Howard Kurtz: Media still in full Mueller mania mode
Audience appetite and President Trump are fueling saturation coverage, says Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz.
Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert once said that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.” What happens when journalists realize he’s wrong?
They fall back on the culture wars instead.
Oh sure, they’ll hype a congressional investigation of anything Democrats can think of involving President Trump. But they know that’s not enough to win in 2020. With their investigation investment into non-existent Trump-Russia collusion going belly-up, journalists turned to the old standbys – guns, climate change, sports and even space aliens – to rally their left-wing base.
IS IT HUGE NEWS THAT TRUMP ONCE LOST MONEY AND TOOK TAX WRITEOFFS?
First, the congressional madness – especially on the lefty news networks.
At MSNBC, “All In” host Chris Hayes said: “The president and his administration are currently attempting to destroy the capacity of Congress” and said Republicans in Congress are “working to destroy their own branch of government from the inside.”
Joe Scarborough of “Morning Joe” urged Republicans “to go all in” fighting Trump.
“Hardball” host Chris Matthews said the Trump administration is filled with “thugs, like characters out of a gangster movie.”
“You look at it and you think this should be our great unifying moment, right? “ Ward asked. “This is the moment when space aliens land with ray guns and are threatening all of us and we all band together like you see in the movies."
CNN chose a similar route, with guests and hosts using the term “constitutional crisis.” CNN deployed a massive backdrop with Trump’s face and the words “constitutional crisis.”
CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta freaked out that Trump wouldn’t comply with a House Democratic fishing expedition for documents and witnesses, saying that “it seems the art of the deal has turned into the art of the conceal.”
Anchor Don Lemon called Trump a “fraud and a con man, and the fraud and the con is on us, the American people.” All because the media discovered old Trump financial information about Trump’s business losses that Trump had spoken about himself years ago.
Many in the media know only a tiny part of America listens to such histrionics, so they either promote the culture wars or downplay them when they don’t like the narrative.
Grabbing anti-gun attention
Promoting gun control took the media spotlight. Any time there’s a major shooting, that’s their narrative. There is only one gun story in most of the media – anti-gun.
After a Colorado school shooting, CNN’s John Avlon did all he could do to push the gun-grabbing plan of presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
Avlon’s “Reality Check” was more of an ad for every anti-gun proposal Booker lumped together, including targeting the tax status of the nonprofit National Rifle Association.
Booker favors requiring a national firearms license, mandatory training and fingerprinting. Avlon compared this to a “similar program is put in place in Australia and Canada.”
Avlon didn’t mention that Australia’s plan was a mandatory government gun seizure plan. But don’t ever expect honesty from him. Instead, Avlon called the plan “bold” and said it would “help stem the tide of gun violence in our country.”
Showing there’s little difference between lefty news and lefty comedy, Colbert’s “Late Show” aired a fake “public service advertisement” also attacking the NRA’s tax status.
The show delivered its fake ad using an actress trying to look like NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch: “But here’s the thing: If you take away our tax-exempt status, how would we continue our great charity work? Like ‘Guns on Wheels,’ where we provide guns for hungry old people.”
I’m sure the similar narrative is accidental.
Space aliens and climate change
Liberals remain frustrated that the world hasn’t aligned the way they demand, forcing the U.S. to embrace extreme and costly environmental proposals. So an apocalyptic U.N. report gave many in the media just what it wanted – screaming headlines. Only MSNBC got more than it bargained for.
The report claimed that 1 million species are threatened with extinction. NBC News technology correspondent Jacob Ward discovered the perfect parallel – space aliens.
“You look at it and you think this should be our great unifying moment, right? “ Ward asked. “This is the moment when space aliens land with ray guns and are threatening all of us and we all band together like you see in the movies. This is it. And yet, that’s not somehow happening,” he said.
Even liberal MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle couldn’t go that far. She countered Ward’s “Independence Day” fantasy: “But it’s not. Hold on a second. But it’s not. For your average American at home, there are not space aliens coming out and saying, ‘We’re going to take you over.’ This is an intangible. So how do we help them understand? Because it’s not fair to put it that way.”
She’s right. The movie threat involving an MSNBC reporter in a starring role was “Deep Impact,” about a meteor hitting Earth. Not aliens.
Making sport of the presidency
People flock to the White House every day and it’s all good unless the guests are athletes. Then the major media do everything they can to turn it into a controversy.
Two of the biggest names in sports had presidential invites this week – five-time Masters winner Tiger Woods and the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. Only controversy was part of the media’s game.
Comedian D.L. Hughley whined that Tiger Woods “took time to normalize a monster” by visiting Trump. Mostly, the media were upset Woods was getting a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
New York Times economist Paul Krugman criticized the choice because “Tiger Woods ... hits golf balls for money.”
Twitter skewered Krugman, reminding the world that President Barack Obama had given the same award to singers, athletes and entertainers. That list included everyone from lefty singers likes Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan, to baseball players Ernie Banks and Yogi Berra, to “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels.
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Then came the Red Sox, many of whom chose to boycott the visit. MSNBC’s Scarborough blasted the idea of attending because Trump is “the most racist president certainly in our lifetime.” He just wouldn’t let it go, complaining that “I do wish that one white leader on the team would have just held back.”
Joe struck out. They went.
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