Dan Gainor: Anti-Kavanaugh media and Hollywood bias explodes in a bad week for America

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel speaks to the media at a gala honoring David Letterman, who is receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at Kennedy Center, in Washington, U.S., October 22, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts - RC147B578B20

Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh was targeted for demonization in a disgusting display of media malpractice this past week, as he was depicted in almost every disparaging way possible in coverage of uncorroborated sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Comments in the media about the judge included: “MIGHT Be A Serial Rapist,” “drunk,” “aggressive,” “mean” and “probably guilty.”  And Kavanaugh was compared to convicted sex offender Bill Cosby.

Journalists didn’t just set the narrative, they marketed it, using similar phrasings to emphasize how the audience was supposed to think in negative terms about the conservative judge nominated by President Trump. This exposed the allegiance of much of the media to the left and Democrats.

While Kavanaugh was the chief victim of this blatant media bias, America and the American people will suffer long-term.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin accused Kavanaugh of having gone “all Trump Republican” to appease supporters – the greatest sin in the liberal universe.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed by the Senate and seated on the nation’s highest court, millions of women  are “just going to feel annihilated inside” we were told by ABC.

It wasn’t just the attacks, it was the group-think involved, making sure viewers and readers were hateful toward the nominee and Republicans. Note the similar themes in describing the judge, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia:

●       “An aggressive and mean drunk,” (Sunny Hostin on “The View”); “Angry drunk” (Joy Behar on “The View”)  “unusually drunk” (New York Times).

●       “Roared with anger, unjudicious raw anger“ (Terry Moran, ABC); “belligerent” (MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews); “unhinged” (CNN political commentator Symone Sanders); “unsettling temperament” (New York Times editorial).

●       “Attempted rapist” (Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports); “Kinda like a rapist would be!” (DL Hughley, entertainer).

This was quite a contrast with how the media covered Professor Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of attempting to rape her some 36 years ago when both were in high school. Kavanaugh has categorically denied the accusation and testified that he has never sexually assaulted Ford or anyone else. Ford has produced no evidence or the testimony of anyone else to back up her accusations.

As a measure how bad the media were this past week, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC was one of the most prominent voices of reason.

The descriptions of Ford included: “Some hailing her as a hero” (NBC correspondent Stephanie Gosk, “Today”); and “I need to apologize for all men” (legal analyst Daniel Goldman, MSNBC).

Calling Kavanaugh “angry and belligerent” was typical because the media were trying to depict him as unfit for the Supreme Court.

MSNBC contributor Cynthia Alksne made that very clear. She accused Kavanaugh of throwing a “temper tantrum” and added: “That’s not the temperament of a federal judge.”

Slate’s Will Saletan mirrored the comment, saying that Kavanaugh “lacks the temperament to serve on the Supreme Court.”

The attacks were only beginning there. Behar went on an unhinged racial rant even though both Kavanaugh and Ford are white. “These people are only interested in retaining white power in this country!” she said and said America’s near future would be “like South Africa apartheid.”

While slightly less unhinged, CNN senior political analyst David Gergen (a white guy) still found himself wondering “if you have a group of 11 white men sitting there on the Republican side, you have to ask: Do they get it?”

CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” anchor Chris Cuomo had the audacity to ask “Was Brett Kavanaugh known at Yale as a virgin?”

Journalism 2018.

But the media went from meltdown to calm down when Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called for a reopened investigation of sexual misconduct charges against Kavanaugh. Suddenly, Flake was their star. And CNN and others were singing the praises of “bipartisanship” – which they consider Republicans surrendering to Democrats.

The New York Times actually ran a sub-headline on an editorial saying “Thank you, Jeff Flake.” The main headline on the piece said: “Maybe America Can Now Learn the Truth,” as if the paper’s editorial board seriously sought that result.

Bloomberg Opinion Editor Mark Gongloff agreed, writing: “Jeff Flake's Pause Is Refreshing,” as if being a senator is comparable to being a soda. Of course, what he really wanted was obvious since he called Ford’s testimony “raw and credible.”

The bias was so bad all week that conventional media spin was shoved aside and countless smaller examples of a craven media culture went largely ignored. One such example is The New York Times apologizing for asking readers if they found Ford’s “testimony credible.” This is the woke era, and even the most liberal paper in America can’t ask such blasphemous questions.

The terrifying subtext of all this was apparent in many media outlets. Watergate liberal journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN that the U.S. is “in a cold civil war.” The combination of the Russia probe and the current court fight are "almost the Gettysburg and Antietam” of this war, he said.

Axios AM didn’t sound more optimistic, quoting a Republican insider saying: “What ugly times. We may be doomed." It explained that Democrats were already talking about impeaching both President Trump and Kavanaugh. “So the United States of America will be three-for-three in diminished trust in its branches of government,” it concluded.

The liberal media can take a lot of credit for that.

2. Hollywood Did Its Part: The stars were unwilling to cede all of the despicable comments to the news media. Jimmy Kimmel, who made his career by being a notorious creep, has now remade his career as a defender of women. Kimmel proposed a “compromise” to get Kavanaugh on the court, “in return, we get to cut that pesky penis of his off in front of everyone.”

The rest of the comments were a mixture of stupidity, hate and marketing. Woke actor John Cusack called the GOP a “deathkkult.” Actress America Ferrera compared the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing to a “prequel to ‘The Handmaid's Tale,’” claiming Republicans “will take away our rights.”

Actor Jim Carrey bashed conservatives as “ENTITLED LITTLE S---- like Injustice Kavanaugh.” (Carrey, has a net worth of $150 million, but he’s not “entitled.”)

3. Media Turned on Its Head: As a measure how bad the media were this past week, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC was one of the most prominent voices of reason.

Scarborough and his co-host/fiancee Mika Brzezinski were remarkably rational. On Tuesday, Scarbrough suggested outlets “put a (D) in front of the name of the so-called journalists that have already decided that Brett Kavanaugh is a rapist.” On Thursday, Brzezinski defended Kavanaugh’s fiery testimony, saying, “not being angry would not seem natural."

They weren’t the only ones. CNN legal analyst Paul Callan concluded, “the verdict of the Senate should be that his nomination is confirmed.”

CNN “New Day” anchor Alisyn Camerota criticized the allegations that came through anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti, saying some “frankly strain credulity.” That’s an understatement.

Scarborough was similarly critical of the third complainant, asking the simple question: “Who would continually go to high school parties where women were being gang raped?”