Did you know that Donald Trump is running for president again? Did you know he’s been indicted a lot and will likely be indicted a lot more before the end of the month? Were you aware that he’s leading in the polls? (The polls for the primary, not so much for the general election, but whatever.) Did you know who lost a defamation suit brought by a woman who claims he raped her in the 90s? Did you know he paid a porn star $150,000 to keep quiet about her claim that he cheated on his wife? Were you aware of the fact that he’s filthy rich? Did you know that he’s raised a lot of money for his campaign that he’s used for his legal defense fund? Are you aware…
Aren’t you sick of it all? It’s not Trump’s fault, at least not all of it. It’s the damn media. They really, genuinely suck.
MSNBC and CNN are desperate for Trump to be the nominee, not just because they see him as the easiest Republican to beat, but because they want a return of the boogeyman that gave them great ratings. Having Hitler Jr. on the ballot is a great way to scare the hell out of voters, and fear sends leftists scurrying to their security blanket TV shows for reassurance that the bad man will not win.
But Fox is no better. They seem to less in the propping up Trump business than they were in 2016, but it being less doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
I don’t blame The Donald for basking in all of it, he’s pulling the strings and getting tens of millions in free advertising. It’s bad press on CNN and MSNBC, but he’s never really viewed press as anything other than press, good or bad doesn’t matter to him. He’s content to have his name in the papers, which is why he speaks to the New York Times more frequently than any other outlet, especially conservative outlets. That’s his hometown paper, the serious one. His divorces, sexual conquests and civil lawsuits were great for the cover of the New York Post, but being in the Times meant he was a serious person. That mentality, which carried him to worldwide fame, continues to this day.
Again, I don’t blame him. I blame the media. Not for him, but for how horrible they are in covering the actual news of the campaign.
There are a lot of people running for president on the Republican side. You’d have to search long and hard to find an interview with any of them that isn’t mostly about the drama surrounding the former President. It’s much more important to know what any of these candidates would do as president than it is to know what they think of the legal issues facing the former one, yet that’s what they’re asked about. Not a one of them is running to be the defender of their opponent, so why the obsession?
Because journalism sucks. The whole profession, it just sucks. That it’s a business that exists to make money isn’t new, but that it’s a business that no longer exists to report actual news is.
These outlets conduct polls about events half a year away and act as though the results are etched in stone. They ask about issues most people have either never heard of or have zero understanding of for the express purpose of declaring they know where the American people stand. Why would anyone take seriously a poll about the “approval rating” of the Supreme Court when a huge chunk of those questioned not only couldn’t tell you how many Justices there are, but they couldn’t name a single one of them?
What any candidate thinks of the latest polling about the race or the drama surrounding Trump is irrelevant. Their reaction to his latest tweet (or whatever the hell they call the messages on the platform he uses that are screen captured and shared on Twitter by his staff) does not matter. Hell, half the questions for Trump are irrelevant too. None of us are his lawyers, I don’t care what his strategy is on various cases. He should be moving to dismiss all these charges as soon as possible, but the enable him to suck up even more oxygen and raise a ton of money. The alternative would be to campaign on what he’d do as president and answer specific questions, neither of which are his strong suit.
I get why Trump lets this continue, he benefits. And I get why the media continues it, they benefit. I don’t get why any of the other candidates play along. When asked about Trump they need to call out the media for what they are – lazy hacks – and shame them on to topics that really matter to voters. If you think the media is going to get any better when whoever the GOP nominee is goes up against Joe Biden, you haven’t been paying attention. They’ll always find something to suck all the air out of the room with because a vacuum is where they thrive, be it within four walls or between the ears of Democrat voters.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.