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David defeated Goliath. But it took President Donald Trump to crush the goliath of liberal media.
In recent weeks, Trump has defunded the leftist public media at NPR and PBS and NPR’s top editor quit right afterward. CBS announced that late-night host Stephen Colbert is being let go, sending the left into F-bomb-laced meltdowns. Long-time Washington Post staffers are fleeing the outlet because it promises to use its opinion pages to support the scary combo of “free markets and personal liberties.” Major news outlets are settling Trump lawsuits and paying up millions of dollars. And The New York Times just reported that the progressives at Media Matters are considering shutting down, as well.
And those are only the highlights. Sure, Trump is not alone. He has had lots of allies helping him. Elon Musk, in particular, has gone to war with Media Matters on a global level, causing the group to rack up “about $15 million in legal fees,” according to the Times. But none of this would have happened with another Republican in the White House. No president since President Ronald Reagan has been willing to tangle with the press like Trump.
BOZELL, GRAHAM: TRUMP SUCCESSFULLY DEFUNDS NPR AND PBS AND HE’S JUST GETTING STARTED
President George H.W. Bush pushed being “kinder and gentler” and watched the media spin the economic recovery away enough that he lost reelection after he had 90% popularity. President George W. Bush suffered similar media mistreatment and mockery, but he pushed “compassionate” conservatism and tried to be friendly to journalists covering him, even nicknaming them. Only Trump has been willing to fight back. Then again, he also had the best reasons.
The American media joined their fellow travelers and hounded Trump out of the White House in 2020. They thought they had won. They used the phony Russia collusion claims throughout his presidency, targeted every member of his administration they could and ripped into his agenda and legacy. In the four years that followed, journalists hyped every bit of lawfare, every legal charge and every claim. But, to paraphrase a liberal line, he persisted.
Trump devastated President Joe Biden in a debate that pushed the often-incoherent leader out of the race entirely. Most in the press finally had to admit it. Then came Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump beat her, too. More than that, he defeated their press supporters by relying on alternative media like podcasts and influencers.
Here we are, barely six months into Trump’s second term and he’s having undeniable success. The border is effectively closed to illegal immigration. He’s stood by our ally Israel as it has devastated Iran and Iran’s terrorist supporters Hezbollah and Hamas. For good measure, he had the U.S. military bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. No boots on the ground. And then he moved on. Like a boss.
The fears of tariffs crushing the economy have proven wrong. Instead, Trump is gradually cutting deals that show his strategy was always about forcing other nations to the table to treat Americans fairly. The economy isn’t just functional, it’s strong. The stock markets recovered and the EU just caved on trade that the media are widely reporting as “a lopsided deal” benefitting the U.S.
Meanwhile, leftist areas devastated by massive disasters like Hawaii and Beverly Hills aren’t even being allowed to rebuild. The comparison is so stark, that if this were the second Obama term, the press would already be urging politicians to let him run for a third.
But none of those incredible accomplishments stands out as much as Trump beating the press at their own game. Defunding NPR and PBS has been a decades-long dream of the right. Trump didn’t just talk about it, he got it done.
The Post, one of the right’s perennial enemies, is one of the hardest hit. The paper that once proclaimed “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is now paying aging liberals to leave. The list of columnists running away from the Post reads like a Who’s Who list of liberal media types – Jonathan Capehart, Jen Rubin, Ann Telnaes, David Shipley, Ruth Marcus and Eugene Robinson. None of them was willing to work for the section that now supports “free markets and personal liberties.”
The paper’s oft-mocked fact spinner (“fact checker”) Glenn Kessler is also taking the buyout. Facts of the world, rejoice! They haven’t found a replacement, probably because Baghdad Bob has retired. Things are so bad, the Post’s obit section is on life support with only one staffer who hasn’t taken a buyout.
Then there are the lawsuits. Trump forced CBS News to settle and give his foundation at least $16 million over election interference claims. He also squeezed ABC News for falsely claiming he was “liable for rape.” That cost them a $15 million donation to his presidential museum and a million for lawyers.
Journalism has been in a decades-long downward spiral. That’s true. But nothing like this. Readers have tuned out media attacks on the president and there have been repeated layoffs at outlets that once made bank off of it. Huffington Post, Bloomberg, LA Times and Vox have all cut staff. Gannett joined the Washington Post in offering buyouts. Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr even called for news organizations to get back to “unbiased, trustworthy journalism.”
And if the media don’t do that, all Trump has to do is go looking for a few more stones for his slingshot.
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