Predicting what will happen in the New Year is ordinarily a futile exercise, but in President-Elect Donald Trump’s case, there are a couple of prognostications that will, without a doubt, come to pass.
First, Trump will be officially inaugurated on January 20—notwithstanding those ludicrous ballot recounts, yowling Democrats, the Russians, and campus “safe places” satiated with sobbing snowflakes. Boo hoo.
Second, as soon as Trump takes the oath of office, the news media will launch an obdurate and tenacious campaign of assaults and deceits designed to undermine his presidency.
No matter what President Trump does, no matter who he names or nominates for a position, no matter what action he takes or whatever changes he proposes, the media will react like a pack of feral running dogs, yelping and snapping at his heels.
Never in my 30 years as a journalist have I seen a media so wrathful and hate-filled about a president-elect. Nor have I seen the media engage in such a wholesale disregard for accuracy and impartiality in order to support one candidate (Clinton) over another (Trump).
Not even in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected did the media react with such palpable vehemence and loathing.
Sure, they questioned Reagan’s intellect and labeled him with some mocking names: Cowboy, “B” picture actor, and of course, “The Gipper” for his role as George Gipp in the 1940 film “Knut Rockne, All American.”
But those appellations pale in comparison to what the media have routinely called Donald Trump: racist, bigot, white supremacist, Nazi, fascist, misogynist, xenophobe, homophobe, Islamophobe.
The unseemly list goes on and on, and I am sure there are some sobriquets that the media haven’t yet employed to describe the man who Americans legitimately elected as their 45th President.
A recent study of the media revealed that of 11 key broadcast and cable news entities in America, 10 are demonstrably hostile to Trump. Only one, Fox News, has exhibited anything approaching fairness to the President-elect—and even it has raked him over the coals on several occasions.
For example, there was Fox News commentator Megan Kelly’s very public feud with Trump and several tough interviews with Chris Wallace and Bill O’Reilly.
CNN, which some people rightfully labeled the Clinton News Network for its biased coverage of the presidential campaign, will no doubt spend 2017 trotting out panels of handsomely paid “experts” to disparage and eviscerate Trump.
They will pick apart Trump’s every word and action in order to perpetuate their narrative that he is unfit to be president, that he is controlled by Russian puppet master Vladimir Putin, that he is using the Presidency to enrich his business interests, or that he is a greedy, anti-immigrant, woman-hating troglodyte.
MSNBC, which served obediently as President Obama’s version of Pravda for eight years, will be even more strident and iniquitous toward the Trump administration. It will unleash its lineup of fulminating pseudo-journalists and socialists like Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, and Lawrence O’Donnell to ridicule and denigrate the President and his administration.
Traditional news networks like NBC, CBS, and ABC won’t be far behind MSNBC and CNN in their unfavorable, fa
ultfinding coverage. Weekend shows like Meet the Press and Face the Nation will act as public whipping posts for the Trump administration.
Any positive story about the President that manages to bubble up from the networks’ cauldron of stewing malevolence will receive its obligatory 20-seconds of coverage and then it will be back to another anti-Trump harangue masquerading as news.
Then, there are the so-called “fake” news outlets like Facebook, Twitter, etc. where anything goes, including the most egregious fabrications and vilification.
Yes, 2017 will be a noteworthy year because it just may be the year that the nation’s mainstream media finally choke to death on their common bile of corruption, dishonesty, and insults.
President Trump will not mourn that demise. After all, he is already circumventing the press by communicating directly with Americans via social media.
Once upon a time the news media took seriously their responsibility to truthfully report and impartially explain the news. In 2017 I speculate the media will continue to abrogate those responsibilities and instead, continue their mission to spew anti-Trump propaganda.
I am convinced that biased news organizations such as the New York Times, CNN, the TV networks, The Washington Post, MSNBC, etc. are less concerned about Donald Trump’s “fitness” to be president than they are of his succeeding in his stated goals to return America to its one-time position of economic viability, political prominence, and diplomatic respect in the world.
A successful Trump presidency is the LAST thing Democrats and their lackeys in the media want, so in 2017 we should prepare ourselves for an unprecedented disinformation and negative news campaign the likes of which this country has never witnessed.
The only positive in all of this is that the news media have rendered themselves increasingly irrelevant because of biased and deceitful reporting. As we witnessed during the presidential election, much of America simply ignored the media and for millions of disgusted Americans the media are dead.
A sad state of affairs, to be sure, but one the mainstream media have themselves created. RIP.
