Individual reporters are, naturally, Lean Democrat at the average. In some ways, this forces them to bend over backwards to give Republicans a fair shake. In trying to guard against unconscious bias, they trap themselves in a different bias. However, there's something really, really strange going on in the prestige media.
First, there is the story of Trump's campaign "being hacked." Let's begin with the obvious: You should not take the Trump campaign's word on anything. If they say the sun is shining, look out the goddamned window. It's just as likely that a staffer leaked the material - which appears to be their vetting document on Vance and Rubio - as any foreign actor hacked their campaign. However, even if it was a foreign actor, the fucking media ran wild with hacked emails of Democrats by Russians in 2016. There is something pathetic about whining about fairness, but c'mon. Politico was always a hack organization, but now they are owned by an avowed Trumpist. They sat on this story for weeks.
Second, we have a truly troubling story about Trump apparently receiving a bribe from the Egyptian government in 2016. In the fall of 2016, his campaign was running out of cash, and Trump - being a cheapskate - refused to sink his own money into what everyone assumed was a failed bid for the White House. What allegedly happened was that Trump loaned his campaign $10 million right before the election and then Egypt reimbursed him a few months later.
What's more, it seems pretty clear that Bob Barr - paragon of the Republican establishment and not at all a corrupt hack - killed the investigation. What we can see is that Trump significantly altered US policy towards Egypt and their dictator al Sisi. We also know Egypt was bribing Senator Bob Menendez, as he was just convicted of that crime.
The evidence of a bribe was largely circumstantial and would have required subpoenaing Trump's financial records. Barr managed to rotate supervisors through the investigation until he found one to shut it down.
So three thoughts.
First, I have given Merrick Garland some leeway in his decision not to pursue Trump vigorously on January 21st 2021. I'm done with that. This investigation absolutely should have been pursued.
Second, this is exactly why Trump's reelection is perilous, even if a worst case scenario - Hungary - doesn't materialize. The lack of checks within the Republican Party can be seen in the career Justice Department officials - who are also Republicans - failing to do their jobs impartially. Trump will absolutely loot the American economy and the US Treasury, and the Justice Department and the SCOTUS will let him.
Third, this story should be all over every news organization. It combines things we already know: Trump is for sale, he corrupted the Justice Department and Egypt has been bribing American politicians. The Post story above is really good! However, this story has died.
The media simply do not hold Trump to any sort of standard that they hold other politicians. In 2016, you could argue that everyone thought he would lose, but even that is bullshit. He's losing now, but that's precisely why this story needs to be pushed forward. At Trump's batshit insane presser the other day, no one asked him about this story. Who taught these idiots journalism?
Trump is awful on some many axes that it can be difficult to catalog them all. The "flooding the zone" dynamic is true; there are too many Trump scandals to prioritize any one of them. Still, this story fits well into everything we know, and the Court of Public Opinion does not require proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
So it's a fair question to ask if the media are in the tank for Trump.
No comments:
Post a Comment