Brooke Gladstone of WNYC's 'On the Media' says that the media has conspired to be friendly to Donald Trump.
Insane notion emerges among elites that it's Kamala who's being too closely scrutinized
If you are a media critic who generally sees things through a conservative lens, there is a crazy-making quality to listening to other media critics complain that the media is somehow too easy on Donald Trump and too hard on Democrats.
Wait, what? So the guy who is criminally charged several times, and sued by elected officials who ran on a promise to “aggressively investigate Trump’s businesses and finances,” and then sued by someone who claims she was assaulted by him after the law was changed specifically to enable her lawsuit? That’s the guy who’s treated too gently?
Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper.
It’s the same form of lunacy that causes people who cheered the jailing of Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro—both on essentially the same charges that Eric Holder was permitted to ignore—and then claim “without evidence” (to use their favorite phrase) that it’s Trump who will be jailing his political enemies.
This form of gaslighting hit a fever pitch this week. WNYC ran an orgy of self-congratulations and contempt for conservative points of view, a 90-minute special called “America, Are We Ready to Fix the Media?” hosted by WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, and featuring guests Brooke Gladstone and her On the Media co-host Micah Loewinger, who replaced Bob Garfield when he was canceled for rageoholism.
Brooke and Brian came up with a wonderfully Orwellian concept wherein journalists aren’t hard enough on Trump because of “sane washing” – the need they supposedly feel to pretend to treat him fairly. At the same time, according to CNN head of fact-checking Daniel Dale – yeah, that’s a thing at CNN –journalists are equally guilty of, and nitpicking Kamala. According to Gladstone’s guest, Dan Froomkin of PressWatchers.org, this leads to journalists searching to find tiny misstatements by Democrats “instead of exposing the vast gulf of truth telling between the two parties.”
So the idea is that Trump, who spent his entire presidency being called “liar-in-chief” by the mainstream media and having entire beats assigned to Washington Post reporters cataloging what they considered lies, is not quite being held to account. And Democrats are the ones being treated too harshly.
Let’s put aside the fact that the Post’s list of “30,573 untruths during his presidency” scored as a “lie,” for one dubious example among thousands, when Trump said on Jan. 19, 2021 that “All Americans were horrified by the assault on our capital.” That’s an “untruth” because it’s “not especially credible in light of the president’s actions on Jan. 6.”
So let’s look at the Democrats who the hosts theorize are nitpicked in the interest of fairness.
In March 2020, former Congressional staffer Tara Reade alleged that in 1993 then-Senator Joe Biden had sexually assaulted her in a Capitol Hill office building. She provided troubling and specific detail, claiming that he had “pushed her against a wall, kissed her, put his hand under her skirt, penetrated her with his fingers.” She told the New York Times that she reported Biden’s harassment to three of the Senator’s senior aides (Ted Kaufman, Dennis Toner, and Marianne Baker). Her brother told ABC News that Reade had told him about the assault at the time it occurred, as did a neighbor. Biden denied Reade’s allegation. And that was the end of it. She was never heard from again.
Compare that to the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump was overheard being a locker room bro and using salty language. Again, salty language versus an accusation of assault. In 2016, The media was 100% united and its assessment that his idiotic and sexist language – language, not behavior – should disqualify his candidacy. A candidacy that the voters clearly favored.
They were just as united, after two years of demanding we “believe all women,” in permanently staining Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation on a 35-year-old accusation from a high school acquaintance. All women must be believed, no matter how distant the accusation. Suddenly, someone accuses Biden not of salty language or high school hijinx but an assault while he was a senator. It’s worth noting that Reade wasn’t alone; according to ABC News, a “series of women came forward to accuse Biden of physical contact that made them feel uncomfortable, such as unwanted hugs, kisses on the head, and standing uncomfortably close.” Didn’t matter. No lawsuits, no charges, no nothing. Democrat says, “It didn’t happen” and the story simply disappears, as does its victim.
If that doesn’t persuade you that the media treats Democrats much more gingerly than Republicans, let’s look to a more current and troubling example.
Several weeks ago, Doug Emhoff, currently the second gentleman and running to be the first gentleman, was accused of slugging his date in public so hard that she was swung around by the force of the blow. The victim wasn’t some troubled rando, she was a lawyer, and one that the Daily Mail spoke to at length about the attack. It was also reported that she told her friends about the incident contemporaneously with its occurrence, which is some sort of talisman of proof, according to Democrats when used against Trump, Kavanaugh and others.
Not a single major mainstream news outlet has even asked Emhoff about it. Let alone reported on it. The only arguably mainstream publication that even asked about it, Semafor, was simply told, “this report is untrue.”
My gosh, what a brilliant defense! Had only Trump’s team of high-powered lawyers thought to use such innovative, vindicating language when E Jean Carroll accused him 30 years ex post facto. “This report is untrue.” Genius. And everyone not only accepts that, but won’t even report on the accusation. What a subtle and obviously effective defense. If you’re Democrat.
But it’s not just the obvious inequality on this me too type stuff. It’s the much more politically salient point of just the ability to tell the truth.
Trump is constantly accused of lying, no matter how obvious it is that when he’s calling something the “greatest in history,” he’s using rhetorical, normal guy speech and not making a factual assertion. The Washington Post’s list of “30,573 untruths” counts as 493 of those lies the times Trump claimed to have “built the greatest economy in the history of the world.” Does anyone listening to him make that claim honestly think he’s comparing the US economy from 2016-2020 to the Industrial Revolution in England? He’s making a rhetorical point.
OK, one might think Trump embellishes too much—that’s a fair criticism. But Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz has been given a near total pass on crazy whoppers, much more damaging to my ears about the credibility of his entire persona then Trump’s habit of calling everything the greatest or the best. Walz lied about using fertility treatments with his wife, claimed to be “friends with school shooters” and said he was in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 rebellion. He even exaggerated his military service and rank, which is potentially illegal. And yet, even as he’s quickly amassed a reputation as a liability to the Harris campaign (He said on Jimmy Kimmel that he looked forward to “waking up on November 6 with Madam President”), Walz’ untruths are characterized as ‘misspeaks’ by a “knucklehead.” Such a nice guy, they can’t be “lies” like bad orange man.
Again, the same for Joe Biden. His long history of saying crazy shit such as that he “used to drive an 18-wheeler” (Politifact rated that “false”); that a loveable Amtrak conductor told Biden that he’d commuted 1.2 million miles by train during his vice presidency (false), including many trips across the Francis Scott Key Bridge (no rails on that bridge); and that he “used to teach the Second Amendment in law school” (never been a law professor). Biden’s Three Stooges-like invention of having performed dozens of different careers is chronically attributed to his lovable uncle Joe persona, and never written about as a disqualifier for the commander-in-chief.
The double standard could not be more clear, and despite what was said for over 90 minutes on WNYC, it certainly doesn’t favor Republicans.
