As president, Donald Trump has had to face a media demonstrating unprecedented hostility toward him. A study released earlier this year showed that media coverage of Trump was 90 percent negative in 2018. Naturally, the liberal media has fawned over the Democrats seeking to replace him in the White House. Pete and Chasten Buttigieg got the cover treatment from TIME Magazine back in May, under the headline “First Family.” Before Pete, the media gushed over Beto O’Rourke, who was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair in March. Frontrunner Joe Biden’s inappropriate behavior with women and young girls was even conveniently ignored by some outlets.
There are countless examples of the media doing its best to elevate the contenders for the Democratic Party nomination. Yet, apparently, they aren’t happy with how they’re being covered.
The Democratic presidential contenders are letting loose with a barrage of attacks against the news media, ripping national outlets for what they view as biased coverage of their campaigns or unfair double standards in covering President Trump.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading the way, making his grievances with “corporate media” central to his anti-establishment campaign.
The Sanders campaign took it up a notch this week, calling out CNN and NBC by name and making the case that The Washington Post is covering him negatively because he’s been critical of the newspaper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos.
Top media personalities are firing back at Sanders and accusing him of taking a page from Trump, who routinely attacks major outlets such as The New York Times and CNN as “fake news.”
But Sanders is not alone. According to The Hill, “A top surrogate for former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign lashed out at reporters this week for giving outsized coverage to the former vice president’s recent verbal gaffes.” Meanwhile, Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro have both “blasted the press for what they describe as applying too light of a touch with Trump on issues pertaining to race.”
Perhaps the most amusing thing about this, aside from the fact the media is actively trying to ensure Trump’s defeat in 2020, is the fact that when Donald Trump attacks the media for negative coverage, it’s a threat to freedom of the press. But when Democrats do it because their fawning coverage isn’t enough to satisfy them, it’s totally okay. To her credit, CNN’s Dana Bash did say Sanders’ attacks were dangerous. “It is very similar to what Donald Trump is doing … [Sanders] is continuing to undermine the institution of the press by suggesting to people that we can’t make editorial decisions for ourselves because the corporate leaders, owners dictate for us. It’s incredibly dangerous.”
Some in the media may not be taking well to Democrat attacks on their coverage, but it doesn’t really matter. They still give Democrats flowery treatment in spite of their attacks. As president, Barack Obama was a true enemy of freedom of the press and that didn’t change the fact they covered him so favorably. By the sounds of things, if any of these Democrats get elected they’ll be even worse than Obama.
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