Enemy Of The People
MSNBC, I expected better. Image taken from the Variety Magazine’s website.
Donald Trump is wrong about many things. He’s wrong about big things, like basic science, jeopardizing the ability of the global community to deal with the climate crisis before it’s too late. Indeed, maybe it already is too late, but we’d be less fucked if we didn’t have a President dedicated to ripping up environmental protections. He’s also wrong about the little things, like whether or not there were airports in the 18th century. And yes, that really happened.
But one thing Trump is right about, even if for a different reason than us progressives might believe, is that the media is the enemy of the people.
Now, I don’t use that phrase lightly. Some of history’s most notorious dictators, such as Hitler and Stalin, used it to refer to their political rivals. So I want to be careful: I’m not calling anyone I disagree with the enemy of the people. I’m calling the legacy outlets, who were so desperate to return this traitorous, felonious scumbag to one of the highest offices in the world, the enemy.
I could write a book about the way the media has normalized Trump. They’ve sane-washed so much of what he’s said and done over the last four years, paving the way for voters to elect him once again. Most infamously, the Washington Post owned by corporate overlord Jeff Bezos blocked an endorsement of Kamala Harris at Bezos’ behest.
At the time, I didn’t think it would have much of an impact on the election results. In hindsight, maybe it did; even a “marginal” impact can mean all the difference in this deeply polarized nation. But the fact that it may have helped to elect Donald Trump is actually not even the most frightening part of this.
Look at the image that heads today’s article. Morning Joe on MSNBC, the news network of choice for the Trump administration’s detractors, has just announced that they met with Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago. The same network that avocado toast wine moms making up the #Resistance swear by has now turned its back on any efforts to hold Trump accountable. Politics is just a game to them, even though real peoples’ lives are affected by it.
To their credit, even CNN is reporting that this meeting was driven by fear of retribution from the incoming administration. If it weren’t so frightening, I would consider this an amusing case of “be careful what you wish for.” The legacy media, and not just Fox News, clearly wanted Trump back in office because his first term was the best thing that ever happened to their ratings. Everyone needed to tune in to MSNBC et al to see what insane thing Trump had said or done that day.
This love, however, isn’t mutual; Trump is going to go after the media in his capacity as President. Legacy media probably believes they’ll be okay, and maybe they will be. But progressive independent media like David Pakman are going to be the first targets.
An actual headline of a New York Times guest essay the other day. Really.
It’s called “anticipatory obedience”, and the headline above is a textbook example of that. Yes, it was basically guaranteed anyway that Trump’s legal cases are going to end anyway now that he’s about to be President. Yes, that means the rule of law is effectively dead in America, and nobody should ever be in prison if a convicted felon is allowed to hold the highest office in the country.
But the New York Times shouldn’t be normalizing this stuff! The fact is, at a time like this, a free press is needed more than ever before, and the New York Times was willing to capitulate so easily! Trump hasn’t even taken office yet and they’re already saying that the voters have rendered their verdict. And maybe they have, but that doesn’t make it okay.
It’s just like with Sleepy Joe Biden. Biden spent his 2020 campaign and much of his do-nothing presidency warning us about how dangerous Donald Trump was and how he must never be allowed to return to power. Then he ran for reelection knowing he wasn’t up to campaign at his age, which paved the way for Donald Trump to be elected two weeks ago. And then, after the world’s most dangerous man gets voted in as President once again, this is what Biden does:
Biden and Trump, sitting near a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. If I told you that, I wouldn’t be stretching the truth too much.
As with the NYT calling to end the criminal cases against Trump, there’s only so much that can really be done about the situation. Harris trying to reject the results on January 6 wouldn’t do anything, and leftists aren’t going to storm the Capitol to stop Trump’s victory from being certified. But at a minimum, the legacy media and the outgoing non-authoritarian President (the last bastions of democracy in a supposedly free country) shouldn’t be normalizing this madness. It’s not normal. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.
All of the above is why it’s more important than ever to support independent media. If the Democrats and the legacy media won’t hold Donald Trump accountable (and they won’t), then that’s up to us. That’s one reason why I started this blog, and one reason why I would like you to subscribe to my newsletter if you please. Thank you.
