In what might be the best branding in history, Donald Trump declared the media “fake news”.
Here is Trump at one of his first press conferences as President-elect, and he reinforces the term he campaigned on:
I don’t think most Americans thought the term “fake news” would stick. And for two reasons:
First, because Leftists are good at spinning narratives in their favor. And was the news really fake? Or was this just another Trumpism, like “Little Marco?” Back to this in a bit.
Second, Republicans rate poorly at branding Leftists. Historically, Republicans don’t like to get into what we deem petty arguments. Name-calling is beneath us.
Well that was the old days. In the new days, Trump rewrites the Republican playbook. Further, he sets the course for a new history.
As for the media response to being called fake news, they had no comeback. Truthfully, they are fake news. And they reinforced how they deserved to be called fake news time and time again. Things got so bad for the media, at one point they even admitted being fake news themselves. Understand, they had been caught cooking the news so often, they had no alternative but to admit to the equivalent of their “blue dress” and do their temporary mea culpa.
Recall when caught faking news, CNN fired a few scapegoats. Then the New York Times promised to be a kinder and gentler media. Token gestures to cover their subterfuge.
On the second point of why fake news persists, Trump never relented.
He continued calling out the media as fake news. So much so, that CNN hosts began complaining about the term literally whining on air about their new moniker.
Things got so bad for CNN’s Chris “Fredo” Cuomo, that he considered leaving the industry:
The media have changed. And no longer do people believe them, at least according to a new poll released on Tuesday.
Americans overwhelmingly distrust the media. And according to the poll, the majority of Americans say the press have a political bias, with nearly half saying news outlets display a “great deal” of bias.
The study from Gallup and the Knight Foundation reported that 86 percent of Americans believe media outlets lean one way or another politically. Thus, even Leftists understand the problem with media. The breakdown shows 49 percent saying there’s “a great deal” of bias while 37 percent say “a fair amount.”
Again, proving fake news is not just a Conservative position, in that 56 percent of Americans say their go-to news source has some form of “bias.” Twenty percent acknowledge a “great deal” of bias at their preferred outlet, and 36 percent say “a fair amount” of bias exists.
Fake News Outcome at the DNC Convention
Not long ago the Democrats might have been able to sell the idea that their convention sucked because of Wuflu. Not anymore.
Clearly nobody cares about Biden, Harris, the Obamas, the Clintons, or anything else Leftist. The press not only couldn’t sell the idea of this infomercial-like freak show, Maddow and other hosts actually ridiculed the event.
And the ratings offered no consolation, as the convention was seen by half the audience of major news networks. This includes increasingly Leftist Fox News.
But Trump, in typical Trump fashion, decided to call it like he sees it. Thus, the President said, “Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history.” Trump’s brilliant use of the sound byte (or tweet) is the main reason Trump is a political mastermind.
Make no mistake, Trump is responsible for torpedoing the Democrats’ convention, just as he is responsible for crushing their hopes of toppling him later this year. And he doesn’t have to win over the media to make it happen.
