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Legalized Press-titution – HOLLYWOOD
One of the confounding (for the left) and amusing (for the right) aspects of the election results is how the celebrities who endorsed Kamala Harris did not seem to hold much sway over the electorate. Now, Rasmussen has come out with a poll to show just how neutered this luminary support proved to be.
Following the election, they asked respondents how much celebrity endorsements affected their decision, and 75% percent said they had little to no influence, with over half (56%) saying there was none at all. The more interesting/alarming detail – depending on your perspective – was that more Democrats said the stars were inconsequential:
Respondents who identify as liberal were more likely than others to disregard the opinion of a celebrity, with a full 80 percent saying a Hollywood endorsement didn’t sway their decision this election season. Among conservatives, that figure was 73 percent.
Celebrity Endorsements Had Little Impact in 2024 Election
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) November 25, 2024
Kamala Harris had endorsements from Taylor Swift, Robert DeNiro and a galaxy of other pop singers and movie stars, but it turns out most voters don’t let celebrities influence their election choices.
More At Rasmussen… pic.twitter.com/D9Tibrayu8
Reporting on the Mirror – MSNBC
Now, if only the top-level executives manage to notice…
Amid all of the other strife unspooling in the cubicle farms at MSNBC – election results, ratings collapsing, Comcast primed to cut the network loose – there is another dose of melodrama to contend with. There is the lingering scandal of Al Sharpton discovered to have pocketed a small fortune from the bankrupt Kamala Harris campaign in exchange for a pre-election tongue-bath interview.
This dose of payola has been ignored by most of the press (attention: Brian Stelter) and avoided outright by MSNBC brass – they claim to have just learned of this conflict of ethics. But as Joseph Wulfson details, many inside the network are aware of the payout and how bad this looks journalistically. Some of the comments:
Everybody knows who Al Sharpton is… but this feels like a bridge too far. A big bridge too far… This is not landing well. // Harris could have given Al Sharpton an interview, and it would have gone the same way. But what are you paying for?... There's no way that this can't seem weird. // How does this s--- happen?... I think a three-year-old would see a potential conflict in this.
Demo-lition Project – FOX NEWS
Proof this is not an industry-wide issue.
We have covered how poorly the news nets of CNN and MSNBC have been performing ratings-wise since the general election, but we are seeing that this is not a case of all news outlets suffering a constriction following the voter interest waning.
At Fox News, they are experiencing some explosive growth, while the competition withers. The network places near the top of basic cable ratings, trailing mostly NFL programming. Across the primetime hours, the network averaged 3.2 million. Four of the programs – “Gutfeld,” “The Faulkner Focus,” “Outnumbered,” and “America Reports” – saw their highest-rated month since their respective start dates. For November, Fox experienced the largest share of the cable news audience in total day numbers, cresting over 60% of the viewership, while seeing close to a 25% increase in year-over-year numbers, while MSNBC and CNN have cratered in that category.
Low-Octane Gaslighting – CNN
“We only used pejoratives to describe you, so it’s not a hit piece.”
At CNN, they did a lengthy feature of Scott Pressler for Erin Burnett’s “Out Front.” Former Vice reporter Elle Reeve conducted the segment, interviewing Pressler in a rather decently even-handed discussion, but the network could not resist injecting commentary, and Pressler commented on such, referring to it as a “hit piece.”
Reeve responded defensively that it was simply an even-handed feature, but she has to ignore the voiceover and chyrons referring to Pressler as “a controversial figure,” mentioning he attended the January 6 rally, is a “provocateur,” and implying he was an election denier.
Race to the Bottom – WASHINGTON POST
“We have no proof but are sure he is to blame – Care to comment?”
Donald Trump’s announced Karoline Leavitt is already showing she has the proper demeanor when needing to contend with a hostile press complex. Taking a cue from the Ron DeSantis communications team, Leavitt shares a communication she received from Emmanuel Felton, the “race and ethnicity reporter for the Washington Post.” He came to Leavitt with an accusatory question, listing off what he described as a “wave of racist incidents” and asking Leavitt to comment about what “experts” call the result of Trump winning the election.
This typically slanted and pre-written approach is completely undermined by Felton’s own comment:
While none of these events can be traced directly back to Trump…
First Amendment Strike Force – CBS NEWS
So the inmates are running that asylum as well.
Deposed investigative reporter Catherine Herridge details the process she had gone through while still working at The Tiffany Network. She had been working on the Hunter Biden laptop story and received the blessing and encouragement of the top executives at the network to pursue the story in the Fall of 2020.
Herridge obtained her own clean copy of the laptop’s contents and built a report detailing all the pertinent information. But her work was never aired, as the editors and producers killed the story, in the same fashion seen across the media landscape at that time.
This is a reflection seen from other outlets and sources – such as Jeff Bezos taking a neutral approach toward election endorsements – where the power brokers are willing to engage in full-scale journalism, but the lower-level decision makers are more likely to contort and frame the narrative, going so far as killing stories. It is a sign of the rot in the media complex.
Matching Media Memorandum – NBC NEWS
Appetizers are prioritized over sovereignty.
Donald Trump has stated he intends to use the leverage of tariffs against Mexico and Canada in order to compel those countries to tighten enforcement at the borders in the name of stemming illegal entry as well as fentanyl trafficking. Since this is a Trump proposal, the press is in default opposition mode. Their argument, while expected, is also insipid.
Joining the chorus of journos who are mewling about the threat this will place on the cost of avocados is Chuck Todd, who apparently feels that keeping guacamole affordable is more vital to this country’s interests than preventing unlawful invasion and the flooding of fatal drugs.