McArdle: Liberal Media Bias is Hurting Democrats

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An interesting column from Megan McArdle today in which she argues that media bias is doing serious damage to the Democratic Party. The gist here is that by going all in for team blue the media has squandered its own credibility to the point that they almost don’t matter any more. The piece opens with McArdle stating the obvious: The media is heavily biased toward the left.

I still agree with conservatives that the mainstream media is biased toward the left. It could hardly be otherwise, given the political leanings of journalists: A 2022 survey showed that fewer than 4 percent identified as Republicans. In the worst cases, this leads to reporting that treats “Republicans like a crime beat and Democrats like friends in need.” More commonly, it subtly affects what stories journalists choose to cover, what angle they take, whose experts they give more credence and whose feelings they are careful not to hurt.

Despite the media being almost entirely on the left, they are almost constantly attacked by the left for being too kind to Donald Trump, for both-sidesing issues, etc. I’m sure we all remember how angry people on the left were earlier this year when the media published reports suggesting that President Biden may have lost a step. This was described as an unfair media obsession that was holding Biden back in the polls. They also claimed it was completely false and that Biden was sharp as a tack behind the scenes.

But as we all learned at the first debate it was all true. There really should have been a lot more stories a lot sooner about Biden’s decline. If there had been, maybe he’d had dropped out or been pushed out sooner. Maybe Democrats could have run a real primary and picked someone to replace him besides Kamala Harris. None of those things happened, likely because the media spent a year (at least) holding back on Joe Biden.

This cycle, Democrats counted on us to downplay Biden’s shocking and obvious decline. The issue was handled with kid gloves, under threat of blowback from campaign operatives, readers and even fellow journalists.

ven as the video evidence became clearer, anonymous Democrats airing concerns were often juxtaposed with quotes from his staff insisting he was still as sharp as a tack. Meanwhile, many of the same outlets repeated the Democratic spin that accurate videos of his concerning behavior were “cheap fakes.” This comforted liberal readers, who could dismiss the stories as nasty rumors swallowed by gullible voters. Judging by the catastrophic reaction to Biden’s debate, much of the mainstream media’s audience availed themselves of that comfort. The result was a disaster for their party.

I’d almost forgotten about “cheap fakes” one of the dumbest left-wing talking points this year. Here’s how the NY Times was framing this back in June:

In the last two weeks, conservative news outlets, the Republican National Committee and the Trump team have circulated videos of Mr. Biden that lacked important context and twisted mundane moments to paint him in an unflattering light. Among other things, they created the impression that the president:

Wandered off during a meeting with other Group of 7 leaders, an image that The New York Post ran on its front page (he was greeting paratroopers)

This was a biased, partisan report which tried to frame Republicans as the problem for, essentially, noting what was caught on video at the G7 meeting. Here’s how I described it at the time:

Watch what happens closely. As Biden wanders off to the right of the screen, Ursula von der Leyen from the EU Commission says something that he apparently doesn’t hear. He walks away and she looks over at him. Macron then helpfully steps into the gap that Biden has created from the rest of the group and Italian PM Meloni also walks that way, seeming to catch Macron’s eye as she does so. Basically, the whole group of leaders repositions itself so Biden isn’t off by himself. Finally, Meloni grabs his arm and turns him around toward the cameras…

This clip shows exactly what people said it did. It’s Joe Biden wandering away and having to be pulled in by an entire group of leaders who are trying to prevent him from ruining the photo op…

The reality is that Biden is very old and that is obvious to anyone who looks. It’s also clearly obvious to many of the people in his immediate presence when he seems momentarily lost, which is why they keep dragging him by the arm. But the White House will keep pushing this absurd response about cheap fakes because they know this is the biggest negative they face in the election. If they can somehow shame people into ignoring the clear evidence they can see with their own eyes, they have a much better chance at winning.

Those of us who used our own eyes were right. Those (including the NY Times) who relied on White House talking points about “cheap fakes” were embarrassingly wrong. And that’s the ultimate point McArdle is making. You can’t lie your way to victory when almost everything is happening on camera. All you can do is ruin your own credibility.

In the age of the internet, it’s no longer possible to win elections by working the refs, because the only decisions that matter are made by the folks in the stands. The refs can keep your coalition in line, but they can’t help you expand it — indeed, they’re likely to shrink it, as more people conclude that the game is rigged. Which means the more often your party wins the calls, the more frequently they will lose the game.

That’s a great closing line. I wish I’d written it. The media keeps bending over backwards for team blue but we can all see what they’re doing and we know why they’re doing it. They keep proclaiming Trump a loser and his latest statement is the worst thing yet but what most of us hear is just another round of motivated reasoning from professional liberals in the media. They’ve been tuned out and for good reason. Democrats are in danger of being tuned out with them.