J.D. Vance turns media attention to Springfield, Ohio
Fox News national correspondent Griff Jenkins discusses the impact of former President Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance’s efforts to draw attention to the immigration crisis in Springfield, Ohio.
There’s so much bias and exaggeration in cable TV news that it’s hard to know what to believe.
Depending on the network, coverage can seem like it’s traveling between different galaxies.
And overall trust in the media has unsurprisingly plummeted to a new low.
Most people don’t even trust fact-checkers, so there’s no basic agreement about what’s true and what’s a lie in this crazy presidential election – no common information base on which everyone can debate.
Anti-Trump coverage contrasts with optimistic coverage of Kamala
This also applies to podcasters and social media influencers who have had a major impact on the media world.
Fox News, of course, receives the most scrutiny because its viewership far exceeds that of its two major cable news rivals, but there is little scrutiny of MSNBC, an ultra-liberal institution, perhaps because many employees of The New York Times or The Washington Post are paid contributors or regular customers, making their left-leaning environment seem normal.
On a rare occasion, someone will write an article saying, “That place is so liberal.” But another barometer is that Biden’s former press secretary, Jen Psaki, has her own show, and Symone Sanders-Townsend, a former aide to Vice President Kamala Harris, co-hosts a weekend show.
Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (Getty Images)
In fairness, MSNBC has some excellent journalists — no matter what Steve Kornacki says on the big monitor, I believe him — and MS also benefits from news packages delivered by experienced NBC reporters.
Mediaite’s Colby Hall writes that it’s no secret that “MSNBC has devised a lucrative model designed around programming that appeals to progressive, liberal and center-left audiences, and then sells those viewers to multi-billion dollar corporations who use them to advertise pharmaceuticals, cars and fossil fuels.”
“As we approach a crucial election, MSNBC’s blatant support of the Harris-Waltz campaign goes even further than what a news network should reasonably be doing.”
Trump blames Kamala for second assassination attempt, Democrats blame Trump for Haitians in Ohio
Hall makes similar claims about Fox, but says that “MSNBC is largely tolerated by the same groups that are intent on forcing each other to engage on social media.”
I’ll talk more about that later.
“There’s also relentless pro-Harris kowtow across the network, most notably when Chris Hayes said Kamala Harris’ performance in the debate with Trump was the best ever because Trump ‘couldn’t control her mind.’ Donny Deutsch admitted he ‘fell a little in love’ with Harris after her campaign launch speech.”
MSNBC host Jen Psaki speaks at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Sept. 6, 2024. (Joseph A. Wolfson/Fox News Digital)
The conclusion: “Perhaps most reprehensible is the complete lack of any negative news about Ms. Harris on air…Let’s not pretend they’re close to the press when in recent weeks they’ve come across as more of an arm of political propaganda working for the Democratic Party.”
Now, what most critics overlook because it doesn’t fit the story is that Fox has a news division, of which I am a part, where hard-working journalists and producers do their best to tell the truth.
Naturally, most of the attention has been given to the prominent conservative hosts of the opinion shows after 5pm, but it would be a mistake to portray that as all there is to Fox News.
Scandals, assassination attempts, political rhetoric: both have their highs and lows.
Here’s the proof: On big nights like conventions, debates, and elections, Fox’s news hosts are Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, who in my opinion are the best in the business, and CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash or Anderson Cooper.
But MSNBC is stocked with liberal commentators like Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O’Donnell, and maybe Alex Wagner. Not since Brian Williams left MSNBC long after the controversy that cost him his NBC anchor job has there been even a glimmer of a nationally known anchor taking a centrist position.
Networks are making choices based on who they want to see, which could result in them broadcasting campaign propaganda, as Hall put it.
Fox News’ Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier (Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Maggie Haberman, the ace New York Times reporter and CNN analyst, takes a more optimistic view.
“I think the media has covered Trump very well,” she told NPR. “There are always stories written on deadline that could have been done better, should have been done better, but people aren’t reporting as accurately as they should be.”
But Haberman argues that “there’s an industry dedicated to attacking the media, particularly as it relates to covering Donald Trump and all reporting about Trump. I think Trump is a really difficult person to cover because he’s challenged the journalistic process every day, for years. The system is fundamentally not designed to deal with someone who frequently says things that are not true as he does, or who says things that are incoherent as he does.”
She added that the media is not a monolith and “most of what the public knows about Trump comes from media reports.”
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To be sure, the right has attacked media widely perceived as liberal. On CNN’s nightly panels, media critics of Trump or fawning over Kamala often outnumber him by a 6-to-1 margin. Trump himself has led attacks on “enemies of the people,” often lashing out at individual journalists.
But some on the left, not just Fox but other conservative media outlets, have vigorously defended President Trump and attacked Harris for being too harsh in her criticism.
As Maggie knows better than anyone, being caught in a gunfight can be pretty unpleasant, but taking the blame is part of the job we all take on.
Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX News Channel’s MediaBuzz (Sundays 11am-12pm ET). Based in Washington, DC, he joined the network in July 2013 and appears regularly on Bret Baier’s Special Report and other shows.
