Media 'Garbage'

Just days ago, Gallup released new data about Americans' trust in the 'news' media. The results were dreadful, concerning, and fully deserved. The venerable pollster asked respondents, "in general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media -- such as newspapers, TV and radio -- when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly -- a great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all?" Less than one-third (31 percent) said they trust the media "a great deal" or a "fair amount." Exactly one third responded with, "not much." And a small plurality -- 36 percent -- said "none at all." Broken down by partisanship, a majority of self-identified Democrats put themselves in the 'great deal/fair amount' category, down more than 20 points from 2018's multi-decade high. Among Republicans, the number was a paltry 12 percent. The so-called news media has lost almost all trust among GOP-aligned voters, who justifiably see the press as heavily comprised of agenda-driven Democratic activists. Unaffiliated voters, the independents who don't see themselves as members of either major party, also hold the media's credibility in pathetically low esteem, with more than 70 percent falling within the 'not much' or 'none at all' camps.

Journalists' multi-day freakout over Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, in which they labored hard to turn a comic's bad jokes into a dominant, election-moving "news" event, was rudely interrupted by the President of the United States on Tuesday night. While participating in a Zoom call with Latino Democrats, Joe Biden -- who was not invited to his own Vice President's big speech taking place literally outside his house -- called Trump supporters "garbage." He said it on camera. Many in the media quickly sprang into action, with some insisting that Biden hadn't really said what he said, even relying on an inaccurate White House transcript to try to clean up the gaffe. Others, who'd been positively obsessed with the 'garbage' joke from a comedian, decided POTUS' comments wasn't much of a story at all, but rather a strange, partisan fascination of MAGA fools. Others floated the idea that perhaps this was all part of some master plan to keep the super important comedian's joke top-of-mind:

The full Biden quote from the Zoom tonight, which is being taken out of context: pic.twitter.com/fHT9PvVjiO
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) October 30, 2024

Dark Brandon Theory: Biden intentionally #triggered the right bc he knew it would keep Puerto Rican story cooking for another 48 hours, drive just enough PR turnout in Allentown + Phila to hand Kamala her margin in PA and the presidency
— Jonathan Martin (@jmart) October 30, 2024

Journalists' fellow Democrats struggled to settle on an argument. Had Biden not said what he said, on tape? Had he said it, but not intentionally? Was his insult of tens of millions of voters worthy of denunciation? Or was he absolutely right to call those evil neanderthals 'garbage'? Perhaps this old man who was "eased" out of the presidential race had succumbed to his childhood stutter:

You know, having listened to this several times, I think you have an octogenarian with a stutter for whom clarity is an increasing challenge.

Precisely why Biden was eased from race for reelection.

Really don’t sense he’s calling Trump supporters garbage. Ymmv. https://t.co/RpdEh09fmh
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) October 30, 2024

Plus, surely and inevitably, the real angle on the controversy was the "pouncing" and "linking" by those awful Republicans:

YOU KNEW THE JOURNOS WOULD DO IT pic.twitter.com/oKXNou94SD
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) October 30, 2024

You'll notice what they didn't do, which is play the actual tape. https://t.co/klxnFvYz7G
— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) October 30, 2024

The whole embarrassing display promoted these thoughts from me, which went somewhat viral on Twitter/X:

The ‘garbage’ contretemps is a perfect distillation of why media trust is catastrophically low. These people spent DAYS hyperventilating about a Trump rally pre-show warm-up act insult comic making bad jokes, particularly one about Puerto Rico being a garbage island. They turned… pic.twitter.com/VkeDwuucsb
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 30, 2024

The ‘garbage’ contretemps is a perfect distillation of why media trust is catastrophically low. These people spent DAYS hyperventilating about a Trump rally pre-show warm-up act insult comic making bad jokes, particularly one about Puerto Rico being a garbage island. They turned it into the LEAD STORY in the country. They insisted it was important, was moving votes, was emblematic of their already-hot ‘Nazi/Fascist’ narrative. Then the sitting President of the United States called the supporters his party’s opposition “garbage” — clear as day, on video — and the EXACT SAME ‘news’ ‘professionals’ immediately heel-turned into doctoring the quote, offering up excuses, explaining why it didn’t matter, or ignoring it entirely. It’s a laboratory pure instance of screaming, humiliating, self-discrediting bias, presented in a helpful and timely side-by-side. They know they’re doing it, and probably sort of hate it — but it’s just too close to an election & they are anxious that their party (D) might lose. They are the activist base of said party. So the hackery must go on. They have no choice. And they know no other way.

I'm surprised they didn't go with "cheap fake," though some thundered that this was irrelevant because Biden isn't on the ballot. He's not on the ballot because their lies about his capacity blew up on a debate stage, triggering a panicked nullification of an entire primary election. And you know who else is neither 'on the ballot' nor the sitting president? That random insult comic, whose unfunny joke was elevated into a 72-hour 'news' story by these same people. It's the wildly, cartoonishly hypocritical 180 that is both infuriating and very useful. It's so obvious that it cannot be missed. And it's illustrative of why the chart embedded above looks the way it does. Should we expect a course correction? Probably not. They know no other way. And they're both ideologically aligned with, and crave the affirmation and approval of, the sorts of people who demand that they be more nakedly biased and partisan:

UPDATE: The number of cancellations since Friday’s revelation now exceeds 250,000, NPR can report.

That represents approximately 10 percent of all paid circulation. https://t.co/XrDDWR3Vt5
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) October 29, 2024

I'll leave you with this:

CBS: You compared Trump supporters to Nazis. Biden called them "garbage." Hillary called them "deplorables." Doesn't that undercut your fake "unity" message?

TIM WALZ: "No, certainly not." pic.twitter.com/c79M9Kx6uC
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 30, 2024