Tipsheet

The Liberal Media's 'Rising Stars' Always Seem to Crash and Burn

Those who've been around more than five minutes know that the mainstream media is little more than a collection of homogeneous, biased hacks that do little more than support the Current Thing(TM) being pushed by Democrats and leftist activists. 

It's great for Democrats who enjoy uncritical coverage of their nonsense, but often outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, et al. get a little too far out over their biased skis when they begin to fall in love with their latest object of obsessive attention. 

Take a walk down memory lane with Townhall as we look at some of the mainstream media's recent "rising stars" — who get treated as saviors — only to fall on their faces.

Michael Avenatti

Where to start. Avenatti, dubbed "Creepy Porn Lawyer" by Tucker Carlson, was a media darling. On The View, Ana Navarro compared him to the Holy Spirit. His presidential aspirations were inflated and pushed along by CNN and MSNBC. Brian Stelter gushed that he was taking Avenatti "seriously as a contender" for president in 2020 "because of [his] presence" on TV. MSNBC said Avenatti was "in a justice league...to save our democracy." He was billed as "Donald Trump's worst nightmare" by Bill Maher. And then he was convicted in multiple trials for defrauding clients — including Stormy Daniels — and trying to extort Nike. Now the man so beloved by the mainstream media as a hero for truth and justices is...headed to prison because he's not actually Democrats' savior or particularly concerned with justice and upholding the law — he's just another failed flash in the pan that capitalized on the mainstream media's desperate ineptitude. 

"Beto" O'Rourke

Robert Francis O'Rourke, who's main accomplishment is being a one-time Vanity Fair cover model, has run for and lost almost every office he's sought since leaving the U.S. House of Representatives. Senate? Loser. President? Loser. Yet, he's continually pumped up by the liberal media as some sort of hero rising to vanquish whichever Republican he runs against and subsequently loses to. He's running out of offices to run for, but it didn't stop him from trying again this cycle against incumbent Governor Greg Abbott. The Associated Press has called the serial loser "Democrats' breakout star," but it's a mystery how anyone — Democrats included — can support someone who doesn't even know their own position on critical issues. "Beto" has flip-flopped on gun confiscation and illegal immigration, explaining in part why Texans won't vote for him. 

Stacey Abrams

Another Democrat "hero" who is in fact a loser in Georgia's Stacey Abrams. She's received more glowing puff pieces from mainstream outlets than fit in this roundup, despite using kids in masks as political props while going maskless because she deserves to be free. There was The Washington Post photoshoot in which it was declared that Abrams had "ascended" like some kind of radical leftist angel, despite the fact that she lost the 2018 governor's race and then refused to concede. Former President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and others have tried their darndest to make Stacey Abrams happen, but Georgia voters flatly said "no." To call Abrams a sore loser would be a severe understatement. She lied for months on end that she had, in fact, "won" the race she actually lost to Republican Brian Kemp by some 50,000 votes. But the charade continues and Abrams is again the Democrat nominee to take on Kemp in a 2022 rematch. If she loses again, it's almost certain she won't admit it, but the mainstream media won't hold her accountable for her lies.

Andrew Gillum

Yet again, when Democrats were desperate for an answer to Ron DeSantis who clearly had the political chops and conservative principles to lead the state of Florida, they fell for a phony whose shiny political veneer barely concealed his personal and professional indiscretions that crossed the line into criminality. Andrew Gillum, who was supposedly the man to make Florida a blue state, imploded in spectacular fashion within years of losing the 2018 contest for governor. First, it was the "incident" in a hotel room filled with baggies of pills, a vomit-covered pillow, and meth. Lots of meth. The former Tallahassee mayor apologized, claimed he hadn't used any of the drugs covering the room in which he was found incoherently babbling, and said he was retreating from public political life. Until 2022, when he was charged with more than 20 felonies relating to his losing 2018 campaign.