Heading into America’s election day, the mainstream media wrote repeatedly that the race was neck-and-neck, a dead heat. When Donald Trump won decisively it was another standout example – remember his 2016 win over Hillary Clinton? – of him making the American media wrong again.
For all the beatings Mr. Trump has laid on the Washington establishment, few can match the thrashing he has given the traditional media complex.
Rarely a day has gone by without him honking on about “fake news” or media as “enemies of the people” or the terribly unjust treatment he has been accorded by leftist know-nothings.
It’s been, as broadcaster Chris Wallace once put it, “the most direct sustained assault on freedom of the press in our history.”
The Trump goal is to turn the watchdog into a puppy dog. His offensive, remarkably, is paying off. Notwithstanding his own record of duplicity and mendacity, it’s had the effect of undermining the credibility of traditional media, downgrading their reputation. Great newspapers like The New York Times have been painted into an ideological corner.
With Mr. Trump’s push, rightward-leaning alternative and independent media are in the ascendancy. His electoral triumph could well enable him to double down on his gains, enfeebling the fourth estate to a degree seldom seen.
There are some warning signs already. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of the Trump-bashing MSNBC show Morning Joe, went to Mar-a-Lago for a fence-mending session with Mr. Trump last week. CNN reported that it was a cave-in, done out of fear of retribution from Mr. Trump, who threatened in the campaign to strip TV networks of their broadcast licences for coverage he deemed biased.
The Washington Post, which tracked Mr. Trump as making an unfathomable 21 erroneous statements a day on average during his first presidency, backed off at the last minute from endorsing Kamala Harris in the election, prompting accusations that it was done out of fear of reprisals from a re-elected Mr. Trump. In response, over 200,000 Post readers cancelled their subscriptions.
CNN has had Canadian journalist Daniel Dale (formerly of the Toronto Star) doing a Trump fact-check segment. With no shortage of material, he’s been very effective at it. CNN has seen its ratings fall steeply since the election (as has MSNBC). One wonders if it will keep the Dale segment.
A Gallup poll in October found that only 31 per cent of respondents had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence the news was being reported accurately. There was a time, we might recall, when a journalist, Walter Cronkite, was voted the most trusted man in America.
In regards to the last election, dozens upon dozens of opinion polls showed the race to be dead even. MAGA disciples weren’t forecasting a big Trump triumph either.
But in many cases mainstream media (staffed by about 90 per cent college graduates, while only 38 per cent of the general adult population has a college degree) has helped bring on much abuse by following an overly woke script that overlooked the pulse of the American heartland.
“We have to acknowledge,” said former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill, now an MSNBC contributor, “that Donald Trump knows our country better than we do.”
As for Mr. Trump’s incessant media attacks, they haven’t been done without political calculation. He once told Lesley Stahl of CBS that “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so that, when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”
His success in carrying out the mission has no doubt been noted by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has enthusiastically engaged in mainstream media bashing, particularly in regards to the CBC.
Looking ahead, Trumpians are well advantaged on the airwaves and on other platforms. Populist right-siders are becoming dominant on social media with platforms like X, now run by Trump ally Elon Musk, other sites like Gab and Parler, and in the podcast world with the likes of Joe Rogan.
It should be noted that Mr. Trump has announced plans to install another supporter as Federal Communications Commission chairman. That’s Brendan Carr, an author of the far right playbook Project 2025, who has pledged to go after TV broadcasters that show bias as well as the big tech companies who form, he said, a “censorship cartel.” The cartel does not include his close ally, Mr. Musk.
Given all the other powers Mr. Trump has amassed with his vindictive election day triumph, a powerful fourth estate is now needed more than ever to hold him to account.
Alas, as he makes headway in turning the watchdog into a puppy dog, there is little hope of that.