It's now Saturday, and Democrats have spent the week playing the blame game, trying to nail down exactly how Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump. Was it white women? Was it men without college degrees? Was it because blacks and Latinos are uneducated? Was it because Latino men are misogynistic and desperately want to be white? Was it plain old white supremacy?
Michael Tomasky explains that it wasn't inflation or the economy … it was because right-wing media dominates.
Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won? The right-wing media fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win.
— Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) November 9, 2024
I disagree this is the 'only' reason, but it's one of the most importanthttps://t.co/afl9p2sIib
Tomasky writes:
Let me say that again, in case it got lost: Today, the right-wing media sets the news agenda in this country. Not The New York Times. Not The Washington Post (which bent over backwards to exert no influence when Jeff Bezos pulled the paper’s Harris endorsement). Not CBS, NBC, and ABC. The agenda is set by all the outlets I listed in the above paragraph. Even the mighty New York Times follows in its wake, aping the tone they set disturbingly often.
…
This is the year in which it became obvious that the right-wing media has more power than the mainstream media. It’s not just that it’s bigger. It’s that it speaks with one voice, and that voice says Democrats and liberals are treasonous elitists who hate you, and Republicans and conservatives love God and country and are your last line of defense against your son coming home from school your daughter.
And that is why Donald Trump won. Indeed, the right-wing media is why he exists in our political lives in the first place. Don’t believe me? Try this thought experiment. Imagine Trump coming down that escalator in 2015 with no right-wing media; no Fox News; an agenda still set, and mores still established, by staid old CBS News, the House of Murrow, and The New York Times.
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So the right wing has more power than the mainstream media, and we were better off when CBS News and the New York Times set the agenda and established the mores?
Tomasky points to Fox News, Elon Musk’s X, and Joe Rogan’s huge podcast as proof that the right wing now controls the media narrative. To a point, he's right. Conservatives are no longer censored and shadowbanned on X. Try this thought experiment. Imagine the Hunter Biden laptop story breaking under X and not Twitter 1.0.
"I’m going to keep writing it until people—specifically, rich liberals, who are the only people in the world who have the power to do something about this state of affairs—take some action," Tomasky vows.
That's the spirit!
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) November 9, 2024
After all this time, you still refuse to get it.
— Lady Hecate ⚫️ (@hecate40) November 9, 2024
I highly recommend you invest in a mirror.
— Mikey _P (@mikey_part) November 9, 2024
You tried to dishonestly downplay Biden's debate disaster. Take *all* the seats 🙄 pic.twitter.com/yAEGijfbMl
— You Don't Know the Power of the Dawg Side (@OverpaidA) November 9, 2024
"Dependent" journalist, dependent on pleasing the elite inner circle if she wants to survive. Paid to investigate nothing and remain incurious about oh, everything.
— Joan of Argghh! (@ReformedArgghh) November 9, 2024
I guess she'll be leaving Buzzfeed now.
The lack of self awareness is baffling. Are you paid to say this or are you just that ignorant?
— Live Free (@she_wildandfree) November 9, 2024
Insufferable dolt. You still don't get it.
— JimmyB 🇺🇸 (@MOTT7) November 9, 2024
We were told for months that Biden was a whirlwind of energy behind the scenes and videos of him struggling were, “cheap fakes.”
— B. Miller (@BlaiseInKC) November 9, 2024
Or, speaking as an independent who voted "none of the above," maybe your party appointed an awful candidate who's part of the current awful administration who ran an awful campaign with an awful running mate?
— Milton Friedman Stan Account (@AndIllWhisperNo) November 9, 2024
Yeah. Pretty sure that's it.
Kamala Harris was invited on "right-wing" Joe Rogan's podcast, but her campaign demanded editorial control over the interview. Usually, she doesn't have to demand it; "60 Minutes" edited her answers to make her look less dumb and then refused to release the transcript. Ah, for the days when CBS News set the agenda.
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