. They even twisted Trump’s anti-war message about Liz Cheney into a fake “firing squad” accusation.
Liberals bought the hysteria, but most voters didn’t. The the liberal media has cried wolf so many times, they’ve lost the ability to influence anyone outside their bubble.
As one network executive admitted: “If half the country has decided that Trump is qualified to be president, that means they’re not reading any of this media, and we’ve lost this audience completely.” He’s right.
But media profits are an odd thing. What helps them in the short run can hurt them in the long run. Trump drives ratings and ratings drive money.
Where that falls apart, though, is when you lose the heart of why people use your product. For the media, that’s trust and credibility. And for all the reasons I talked about, and more, American trust in the media is lower than ever.
The big networks and even the cable networks aren’t the powerhouses they used to be, and they’re on a slow death slide down.
If you want more juicy details on how this played out, I delve deeper in my video below. You might just find it 14 minutes of schadenfreude.
The short version is this: When you have a media that’s more interested in being political activists than journalists, even their most fevered efforts can backfire in spectacular fashion.
Twice.
Ken LaCorte writes about censorship, media malfeasance, uncomfortable questions, and honest insight for people curious how the world really works. Follow Ken on Substack
