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On Inauguration Day we get a glimpse of the behavior from the press that is driving people away. There is no desire in the industry to fix what they are doing.
BlueAnon – CNN
Seriously, Jake, it was just THREE DAYS AGO you were found guilty of defamation.
Most normal people without the 100-PSI inflated ego of a journalist would think that after suffering a significant humiliation in a court of law establishing that your network lied and maliciously defamed a citizen, maybe adjusting your behavior is the way to go. Not CNN, and not Jake Tapper.
On Friday, January 17, CNN was ruled in a court of law as guilty of defamation and doing so with malice. A jury awarded millions in damages, as well as a sealed amount of punitive damages. Yet here was Mr. Tapper on the coverage of the inauguration of Donald Trump intoning a warning that the collection of media figures that attended today was a sign that misinformation might proliferate.
Jake, you were just found guilty of delivering misinformation; you have since voided any claim to concern on the topic. Permanently.
I swear, @JakeTapper has stones to report this - not only after the press industry battled against reporting on Biden's mental state for 6 solid months, but it has been mere days since his network was found GUILTY of defamation and malice for a report on his program.#KeepItUp pic.twitter.com/QlBrXniYvs
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) January 20, 2025
Low-Octane Gaslighting – CNN
How do you people not grasp that going full-Godwin is how Trump was reelected…?!
At the Capital One Center for the Inauguration Ball, Elon Musk took the stage and addressed the crowd. At the end, he indicated to the crowd how he was with them, clutched his chest, and shot his arm out toward the audience.
CNN hostesses Erin Burnett and Kasie Hunt went on at length about how this had been a Nazi-type salute, doing so by omitting the passage of him saying this, in a falsely-edited video clip. Yes, please, folks, continue with this level of stunted coverage. Your network will be ground into mulch by the end of Trump’s term.
CNN's Erin Burnett and Kasie Hunt omit @elonmusk saying "I'm giving you my heart" after greeting the crowd, failing the "smear @elonmusk as a Nazi without saying Nazi so as to avoid another defamation lawsuit" challenge pic.twitter.com/3Pd0mHO7DE
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 20, 2025
Matching Media Memorandum – PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE
Maybe imitating a network adjudicated as Fake News is not the best move.
Also selectively editing the Musk moment was PBS News. This severely biased news outlet is facing the most realistic possibility that it could see its federal funding be stripped under the Trump administration. This type of slanted news coverage is precisely why their federal largesse is going under the DOGE microscope.
Billionaire Elon Musk gave what appeared to be a fascist salute Monday while making a speech at the post-inauguration celebration for President Donald Trump at the Capital One Arena.
— PBS News (@NewsHour) January 20, 2025
“Some elections are important, some are not. But this one, this one really mattered and I just… pic.twitter.com/K8Fo0sdozL
News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS
All of the applause during the inaugural makes it hard to hear the crickets in the press.
Speaking of Tapper, here is a blast from the past he provided.
As Joe Biden's last parting shot as president, as he was leaving the White House, he issued blanket preemptive pardons for his family members. It is not only a tactless and deeply revealing act of corruption, but it defies Joe Biden’s very own words on this very subject.
There was President Silver Alert, four years ago prior to taking office, condemning the possibility that Trump might issue such pardons, and he swore it would be something he would not be doing.
That sucking noise is the vacuum of interest in the press exhibiting any type of interest.
December, 2020. Jake Tapper asks President-elect Biden about the rumor that Trump may issue some preemptive pardons before leaving office.
— MAZE (@mazemoore) January 20, 2025
Biden: You're not going to see me do that. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/YNyS0Qk9yY
Gilded Reframe – WASHINGTON POST
It almost feels like standards have changed after four years.
Also in December 2020, Philip Bump expressed his opposition to blanket pardons, as the theory had been that Trump would issue some. Yet, he is fully silent on the exact same topic since Joe Biden cut his family Get-Out-of-Jail-Free cards.
Trump could grant his kids a blanket pardon for federal crimes from their birth to the moment of the pardon and it would probably hold up if challenged. The primary obstacle to doing so? Norms.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) December 3, 2020
So, nothing.https://t.co/IwlUvxaiIu
Both Kinds of Standards – THE NEW YORK TIMES
The potential for problems is far worse than those already experienced?
Ezra Klein dusted off his crystal ball – placed in storage some four years ago – and speculated on what any upcoming corruption from Donald Trump may entail, and what it could lead to.
Bear in mind that Ezra is not so bothered at all about the actual corruption seen from Joe Biden.
The reason Trump's corruption is going to be such a gift to Dems is that he doesn't try to hide it because he doesn't think it's wrong.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) January 20, 2025
But most Americans do think it's wrong. The oligarchs literally lining up behind him may eventually wish they hadn't. Being the face of this is…
Race to the Bottom – CBS NEWS
Yet another network incapable of stopping itself from stepping on rakes.
Just as Trump is pledging to strip away DEI programs as he takes office, Gayle King shows that on her network they cannot refrain from applying racial standards to their coverage. She looked over the Capitol Rotunda as Trump was being sworn into office and had to note the paucity of POC people in the frame.
"I do not see many people of color," CBS Mornings co-anchor Gayle King notes of the crowd attending President-elect Trump's inauguration, which coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. https://t.co/qEPr9l5gC6 pic.twitter.com/cwM9gVFqxB
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 20, 2025
