The news reporting industry lost me and half the country during the 2016 election. We’d always known it leaned left, but they at least made an attempt to overcome it. As the primaries wound down and it became obvious Donald Trump would be the nominee, they dropped that pretense. We saw articles in major outlets discussing journalism’s DUTY to throw out objectivity, when confronted with a person who they personally viewed as a threat to the world.
They began a crusade to destroy Trump. The usual standards for vetting and confirming sources; out the window. Objectivity. What’s that? Polls? We can’t show Trump winning. Colluding and cooperating with his opponent’s campaign? Necessary. We’re saving the country.
It all fell apart on election night. They held onto their lies as long as they could, stuttering through the results. Calling states for Hillary as usual, and holding calls on Trump’s. They knew it was over by 9, and drug it out until morning, because the truth had become something they no longer felt a duty to report. That night, “Reporter, “pundit” and “partisan” became synonyms. Oh, how I recall the hours of them sitting there, spitting out the term “non-college-educated white men” like phlegm. Assigning sinister motives to millions of voters they’d never met. The media despised Trump and his voters. At that point, we decided to return the favor.
Trump’s supporters now view the news media as a gorgon. We don’t look. The gorgon told us we were 35% of the country, Tops. We know them now. They hold no sway over us.
What of the other half of the country? They’re loving this witch hunt. Many liberals relish the thought of Trump’s downfall. They don’t care if it takes lies to depose him. They aren’t the “loyal opposition”, they’re “The Resistance”. One of the antifa group is named “By any means necessary”. We’re talking saving the world here.
So, the media still has half the country on their side. I break these people into two groups: 1. Those know these stories are lies, but don’t care. 2. The true believers. They still think CNN and NYT are gospel. Both are hoping for “regime change” here in the good old USA. Their problem is: It’s easy to lie about a president, it’s hard to get rid of one. Eventually these charges will begin to fade.
When it becomes obvious that Trump’s going nowhere, the hopeful lovers of the media will get angrier. Dashed hope will do that. There will be blame assigned. They’re going blame the media for lying to them, even though that’s what they wanted.
There will then come the moment when the media’s going to be forced to report something the left doesn’t want to hear. I’m imagining the chants of “fake news” as I’m writing. The left’s anger allowed them to believe the news industry was only lying ABOUT Trump, and not TO them. It’s both.
Is anyone crazy enough to think the Trump half of the country will ever believe the press again? I don’t. The media will have it’s reckoning. The gorgon will see its reflection. I wonder what the Phoenix will look like?
Eugene Mattecheck Jr.
