Progressive media bias is now a given. The present generation of journalists and reporters tends to believe that just conveying the news no longer offers ample venue for their unappreciated talents, celebrity status, and deserved political influence.
As a result, they often massage coverage to find relevance as makers, not mere deliverers, of news. Like many academics, writers, and intellectuals of our bicoastal elite landscapes, they are naturally self-described idealists and left-of-center both politically and culturally.
Yet Donald Trump’s election as president has redefined the American media by stripping nearly all pretenses off its once carefully sculpted disinterested veneer. In other words, never before in American presidential history—not even during the dark days of Watergate—have the media so despised a sitting president.
The reasons have become clear: the outsider billionaire Trump’s politically-incorrect blasts and personal invective, his non-Washingtonian and often in-your-face behavior, his combative and undisguised contempt for progressive elites, his unexpected and unapologetic conservative agendas, and the liberal depression over his shocking victory that stopped cold an anticipated 16-year progressive agenda that really would have fundamentally transformed America in perhaps irrevocable fashion.
So the media’s anti-Trumpism is now daily fare. The Harvard Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy’s recent media bias study found that Trump coverage by CNN, to take one example, was 93% negative—a far greater percentage than even its earlier documented prejudices in 2008 and 2012 against John McCain and Mitt Romney.
align=”left” Donald Trump’s election as president has redefined the American media by stripping nearly all pretenses off its once carefully sculpted disinterested veneer. In other words, never before in American presidential history—not even during the dark days of Watergate—have the media so despised a sitting president.
But after nearly two-years of an anti-Trump drumbeat, CNN’s rote biases have become pedestrian. There are only so many ways a Don Lemon or Fared Zakaria can express his antipathies for Donald Trump that so far seem to have had little effect on Trump’s presidency.
So what comes next after mostly polished and polite disdain?
The last two weeks answered that question: obscenity, crudity, and a sort of cruelty—ironic given those are some of the character defects that CNN has lectured the nation about are inherent in Donald Trump.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was forced to confess that he was both “crude” and “unprofessional” when, during an-on-air panel discussion, he cut off Trump supporter Jeffery Lord with the following putdown: “If he took a dump on his desk you would defend it. I mean, I don’t know what he would do that you would not defend!” What a strange simile for an anchor to use in front of a national audience.
Then there was the macabre photo moment of comedian Kathy Griffin—a CNN New Year’s Eve show co-host with Anderson Cooper—hoping to recapture fading attention by holding, in ISIS fashion, a gruesome bloody decapitated model of Donald Trump’s head. Like Anderson Cooper, Griffith later apologized, but given that she was not so central to CNN, she was expendable and so let go. Her dismissal helped spark her subsequent whiny rant that she was now herself a victim of an untoward backlash from the Trump family. (The passive-aggressive Griffin herself once ridiculed Sarah Palin’s Down’s Syndrome child with “Oh, Palin, ur goin down so hard, you’d better just stay in Wasilla w ur “retarded baby”).
After the recent savage terrorist attacks in London, CNN’s “religion” scholar, Reza Aslan (heretofore infamous largely for eating cooked brain tissues with self-described religious cannibals in India), wrote: “This piece of s— is a not just an embarrassment to America and a stain on the presidency. He’s an embarrassment to humankind.” Aslan is channeling the vulgarity of other journalists, which in turn has brought the inner vulgarian out of politicos like Tom Perez, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Burton and other Democratic grandees.
These vulgar anti-Trump biases of journalists and celebrities on CNN are not new. We remember, for example, the December 2016 hot-mic, off-camera video joke of CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux and her producers about the idea of President-elect Trump’s plane crashing. CNN, we also recall, was one of the first networks to air the existence of the fake-news dossier about Trump’s supposed sexual escapades in Moscow last January. The list of unhinged statements by CNN panel members and anchors could be expanded, but the point is not bias per se, but what accounts for the recent emphases on the grotesque (beheading chic, references to feces on a desk, scatology like “piece of s—t”)?
align=”right” Crudity is not for the sake of crudity alone, but exists now for politics, and in particular for destroying Trump. The elite of the Left also believes, in ends-justifying-the-means fashion, that their ideological nobility demands unusual methods that might better further their message. CNN is merely the news façade of televised culture in general, as characterized by the obscene references to Trump fellatio and incest by celebrities or reporters like Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, and Julia Joffe. Once Trump is deemed bad, then bad language and imagery are necessary to deal with him—the lower the bar, the better.
The answers are many. Propriety has largely vanished from American discourse, a legacy of the 1960s when “f—k” and “s—t” superseded old expletives like “damn”, largely because of the supposed revolutionary shock effect on polite, staid society. Now a coarsened culture has become indifferent to commonplace obscenity and we are in a downward spiral of always seeking the next scatological or sexual one-uppance.
Crudity is not for the sake of crudity alone, but exists now for politics, and in particular for destroying Trump. The elite of the Left also believes, in ends-justifying-the-means fashion, that their ideological nobility demands unusual methods that might better further their message. CNN is merely the news façade of televised culture in general, as characterized by the obscene references to Trump fellatio and incest by celebrities or reporters like Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, and Julia Joffe. Once Trump is deemed bad, then bad language and imagery are necessary to deal with him—the lower the bar, the better.
Political and cultural impotence also explains the desperate descent into scatology and the macabre. The progressive establishment—network news, major newspapers, PBS and NPR, Hollywood, academia and the foundations—failed to stop the election of Donald Trump and the 100-day implementation so far of his anti-Obama agenda executive orders. Yet Trump was himself an adornment to ongoing Democratic losses of state legislatures, governorships, the House and Senate, and the Supreme Court. As a result, frustrated elites are psychologically melting down, as if unhinged crudity might do what past political messages and agendas and even the courts could not. If you will not change your political message, and your political message will not win the Electoral College, then you either hope to turn up the cultural heat in hopes that others will melt first or simply yourself spontaneously combust.
Sheer incompetence and laziness also play their own roles in the decline of networks like CNN into crude political movements rather than disinterested news agencies.
CNN has no idea of what are its standards of professional conduct (can a CNN political analyst like Donna Brazile leak debate questions to a candidate ahead of an upcoming CNN presidential primary debate and then subsequently lie about her behavior?). Instead. it adjudicates these scandals apparently on the basis, first, of the relative value of the offender to CNN’s profitability, and, second, of claims on race/gender/sexual preference persecution and victimhood (cf. Brazile’s initial stonewalling denials: “As a Christian woman I understand persecution, but I will not stand here and be persecuted because your information is totally false.”). More recently, CNN was charged with supposedly choreographing anti-terrorism protests in London, ostensibly as a way to further its narrative that British Muslim communities were outraged over the terrorists among them and actively seeking to suppress them.
align=”left” As a result, frustrated elites are psychologically melting down, as if unhinged crudity might do what past political messages and agendas and even the courts could not. If you will not change your political message, and your political message will not win the Electoral College, then you either hope to turn up the cultural heat in hopes that others will melt first or simply yourself spontaneously combust.
Again, CNN has no real norms about making rather than reporting news because in our age of fake news, JournoList, the Wikileaks trove, and Washington political/media power marriages there are no recognized ethical boundaries any more in journalism. (Will updated network ethical handbooks have to specify that on-camera employees are barred from eating human flesh, or from exhibiting decapitated representational heads of politicians?) From Jorge Ramos to Jim Rutenberg, we hear defiantly that disinterested journalism is passé, and active media opposition to Trump’s narratives is now necessary in lieu of an effective Democratic Party resistance.
Over the next four years, expect CNN and others to follow further the trajectories of late-night potty-mouth comedians and unhinged performance artists who must seek to shock or vent when they can no longer either elucidate or entertain. In sum, the aim of crude network news is now to propagandize by any means necessary.
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Mr. Hanson,
Superb analysis.
All this is true and needs saying – thank you, Professor Hanson! Yet to my mind the most significant contemporary development in political ‘discourse’ is the hysteria now so much in view.
One understands why Big Money worldwide, the Political Class and their conjoined twin the Mainstream Media, the vast national bureaucracy, Academe, and most foreign leaders, are teeth-gnashingly EXASPERATED by President Trump’s campaign and victory last year. His voters have blown the whistle on their huge global cosy racket and offered to blow it off course.
One understands why at universities and colleges students who are the beneficiaries of trust funds and the darlings of wealthy parents march, rant, riot and vandalise. This gives them an easy path of virtue-signalling to trot up and down at a dirt-cheap rate. All they have to do is parrot certain mantras and feel great about themselves. (Genuine virtue tends to be costly: in comfort, liberty, life.)
Yet why would *non-rich* youngsters or others get so hysterical about [e.g.] ‘Islamophobia’ without having first studied the Koran and found out for themselves whether there is nothing to fear in its injunctions requiring believers to subjugate the whole of mankind, by force, to Islamic culture? Why would unprivileged members of society rave crazily about the Paris climate accord when they have not themselves studied how meaningless the document is and what the claims for and against anthropogenic climate warming amount to?
Why are so many ordinary persons screaming and yodelling – and, as Prof. Hanson points out, in bloodthirsty and filthy language – completely subsumed to the propaganda which has drenched them?
The present raving and shrieking on the part of individuals who are not in the least well-to-do seems about as strange and silly as if the current inhabitants of the Rust Belt should offer to have a Civil War concerning the theory that Francis Bacon wrote the works of William Shakespeare.
In the past there have been bouts of hysteria in most countries; but they tended to be, in their distorted way, about issues in which most members of the lower ranks no less than of the higher ones had something of their own at stake.
My own explanation is eschatological. I do not THINK we are very near the End of the World at present (as we here and now reckon time in centuries and decades), but rather that we are going through a rehearsal for it. Just as Satan rages because he knows his time is short; so the ungodly have sensed (in their spirits, not their conscious minds) that a Judgment approaches. Hence the berserker frenzy.
The social banditry of the Left in America and round the globe emphasizes removing any mention of the living God from the public vocabulary. When I was a child in school I was not a Christian but from 1st grade thru the 12th, each school day began with the class saying the Lord’s prayer in unison. Nowadays, schooldays are not for learning but for indoctrination. Here’s Wm. F. Buckley Jr talking to Malachi Martin in 1978. Marxist Liberation Theory had already made deep inroads into the Catholic church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhV1Y08Gqes
Thanks for posting this video of WFB. There is no one today I can think of that can carry on a public conversation with such class and dignity. Certainly quite a juxtaposition to the examples Prof. Hanson cites in this, another of his, excellent articles.
“Liberals claim to be open to all points of view, but appear shocked and offended when they discover there ARE other points of view.” — William F. Buckley Jr.
TY Dr. Hanson. Nero has yet to appear. What will it take to cure this irrational exuberance and madness of crowds? I was hoping it was a cup of covfefe.
Well played….
A couple of points need to be made:
First, media nonsense has been going on for far longer than just the last 16 yrs. yes, if was previously more subtle, more delicately executed, but certainly left wing since the Viet Nam war.
Secondly, until Trump came along, the republicans indulged it and facilitated, with very few exceptions (Brent Bozell comes to mind). Republicans argued, yes, but they never did anything to correct the obvious bias. When did one not appear on a program in spite of knowing the outcome in advance. They went on these shows, which collectively and unvaryingly humiliated us and our values. Even FOX news, the supposed conservative outlet, included liberal hosts eager, for example, to castigate gun owners for being too selfish to “sacrifice for Gabby.”
Thirdly, Rush Limbaugh and the internet came along and, thank God above, saved the sanity of many of us. The Drudge Report almost single-handedly saved this country. Intelligent discussion supportive of conservative values could be found on many sites, such as NR. We are shocked, however, to then discover many of these sites – most especially NR – actually deceived us the entire time. They pretended to support our values but deceitfully supported the progressive agenda, only at a slightly slower pace than Dems. They secretly love obamacare in spite of criticizing it. They hated the Tea Party in spite of supporting it. They secretly went along with media denigration of conservative values because they were more aligned with the media than with their followers. Trump called out all of them and outed them as the back room progressives they really are. And of course there was lots of money to be made in deceiving people.
At this point, I’m totally fed up with all media, left and right. The other conservative sites out there are mostly like NR. They all lie and none of trustworthy. They hate Trump, the elected President of our country and they look for any opportunity to slid in the shiv, I suppose for self glory and esteem of their other media buddies.
Dude. Why don’t you take your angry self over to NRO and vent your spleen? I get it that you’re pissed off, but I don’t like being pissed on, and all you want to do is piss.
@TboneAgain, sorry if that came across as anger…I guess there’s no need for that when conservatives have been mistreated in the media for 50 yr…we should be used to it by now. And when the Dems, with help from those we elected to represent us, cook up a scheme to throw out of office a president we elected, we should probably just expect too. And, btw, when when the incoming head of Justice, following by all obvious signs an outgoing one who appears as corrupt as Comey, then just folds and abandons a president who trusted him and needed his help, no biggie right? I’m cool with dispassionate analysis of issues, but at what point to you finally get PO’d with scales being tipped and want to see a change? This is not spleen venting. It is about spreading awareness. And btw, NRO, is just about the last place I could think of to go to do that. I’m not at Breitbart stirring up racial animosity. I’m here pointing out the obvious. Comey is crook, and the conservative supporters of our president should be making that known. To the extent they do not, they are identifying themselves as closet progressives. This is a rare moment of clarity for voters.
No need to apologize. The anger is understandable, though you were flaming about 12 on a scale of 1 to 10.
We escaped certain doom (Hillary) last year by electing Trump, but we now face the problem of dealing with what we have wrought. With him, we inherit the lockstep hatred of the mainstream press and academia and most of Hollywood. Sadly, we also have a sort of buffoon in the Oval Office, one who thinks his asinine tweets actually accomplish something.
Stick with the program, my friend. And don’t shut out NRO. It ain’t that bad, and you’ll see me over there. (Different screen name.)
Excellent point. The elitist never Trumpers are jerks too.
It’s not media bias but left-wing media bigotry.
When I was in school, the understanding was that the British press were unabashedly partisan while the American press stayed objective. It didn’t take long after graduation to figure out the objectivity was just a partisan pose. The American press taken on the shape of the British press, but without Brit journalists’ sense of humor. Our press is still too self-important for that.
I’m glad the mask is off. All conservatives are. They can no longer pose as disinterested adjudicators. They’re the enemy and deserve to be treated as such.
Thank you, President Trump.
Very well said Sean.
“…In sum, the aim of crude network news is now to propagandize by any means necessary…”
Unfortunately, anyone who puts credence in what they hear in those highly partisan outlets wouldn’t “lower themselves” to learn from observations within articles like this; and indeed would claim non-partisan analysis is definitively partisan purely because it holds them to account.
Nice article, and I won’t hold my breath to hear about the Harvard Shorenstein study on the NBC Nightly News.
They are in fact the enemy, and the sooner they are shut down the better.
This represents my sole criticism of President Trump: He could shut down CNN, NBC, CBS, NYT, Wapo and even the WSJ today, if he had the guts to do it. I honestly don’t understand why he tolerates their presence.
Nobody watches CNN anymore. I used to leave it on for my dog, WHEN I was gone, so he would not be lonely. But lately, even my cocker spaniel said He had “had enough”!!……
My daughter used to leave it on for her cat.
Coming home, she had to search for the cat because it would seek the farthest location from the TV, and hide. Usually a closet where it couldn’t hear it.
CNN for the cat?? That is cruelty to animals. Leave a PBS nature show on for the cat (cats love that stuff), but not CNN.
Tom: “NOBODY watches CNN.”……..rrrrrriiiiiiggggghhhhhttttt…..
An imbecilic comment like this, ……oh dear……
Grade Eight?
Rick Taylor – a notorious advocate of gay pedophiles like Obama and necrophiles like Hillary.
Get lost, you are a disgusting pile of non-human manure.
A true-blue snowflake……
Well written and insightful.
Once again Hanson reminds us that, by far, the best development arising from the 2016 election was the outing of the “tolerant” American leftist and their media collaborators as the fraudulent, win by any means necessary, hypocrites they truly are–and have always been.
Agreed… but really… all sorts of masks dropped in 2016. Everyone that dared, went all in to stop Trump…. and lost. So , we live in a new period of adjustment where half the country voted a guy in and like him, and yet they are treated like a “problem” or influenced by Russia and Facebook. Crazy. The elite are scared.
Absolutely 100% correct.
The U.S. media is openly practicing treason on a daily basis, and has made it a fashionable pursuit for gullible stooges worldwide.
Another article about the New Yawk Times treachery toward The American People:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/06/today-in-times-treachery.php
Liberalism can spread all the lies they want esp about Russia and not hold
themselves accountable. The lying libs can have commentators call
for the murder, forced removal, or resignation of Trump or a NY times columnist
can ask the IRS to commit a felony by sending him Trump’s tax returns OR whine
about a Russian connection without ANY EVIDENCE at all!….meanwhile when their own low info voter media references
LEAKED material, they suddenly can’t remember a thing and
haven’t a clue that even the FISA court said US hating obama was illegally
spying on innocent US citizens
Well done, sir. Thank you.
Brilliant. Why are cable subscribers still forced to subsidize the garbage on CNN, MSNBC, etc. in their monthly subscription fees? Without that funding, many if not most of them would simply fail.
That would make my day!
After shilling for and conniving with the Obama administration for eight years, during which it was largely self-neutered, it is hardly surprising that the press would transform itself into a shrieking, vindictive partisan of the Democrat party in response to a Republican President; it is two sides of the same counterfeit coin. Thank God the mask is now off, and the public can see them for what they are. They do more to ensure his re-election than money can buy.
Well said sir.
CNN is definitely not a news network. It is a propaganda organ for the Democratic party.
Watching Wonder Woman at the movies will put you more in touch with reality than watching CNN.
If its true that CNN is a propaganda tool for the Democratic party, would it be correct then to say that Fox News is a propaganda tool for the Republican party? Just asking.
R u also blind,deaf and dumb. Just asking.
Absolutely but in slightly different ways depending on what party is in power. However, CNN is much more vile than Fox.
Did FOX give Hillary the debate questions?
In short, no. Fox News never set itself up as the opposition, or the “resistance,” to Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. Fox has gone out of its way to include Leftist viewpoints, employing full-time the likes of Beckel, Colmes, Williams, and others. Fox News has never been the echo chamber that CNN and MSNBC embody.
That’s part of my issue with Fox, whom I consider the “least bad” of the cable networks. They do in fact allow liberal voices on Fox, and even if it’s just to ridicule them I don’t think people should have to see that stuff. Also, Mr. Chris Wallace and Mrs. Shep Smith are just plain embarrassments.
Why would the one make the OTHER true? Party affiliations shift in the wind. We’ve always known that CNN is a shill for the OneWorld people. Fox has become the same, conquered right before our eyes. The Democratic Party is now the Marxist Party, and the Republican Party is confused. PRESIDENT Trump is neither fish nor fowl, EXACTLY what America needs. I think that, if examined, you’ll find that your pain is all coming from your ButtHurt, Mr. Pitt. You’ve had the abrasions so long now that you don’t even know where the pain is coming from. Put lipstick on a pig and it is STILL a Democrat!
Fox news was with her.
Did FOX give Trump debate questions?
CNN was once a pretty good news source. But nowadays, nah.
When I’m in a waiting room or an airport or a tavern and CNN is on the TV, I wonder whether the person in charge of the remote is in his 70s or in his 20s. Or maybe they just can’t find the damn remote.
I work for a busy hotel/resort. Whenever I see CNN on in the lobby, I switch it off to a different channel. Nobody should be subjected to that make-believe news network.
If you watch the video of cnn staging the “muslim mums” fake news, take note of the police. The 2 white ones are moved out and replaced with darker ones for the shoot. After, the police switch back and the “muslim mums” immediately take off.
Exactly!
Sometimes we come across the written word that demonstrates, is factual and reads pure as your article does Professor Hanson. This morning I read an article written about Eric Trump which used the word “reportedly” 5 times. That is not factual nor journalistic research. Professor Hanson thank you for respecting the freedom that so many of us (my generation) fought to defend. When so many journalist witness tragedy and suffering abroad only to return to the safety and security of home and resume writing speculations the value of their freedoms they demonstrate.
Truth is the new obscenity.
If the definition of obscenity is a word or the description of a practice that so violates cultural norms as to shock and discomfit the listener, and the purpose of political correctness is to render beliefs and concepts that are antithetical to progerssivism taboo, then piety and honesty now have greater shock value than sacrilege and dishonesty.
Public prayer is banned; public nudity is not. The Isis flag is chic; displaying the American flag is institutionally prohibited. Coming out as gay or lesbian or trans is wholesome; practicing chastity and monogamy is neurotic. Patriotism is antisocial; anti-americanism is affirmative.
Maybe this will become the next social revolution.
It’s funny how a man who’s been in the public eye most of his adult life and who marketed a personality that was deemed popular enough to get his own show on TV became the devil incarnate literally overnight when he declared his candidacy.
What’s even funnier is that the presstitutes think no one noticed their sudden turn against him.
The media is now so consumed with hatred for the man Trump that it doesn’t bother to cover what he’s doing. They are eating at their very existence. This kind of behavior results in excessive reliance on alcohol and then a breakdown that could even result in institutionalizing if it goes on too long. Pity these poor misbegotten fools who have lost their collective way.
The key word being “collective”.
President Trump’s tweets and other actions have similarities to the effects of an HIV infection on the immune system.
They cause an over-reaction from the legacy media and Democrats (an exaggerated immune response) which, repeated often enough, ultimately results in the exhaustion of this political immune system, and depletion of the immune compartment. This leads to a state of anergy, in which the immune system (the MSM and Democrats) is eventually unable to mount a normal immune response against a specific antigen (Donald Trump). As you say, a breakdown.
Thank you, Dr. Hanson for specifically calling out CNN as they try to out-MSNBC, MSNBC. Their 180 degree turnaround is breathtaking. From eliciting a yawn when Obama was caught on a hot mic colluding with Russia to the sudden realization that Russia is bad, they define the current state of journalism. Waiting for a microphone to be shoved into Zucker’s face demanding to know why Reza Aslan is still connected to the network. Nah, that only happens with conservatives.
Another change that VDH didn’t talk about in this article is the selective use of POLLING. The media uses and abuses polling to sell whatever narrative is vogue. I and I think most people just don’t believe any polls, especially when they seem to support the MSM narrative. Polling has become pretty dishonest and it’s lost its value for critical thinking and analysis. It’s a shame.
GREAT Point! The polling was so bad during the waning days of the 2016 election, I think most of the country was in shock and total surprise that Donald Trump was elected President of the USA (on both sides of the isle!). ALL of the polling pointed to Hillary Clinton being #45. I went to the voting booth believing in my heart she would be our first woman president. I’ve never been so glad the polls were so wrong in all of my days!
Makes me really wonder about the 40% approval ratings President Trump is at today. I just think polling it’s all junk propaganda at this point.
I had hopes for Clintons defeat. My problem is that almost half of the people in this country want to make us a Venezuela.
Yes, I don’t believe in the MSM’s polls at all anymore.
This is true.
Further, additional, reasons why polling is now very much to be taken with a pinch of salt. – The pollsters don’t ask sufficiently subtle questions really to find out people’s intentions; and they ignore the gigantic percentage who nowadays say (often pretending) they haven’t yet made up their minds. So if 35% say they are going to vote Democrat, 35% Republican, and 30% say ‘Don’t Know’, the pollsters tend to eliminate the undeclared 30% – who might be shy Trumpians or anything else – and declare that currently opinion is a dead heat.
We’ll see how dishonest when the result of the Brits election are known.
Let the FCC unbundle cable packages and see how long CNN exists. Answer: not long.
Yes, if subscribers can select their cable networks without having to purchase a “bundle package” you’ll see which networks are truly popular and which aren’t.
Excellent point! I dropped ESPN and asked if they could unbundle CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and NBC. The customer rep laughed and said: “A lot of people are asking that question”! CNN would be out of business in a blink.
This is happening in the media as we chat here now.
Oh Clark mild mannered won’t cut it on CNN. You’re fired.
There are some excellent comments on this website. Excellent article by Prof. Hanson, and some very good comments. Like the moniker, Crude News Network, so appropriate. I’ve been deeply concerned how the FCC has failed to demand higher standards of professional conduct as many of these crude comments reach general audiences.
It appears that boorish and indecent rhetoric as intensified as the public has become insensitive to the desperate narratives from ignorant broadcasters. The term “newscasters” is not even appropriate to use for these teleprompt readers. The term “Uniparty” is an expression that bears merit, as we’ve seen liberal, Democratic, and media sources collaborate on promulgating bigoted and hateful narratives.
What is the source of such biased reporting? Previous jounalists have commented that the prevalence of liberal thought at many universities was sponsored by ME money for the purpose of undermining conservative viewpoints.
Comments?
all the crudeness in the media is a response to the so-called president of the united states declaring war on the media, telling people to go f themselves, and referring to grabbing women by the pussy
if it bothers you, take it up with the so-called president.
Who is the “so-called president?”
You missed the point.
Again.
Go f yourself.
Your president Clinton shoved his member – and his cigar – regularly into the mouth and vagina of his White House intern, spewing all over her and the Oval Office. He was then convicted of perjury and impeached.
Meanwhile, now-President Trump once talked to a man in a locker room correctly noting how some women are gold-diggers. He, of course, did not coin the term.
You need to clean up the filth of your party before you dare speak the name of President Trump and your other betters.
The only reason this “so called” President sits in the White House is that the previous occupant was celebrated while every thing he touched turned to disaster, and then lies about how it wasn’t his fault. The left is dead. Long live the left.
It is past time to take back truth from the propagandist…
But how?
At worst, attempting to sabotage a fairly elected president… at the very least, hamstringing him from enacting his agenda. A win/win for the media.
That will only happen if he, and even more importantly his supporters, let the media do it. Every time a vomit of negative stories (all of them lies) ticks his polls down, they win. If you supported, or now support, Trump don`t let the media lies sway you. It`s that simple. And as long as his supporters are behind him, he will not falter.
Polls aren’t accurate and can be ignored
But they also give a glimpse of what the enemy of decent normal people are up to, and should be studied.
They didn’t hamstring Trump.
Paris, Gorsuch, immigration enforcement, none of that was stopped by the media debasing themselves
But not because the media didn’t TRY to hamstring him. They did, and they continue to do so.
On what policy did they hamstring him?
I’m just not seeing it
It’s nice to see people are starting to get a firm grasp on the glaringly obvious. Our TV went to the dump in 2001.
BINGO. CNN is the mouthpiece of the wealthy.
The media is the AIDS virus in the body politic. The protector has turned on its host.
Trump is carpet-bombing the Left 24/7. Paris Accord bailout was a direct hit on an major ideological ammo dump. Left’s insanity increases pari passu. The Left knows the end is night, because everywhere the are abandoning any rational raison d’être of their masked “institutions” What’s not to like?
The 2018 Midterm is the Left’s last hope.
They need to, and will, dump everything they have into it.
The Democratic Party is the “Black Knight” — hopeless now and forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhRUe-gz690
The business model of the ProgMedia has morphed to incitement of mob violence and in-your-face sedition. And they are mystified why they are held in such low regard.
VDH on the money again. I don’t know where this will end. I was never a big Trump fan but I love the way he makes liberals become unhinged. Whatever the outcome, it makes for great entertainment.
CNN and the rest of the liberal losers are merely showing their true selves.
They talk a good game about compassion and tolerance, but have neither compassion nor tolerance.
In most respect, those who are vocally Liberal and call themselves activists are merely people without much of a personal life and strive to fill it with whatever they can. Being incapable of the more enlightened pursuits such as Dr. Hansen, the gravitate to activities that require a faux outrage, which they are good at.
Words have consequences. Those CNN employees and editors may get beaten – maybe it’s time to revive the duel and they can back their words up with their lives.
This is not news. This is a coordinated propaganda and smear campaign by Democrat operatives. They are trying to overturn an election, and they will suffer for it.
Reminded me of the broadcast when Anderson Cooper, who had been “out of the closet” forever got into a girly giggle fit when he was interviewing Doug Schoen and the term “teabagger” came up for the first time I heard it on the media. Couldn’t figure out what was so funny to Cooper so I googled it to find it was a gay boy sex act….no wonder Anderson nearly wet himself. Then it became a common use term even with the knowledge of what it implied……a bit sick but the Lefties thought it was soooo cute to toss that around…teabag…teabag.
Does anyone know how Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were registered or how they voted? One would have never known based on their presentation of the news.
Dem x3.
Victor, you’ve got to admit seeing them become what we always thought they were is kind of entertaining. I imagine this was the case with Soviet Commissars and Russians. Rule 1 – never go full retard.
It has been a general trend, but I think it partly has to do with the left not getting its way. When first refused they tried to paint disaster, like people will die in the streets if we do not keep Obamacare. When the disaster they proposed was laughed at they then decided to manufacture stories to support their manufactured disaster, when that did not work they become violent and crude.
The vulgarity, lack of any decorum or respect, and crude displays (Griffin & the Shakespeare play, to name a couple) are acts of desperation by the Left. What the Left is doing displays their intellectual laziness concerning issues and debate, but it is quickly losing it’s shock value. Then what will they resort to?
Oh, you mean like when Condoleeza Rice was called a bitch (by Donald Trump), or such memorable phrases as “grab that p—y” (yep, Donald J Trump), “bomb the s**t out of” ISIS (Donald, again), “We’re gonna have businesses that used to be in New Hampshire, that are now in Mexico, come back to New Hampshire, and you can tell them to go f**k themselves!” (yep, DJT campaigning in NH)….
and I limited myself of one example of each
Some salty language pales in comparison with what’s currently being passed around the left these days as polite conversation among the socially superior, like you. You are such a hoot!.
They’ve already stated with the violence and the suppression of free speech. That’s whats next.
Victor Davis Hanson!
Another GREAT article from one of the GREATEST THINKERS in America today!
You are right, I wish Hanson could be more involved in leading the direction of our country.
if Trump was smart he’d bring him into the white house — and newt gingrich
CNN is a stain on journalism but is not alone in the rush for ratings and clicks. CNN may be the place to go for plane crashes and international disasters, but can’t be trusted for the straight information on any political story.
CNN is a liberal talk radio show on TV.
In terms of partisanship, slant, and hyperbole, I cannot tell the difference between Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, than Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett, and Don Lemon.
The crude language is meant to convey heart felt emotions that are so deep and primal that they cannot be conveyed in a civilized manner. Plus the kids like it, it’s COOOL.Shallow doesn’t matter.
The mainstream media only reflects the man that they attack. The media is a dismissive of Trump as he is of others. If Trump were acting like a President instead of a 3 year old, maybe he’d get more respect. Americans love redemption, but when a celebrity, or in this case the President, acts like an asshole then the American people are merciless, as they should be. The GOP spent 8 years doing everything it could to thwart Obama, so why should Trump think that he deserves better treatment, especially when he didn’t even win the popular vote. If Trump acted more Presidential, in the campaign and now as President, maybe more GOP politicians would get behind him. Since he refuses too, people will dismiss him. When Trump fails to pass his agenda and is bounced in 2020 there will be an immediate change in the tone of discourse, regardless of which party has the Presidency. Trump is reaping what he has sown, pure and simple. Victor Davis Hansen’s failure to understand that means he either doesn’t understand people or has spent too much time on the farm.
CNN is a High School glee club with like minded standards of profanity,objectivity and tolerance.
I particularly like Bakari Sellers, Don Lemone’s House Boy whenever there’s a racial issue to debate.
Earlier this week he was screaming at the camera saying that only black people can use the N word.
Tooo bad someone didn’t ask how black one must be to use it. 75% black? 50% black like obama? 25% black like Deval Patrick? How about Rachel Doleziel? Can she use it?
CNN has become so over the top…I find it slightly amusing at times watching them bury themselves in hyperbole.
Where they go from here? Who knows. It’s a long way to the bottom, but they’re fighting hard to get there.
Great column as usual thanks
Fantastic article and much needed clarity of what is really being served to the American people by these hollier-than-the-rest of-you media and talking heads. There is an Alice In Wonderland feel to this whole Russia canard where new angles appear and then disappear to be replaced by newer odder angles until no one knows what’s up or down anymore. I think, however, that this is the true strategy – to spin so many threads of rumor innuendo and just empty conjecture weaving in and out then to nowhere, then picked up somewhere else that no one can understand anything of what’s going on or not going on. Just foster and sustain an atmosphere of general unease and doubt and dread. Then intersperse this chaos and madhouse effect with these individuals’ sad and pathetic antics as described by Professor Hanson above. Whatever might be achieved by the dems with the collusion of the msm will necessarily be Pyrrhic; everyone has seen them both as they apparently truly are, and all their credibility is washed away by this endless strings of stunts and nothing-burgers, which term aptly sums up most of modern investigative journalism in the United States today.
You got it “just foster and sustain an atmosphere of general unease and doubt and dread”, the terrorist game plan.
It just seems to me that there is a sameness to their diatribe. Like big brother guiding them. He or she is everywhere but nowhere.
I NEVER miss a VDH article!
CNN apparently missed the former 1st Lady’s claim/demand that Liberals always “take the high road” in political discourse. Or didn’t they think she was serious? Or don’t they respect her either?
American Greatness: You stupid, imbecilic fools.
America isn’t “Great”.
America is led by a baffoon with delusions of grandeur, and
A congress that is “out to lunch”
America is like ……#14 in the world…..and falling……..
GET. A. GRIP.
“America is led by a baffoon with delusions of grandeur,”
Try to keep up. Obama is gone.
Agree though that Pelosi and Schumer are out to lunch.
Obama is your #10 GREATEST POTUS………
A TRUE “man”
Unlike that weenie burger that you trump-up…….
LOL
I. mean. uncontrollable. LOL!
You need more than a grip!
Anything else?–too funny!
Anyone that says LOL is at a loss for words……and brains…….
Come now. You can do better than that.
Your previous comments are hilarious.
Please. let’s have another.
FOOL???????????????????????
Mirror.
How is THAT?
Uhh-ohh.
So unkind.
So unfunny.
I guess you can’t do better.
But thanks for the previous ROFLOL!
It is SO SAD to see and witness the demise of America.
So, I’m outta here……before I tear-up.
We watched it for 8 years.
Buck up, we’ll still be here in 8 more.
After eight years of the failed former president Obama’s failed policies and anti-American foreign policy designed to foment chaos around the world and create an environment of hate domestically, I agree the country is in trouble. Too bad your innate hatred and contempt for the truth and the American people prevents you from being part of the solution instead of THE problem.
Rick; Your failure to understand started with this idea that we (America) are subject to some linear scale of judgment, presumably from OUTSIDE the US. The US fought Muslims (and won!) in the war of 1812, and rescued Europe from the idiot Germans TWICE in the 20th Century. Your arrogant and self-loathing(are you American?) comment is made even less persuasive by your misspelling (baffoon?) and mispunctuations throughout your post. America is great because of the US Constitution, which allows for people like you, unschooled, angry, and likely unwashed, to preach your idiocy freely. You are a marvel of evolution, a monkey with a 1000 word vocabulary.
Stop complaining and turn them off.
I mean really turn them off–cancel cable/satellite TV and all subscriptions.
You don’t need them. They need you.
I did this over a year ago when I could no longer stand to watch the “news” coverage of the election.
When Dish TV called to try to coax me back, I said only if I can choose which channels I pay for.
Why would they care what one viewer/subscriber does?
They don’t, but millions are apparently doing the same,
because now they are coming up with different package
deals with more choices. But not enough… so the TV is still off.
We are listening to more music and talking more to each other.
Plenty of movies and news on the internet.
Happy as can be without CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC.
Should have done it years ago.
Mr Hanson, I used to respect you, I don’t any more. There is NO reason to defend Trump – I don’t care how conservative you are, how biased CNN may or may not be, Trump is a disgusting human being, dangerous and unbalanced, a liar, a cheat and a phony. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Hanson’s article is about the exploding of journolist claims of “objectivity.”
It is not about defending Trump.
There is nothing unobjective to most of the coverage of Trump, CNN included. Not to those of us who consider him a quasi-dicaator who has nothing but contempt for our democracy and the constitution you conservatives always seem to hold so dear – when it’s convenient for you.
We are in a crisis – Trump if not stopped, will do serious damage to our society and the world.
Hanson is a distinguished historian, and like all the other previously decent people, they have been corrupted by this charismatic idiot – that is what I find so utterly shocking so if you ever thought “it can’t happen here” it already has.
If you are so far out there to believe what you say, then you are in no position to speak about objectivity. CNN and the others are merely fanning your hysteria.
Trump happens to be largely right about the media.
Hanson is a distinguished classicist and remains one.
Distinguished and corrupted. Such is the story of history.
In what way? So, you disagree with him that doesn’t make him corrupted. Perhaps it’s just the intolerance of your fantasy ideology that gets in the way of your path to the truth.
It looks like the American people found Hillary Clinton even more disgusting. You have your opinion and VDH has his and I respect his for he speaks the truth and you, I believe you simply hate.
The trouble here is that you are making declarative statements without a shred of evidence to back them up. Yes, we get it, you have a knee-jerk revulsion for Mr. Trump, based in God knows what you have suffered in your past. Your disregard for EVIDENCE to convict PRESIDENT Trump of all your vile accusations indicates certain characteristics in YOU, not the president. Move over, I’m coming out on that “hissy fit” limb with you for a moment. You have a very LOW threshold for disappointment and a disregard for the facts (as long as you are able to frustrate the argument by lying). Your first instinct is to pronounce the output of your own troubled psyche as truth and, when challenged, to double-down! I hope that “science” is watching comments such as yours and mine! There is much to learn about who “should be ashamed”. Ask your Mama, I’m pretty sure that you have embarrassed her a lot.
When you believe — as VD does — that Fox News, Breitbart, the Federalist, etc are fair and balanced, it’s not difficult to see truth as fake news.
There’s a simple reason that Trump’s press coverage was so negative — 69% of everything he says is false or mostly false (as opposed to 17% that is true or mostly true). Given that this is 3x even Clinton-the-untrustworthy’s lying ability, the bigger question is why the negative coverage is only 93%.
Based on your post, I wouldn’t trust you to know the truth if it hit you over the head.
This was not about any of those news sites this was about CNN. What truth are you defending that we are supposed to believe CNN represents?
Can you provide proof to back up your claims with respect to the frequency of untruth you accuse the president of? 67% of the American people found these three words to describe Hillary Clinton
1. Liar
2. Dishonest
3. Untrustworthy.
Where are your facts? I suspect you are simply venting your hate which are, along with self-righteousness, the passions that drive Marxist Progressives like you.
If you think I am a “Marxist Progressive” you are very much mistaken. For example, I would agree that what has happened in Venezuela is the fault of the loony socialist Left.
I can’t stand them and I can’t stand you. THere are more than 2 choices don’t you now?
So, what you are saying is that I got the self-righteousness and hate part right. Two out of three is pretty good.
It is absolutely disgusting that CNN actually quotes Trump directly. How dare they be so biased?
But they don’t! Ha, you lose!
You provide no evidence for that. That is the thing about Trump and people who support him – evidence means nothing. Objective reality means nothing. What is in front of your eyes means nothing. As Hitler once said “2 + 2 = 5 if I say it does”. And you don’t care because you are part of the mob that has brought down one society after another.
I watch the briefings and see what those a**hats in the room do with the information they are given. Yes…they do “quote” our President… but all out of context with they own follow up spin. They could take Snow White and turn her into a strumpet…with seven little diamond mining men and a greedy prince… And you Leftist trolls eat it up!
I typically really like what Victor has to say but this information is just not that newsworthy. Anyone paying attention knows the left has been on a downward trajectory for a long, long time. Look at the left’s pop idols who continue to reach for new lows in their search for new shock value and you see what the journo-entertainers mimic. Nothing these pathetic people do or say surprises me.
The MSM hysteria reminds one of the junkie who can’t get a fix anymore – the language gets coarser, the voice gets louder, the actions more frantic, and frankly, it’s offensive to those of us who don’t use those words or that kind of insult.
It’s all like we’re watching some insane drama – Whites are horrible, Men are terrible, Repubs are repulsive, we’re all going to die from heat/too much water/ice and on and on until it means nothing.
I must have missed his comments on Fox News being vulgar.
With articles like this Mr. Hanson has become a long winded Newt
Does the truth hurt so?
When the left lacks facts (which they always do) they resort to personal attacks. It tells us we won the argument.
There’s a typo in the title. Crud doesn’t have an ‘e’ at the end.
Real journalism is alive and well in small-town America. Community journalists who cover local news in a fair and objective manner in our hometowns find that not only are we welcomed, we can make a profit, too.
The small weekly I work at is much appreciated by the local residents, who willing support us emotionally and financially. We have no need or interest in covering news outside of the city limits and our readers are saavy enough to find their own sources to their liking. Likewide, the “national” media has NO interest in covering our hometown news and considers all of us a bunch of bumpkins. Thankfully, we never have to see or hear from these snotty elitists who despise and hate us so.
They are certainly are not journalists in the meaning of the word that I grew up with back in the 1960s and 1970s — men and women who sought out the truth and presented balanced news — but brainwashed social justice warriors who would be right at home as Red Guards in Mao’s China.
You are correct Bowhowdy. Watching Sean Spicer’s pressers with the satellite accessed media reporters being able to ask questions…they are by far better journalists than all, the so called, White House “reporters”. They do not ask…and answer…the same questions repeatedly, trying to see if they can slip Sean up… Sean is right to end the circus when they take over the briefings and tossing turns to each other rather than Sean making sure everyone gets a far turn. I watch those pressers to hear what the White House says…and see how the criminal media spins it. The White House should just published a daily Web page of news…and put on a daily C-Span type channel without those rubes in the room until they can learn to control themselves…put them out of a job!
Make that “openly despised”.
As usual, Prof Hanson is spot on.
Bravo. Great article. I hate CNN and the liberal media.
We should add to Professor Hanson’s perfect summary of potty-mouth progressives the fact that ordinary Americans in flyover zones are taking a rather quiet delight in the Great Leftwing Meltdown. Watching the slime throwers’ flushed faces and protruding veins in their foreheads and hearing their voices rise octave after hysterical octave as they sputter towards the lowest of the lows is on one level great fun. Expect soon to watch their heads exploding, no longer able to contain the invective. And while we should take some satisfaction in this nice combination of meltdown and blowup, we should also keep in mind that the best thing is to say nothing in response, to stop reading and listening to them. What, really, can anyone of even modest intelligence learn from the WaPoGreyLady or CBSNBCABCCNN in any given “news cycle”?
CNN is NO NEWS STATION. They are Propaganda pushers of the Leftist Elite Class which want the Death of all Conservatives so they can steal your homes.Nobody on the Left can support themselves…Time for Eradication of Liberalism.
I hope the Progressive Left & their media lapdog sink into the sewage that they have generated, never to be seen again.
You mean “drain the swamp”, the left, the “deep state”, the RINOs, and the scum/media that hides them. ;
So CNN is in a race with MSNBC to see who can be the scummiest netword?
Sure to a long time to splain what any conservative Knows.
CNN FAKE NEWS.
So much focus on how bad CNN is, and it is bad, but why is the preposterousness of MSNBC being ignored?
Seriously, that channel is absolute Looney Tunes! And their ratings are on the rise!
I’d call it the Cartoon News Network although if SpongeBob were reading the news it would be more credible than Anderson Cooper.
To those who accuse Trump of being coarse or crude I remind them that Trump used the left’s Alinsky rules against them to great effect. THAT is their complaint.
They also complain about Trump’s tweets only because they prevent the media from an unobstructed megaphone telling the sheeple what to think.
The left has always been dishonest. If they told the truth about their objectives no one would vote for them.
The left has also always been crude – and accused the other side of their own sins.
What’s happening with the Left, reminds me of the multiple scenes we’ve all seen…..where vampires have been staked through the heart and their bodies transform, in slow motion special effects, and decay into dust….
Sometime, the old drug ad of a frying pan with an egg frying…..with the topical tag line: “This is your brain, and this is your brain with Trump camping in it.”
I’m incapable of drumming up sympathy for what I’d think, is a pretty miserable existence for the likes of the CNN hacks! I suppose if they have kids and have any decency at all, they would have to `resign’ and find another type of employers……..but then, they wouldn’t be hard-core Libs to begin with….chicken or egg???!!!!
After listening to the Comey testimony, then reading the MSN headlines, I had to wonder if we all got the same broadcast. The Libs heard all manner of anti-Trump innuendo that I missed. Oh, I heard the 6’8″ Comey indicate that Trump scares him, and heard Comey boldly state that Trump was lying about some things(no backup on this, of course) but I didn’t hear the supposed implications of Trumpian wrong doing. What I heard was a vindication of Trump and an admission of guilt on the part of the FBI and Liberals. The BS argument about how the FBI loves (or doesn’t) Mr. Comey was weird. Last, how could “tapes” not be bad for Comey?
Mister Hanson, it’s far worse than you think….. During Bill Clinton’s time, THE PRESS became more ideologically aligned with the Democratic Party than they had in the past. They were his loudest cheerleaders and most dogged defenders, all the way through his Impeachment. They virtually destroyed George W. Bush’s eight years by assaulting everything he did….
During the Age Of Obama, The Mainstream Media jumped the “Reality Shark” and became an activist branch of the Democratic Party itself. They pushed Obama’s Agenda and attacked his opponents, all while calling it “NEWS”.
The exceptions were the few truly “Conservative” News Outlets out there, which used to include FOX, but not anymore….
During the 2016 Presidential Campaign, the ‘Journalists’ covering candidate rally’s/events may as well been wearing “I’M WITH HILLARY!” shirts, so slanted and biased were their reports. Yes, that applied to Bernie Sanders’ coverage as well.
What WAS “The MSM” has actually become THE DEMOCRAT MEDIA: The Propaganda Wing of the Democratic Party!!
Our First Amendment Freedoms have permitted them to become to the DNC what PRAVDA and VREMYA were to the Communist Party in the old Soviet Union: ALL Party Propaganda, ALL of the time….. Compounding this is the ‘Deep State Resistance’ in Washington DC which is being led by the MSM’s former God/King Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett.
They have been on a mission since the day after Hillary Clinton’s incomprehensible loss last November….
To DESTROY Donald Trump’s Presidency and all who are working on his behalf. It looks to me like what they’re driving at (I know, it makes ZERO sense…) if to have Trump and his entire Government “Bulk-Impeached and Removed From Office” so that the US Supreme Court can ‘install’ Hillary Rodham Clinton as the ‘Rightful President’ and restore balance….
Otherwise, WHY keep this constant 24/7 assault going for SEVEN MONTHS without a break?
Every-time one of their ‘targets’ fails to work, they switch to another and it’s long past being insane!! Back to photo, CNN (and their Comrades In Arms) at MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Nwe York Times, Washington Post etc aren’t really “Fake News”.
They’re THE PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT NEWS!!