Whacking the media: Trump, Vance, Biden, MSNBC host hit press from all sides

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Calls for unity follow assassination attempt on Trump

‘MediaBuzz’ host Howard Kurtz joins ‘Special Report’ to discuss the media and political responses to former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally attack.

As if there was any last lingering doubt, everyone now hates the media.

I know that may sound like familiar news. And that we are largely to blame for our plunging credibility, especially in the supercharged atmosphere surrounding Donald Trump and the campaign, and even more so after the assassination attempt.

For decades, of course, Republicans and conservatives have felt they can’t get a fair shake from the press, who many now see as an arm of the other party, but now it’s Democrats and liberals who hold the White House and are increasingly disgusted with the coverage.

New technology enables both sides to circumvent the dreaded MSM and get their message directly to voters through social media and by their own video. That may get amplified by the tube and the web, without the annoyance of reporters asking questions.

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A side-by-side view of MSNBC host Joy Reid, U.S. President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senator J.D. Vance. (Getty Images)

Take JD Vance, Trump’s new running mate, who was chosen in part because of his smooth television performances. Asked by Sean Hannity about the terrible things he said about the former president in 2016, including "cynical A-hole" and "America’s Hitler," Vance owned it and then declared:

"I bought into the media’s lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. It was a joke." 

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The Ohio senator then seamlessly pivoted to: "Joe Biden is the one who’s trying to throw his political opposition in jail. Joe Biden is the one who’s trying to undermine American law and order."

Also taking shots at Vice President Harris, Vance said leading Democrats "all have gone on TV, on radio and newspapers and said for years that Joe Biden can do the job and he's doing just fine. Well, now we know they were lying, and we should punish them for lying to our faces about it."

Punish them? How, exactly?

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Trump's pick for Vice President, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

This reminds me of the time that Trump said that NBC and CNN should have their licenses pulled or other action taken for blowing off his Iowa caucus victory speech. I asked him about this in our Mar-a-Lago interview, but he just dwelled on the unfairness of being denied the spotlight he was owed.

Trump is in a special category because he constantly assailed the national media as the "enemy of the people" and attacked journalists by name, instantly downgrading them to "third-rate reporter" and their organizations to "failing." On the other hand, the former president views himself as counterpunching against nine years of endless media attacks portraying him as a dictator and authoritarian, Hitler and Mussolini, and a man who would undo the fabric of democracy.

Now let’s switch to the other side.

In an often testy interview with NBC’s Lester Holt in which he defended his mental acuity, the president asked about what Trump said during Biden’s own very bad night:

"Why doesn’t the press talk about all the lies he told? I didn't hear anything about that."

"We have," said Holt. "We have. We reported many of the issues that you had in that debate."

"No you haven't."

"We will provide you with them," Holt said.

"Oh, God love you," the president said, sounding exasperated.

Biden pressed NBC's Lester Holt on media coverage of the first presidential debate during an exclusive interview on Monday. (NBC screenshot)

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Biden naturally likes that story line, which suggests the press is falling down on the job because of a lesser standard applied to Trump.

Some of the president’s allies on the left are also expressing disgust with the fourth estate.

MSNBC host Joy Reid said there is "really a deep concern and lack of confidence in, not us at this table or us at MSNBC, but us as the media writ large."

Not us at MSNBC! I love that part.

Her beef is that "the media will acquiesce to trying to convince people that the things they’ve been experiencing for the last five, six years didn’t happen."

She continued: "And people are concerned and expressing concern that we won’t be the guardians of memory and that we will allow Donald Trump, as he is, you know, bathed in the glory and grandeur of his party, to rewrite himself, as both a hero and a victim…And that that will then happen without a guardian saying: ‘Wait, stop!’ and then the media will acquiesce to this rewrite."

On what planet are the media rolling over for the notion that the last half-dozen years "didn’t happen?"

And in what galaxy are the media quietly going along with the idea that Trump is able to "rewrite" history?

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Reid uttered these words on Monday, her first show after the former president came within an inch of being murdered on live television. 

No sign of compassion there, just the righteous anger of whacking the media.