This week, alleged comedian Stephen Colbert had on CNN's Kaitlan Collins to discuss the 2024 presidential election. In the middle of the interview, Colbert began to ask Collins a question, in all sincerity: "I know you guys are objective over [at CNN], you just report the news as it is."
Colbert, presumably, expected his audience – all Kamala Harris fans, since Colbert is the most left-leaning host on late-night television – to nod along.
Instead, they laughed.
They laughed because everyone in America knows, at this point, that the media have become stenographers for the Democratic Party. That process was well underway decades ago but accelerated dramatically under Barack Obama. Obama's candidacy wasn't treated like a normal candidacy in 2008; relevant stories ranging from his association with radical America-hating antisemite Jeremiah Wright to his corrupt connections in Chicago politics were quickly swept under the rug, deemed irrelevant in Obama's quest for the White House. The media became cheerleaders.
And they haven't stopped.
They spent four long years treating Donald Trump not just as a pariah but as a traitor to the country. Every Trump tweet was treated as a declaration of war on the American people; every Trump policy was greeted with the sort of horror normally reserved for nuclear war. Meanwhile, non-legacy media outlets were deemed misinformation and disinformation, threats to the republic itself. Social media outlets that deigned to allow distribution of such alternative media were themselves targeted as abiding dangers to democracy.
Then Joe Biden was elected. For the next three-and-a-half years, the media did their best to treat his policies as benevolent and intelligent, even as inflation climbed to four-decade highs and the Middle East burst into flames. They treated his obvious senility as a matter not of controversy, but of established fact: It was a fact, they said, that he was doing just fine. Sure, he might be aging, but he was all there.
Then Joe Biden blew it all up. Insistent on his own durability and intellectual command – believing his own press clippings, presumably – Biden engaged in a debate with Donald Trump. He proceeded to crumble on national television.
And for approximately three weeks, the media did their jobs. They asked questions. They brought pressure to bear on Democratic lawmakers and White House insiders.
And Joe Biden stepped aside.
Then, quick as lightning, the legacy media returned to their Obama-era identity: as water carriers for Kamala Harris. The same candidate they had once deemed incompetent and awkward, the same vice president they had once deemed irrelevant and off-putting, was now a goddess of political oratory. Her inheritance of the Democratic nomination meant a new round of legacy media prostration before the new crowned heir.
And the heir is not to be questioned. Not about her lies. Not about the policies of her administration. Not about her kaleidoscopically shifting positions or her hideously dishonest vice-presidential pick.
We are now 25 days into Kamala Harris' nomination. She has not answered a single, solitary adversarial question. She has not sat for a single interview – even with allies. She has not done a single serious press conference.
And the media cheer.
That is why the Colbert audience scoffs at CNN. Because they know the truth, as everyone does: that the legacy media are a propaganda outlet on behalf of the Democratic Party. That they act as a Praetorian Guard for Kamala Harris. That they deserve less than zero respect for their pseudo-journalism.
They may be able to maintain the current cone of silence around Harris. They might be able to propel her to the White House on vibes alone. But sooner or later, the American people will wise up to the legacy media and realize that they belong on the ash heap of history.
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