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The Press Shows Us What the Next Four Years of Reporting Will Look Like (Hint: They Have Learned NOTHING)

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jan 20, 2025
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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.

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Jake, you were just found guilty of delivering misinformation; you have since voided any claim to concern on the topic. Permanently.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.