OPINION:
One of the biggest complaints of tens of millions of Americans has been how legacy media covered President Donald Trump not to provide information to their readers and viewers, but to destroy a political opponent.
As he was running for president and then through his term, we witnessed an obscene display of vitriol and bias fueling a mission to destroy a man simply because they disagreed with his politics. And because they were foot soldiers for the other side.
Most Americans knew Mr. Trump was a change-maker and disrupter of a system that had grown fat and smug. So did the Democrats and their enablers.
We were told that if Joe Biden was elected president, then everything would get “back to normal.” But the media is doing exactly the same thing to the American people, but now it’s through the looking glass.
Instead of promoting hoaxes, single-sourced stories that end up being false, approaching White House press briefings as combat, while seeding the daily news with tales of how awful and miserable everything is, in protecting the Biden administration, the media is now doing the opposite. The goal is the same, however: manipulating and conning the American people with misinformation.
Now we are subjected to the media lying by omission. They shush when the Biden administration tells them to shush. They approach White House press briefings as though they’re seeing high school chums for the first time in 10 years. The most noticeable things missing are the fake stories meant to harm the ability of the president to govern.
Instead, real news of malfeasance and incompetence are being ignored, and in the rare moment when a media entity calls out a Democratic politician, it is quickly deleted, reversed, and memory-holed.
When we do see coverage we often get mind-boggling slush. If it’s not stories about the shoes Vice President Kamala Harris prefers, we get this from Newsweek: “Joe Biden, Playing as Luigi, Wins in Mario Kart Race Against Granddaughter at Camp David.” Like you, no doubt, I at first thought this was satire. But no. The (cough) news magazine breathlessly told readers, “During his weekend retreat at Camp David, Biden and his granddaughter Naomi played the racing video game, and he won …”
Even North Korean and Communist China state media must be impressed with U.S. “news” like this.
During the campaign, we received a crash course on Big Tech banning actual news. Big Tech via Twitter banned The New York Post’s account and made impossible any distribution of their story about Hunter Biden’s laptop and his other legal travails. If a person was reliant on social media for their news they would have had no idea that the son of the Democratic presidential candidate was allegedly involved in nefarious activities.
Most recently, Americans watched as legacy media finally had an interest in the shocking activities of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Only after the inauguration of Joe Biden did the media suddenly become curious about the nursing home deaths scandal centering on thousands of COVID-related deaths due to Mr. Cuomo’s inhuman order forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-infected patients.
During the election season, however, Mr. Cuomo was held up as a hero of the coronavirus fight with Mr. Trump as the villain. Mr. Cuomo was awarded an Emmy for his daily briefings and appearances on television, and wrote a book lauding himself for his great work. Now, due to remarks made by one of his aides to state Democratic lawmakers we have learned that Mr. Cuomo’s office withheld the numbers of people who died in nursing homes because they were afraid of provoking a federal investigation.
During the election, the media portrayed Mr. Cuomo, seen as a Trump-hating “resistance” leader. After the election, it was suddenly more convenient to tell the truth.
Then there’s the Lincoln Project, a never-Trump organization that promoted itself as the more decent, more responsible, morally superior example of Republicans, while attempting to virtually assassinate Mr. Trump. He, you see, was the supposed immoral monster from which they would save America. Only after the election were they revealed as an entity rife with allegations of sexual harassment, sexism and dubious financial activities.
Both The New York Times and the Associated Press report one of the founders, James Weaver, sexually harassed young men via text messages allegedly attempting to trade sex with young men for jobs and internships at the organization.
Part of The Times report was a revelation that Mr. Weaver sexually harassed a 14-year-old boy. Fox News is now reporting, through journalist Ryan James Girdusky, that a second minor boy has come forward saying Mr. Weaver also sexually harassed him.
Moreover, political operative Karl Rove revealed on Fox News that he knew of the allegations against Mr. Weaver of sexual impropriety with young men. He told Martha MacCallum: “I’ve actually known about this pattern of behavior since 1988. All I want to say is that those 21 statements from those 21 young men who talked about how they’ve been approached by Mr. Weaver, that statement speaks for itself and I don’t have anything to add to it. It’s a sad, sad chapter.”
If Mr. Rove knew over 30 years ago, another question worth asking is who else in the Republican Party knew, when did they know, and why was nothing done about it?
No one should forget those trying to destroy Mr. Trump pinned their righteousness on his supposed immorality, and yet they end up being the most immoral, the most indecent, charlatans of all.
• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk-show host.
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