Republicans over the weekend amped up criticism of the media, arguing that journalists appear to be largely in cahoots with Hillary Clinton and her campaign to defeat Donald Trump.
“I think that without the unending one-sided assault of the news media, Trump would be beating Hillary by 15 points,” Trump surrogate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
“This is about last Friday, when the networks spent 23 minutes on the Trump tape, and less than one minute, all three networks combined, on Hillary Clinton’s secret speeches that were being revealed on WikiLeaks,” he added, an allusion to the publication of emails obtained from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Gingrich’s critique followed a Saturday speech by Trump in which he said the election was being “rigged by corrupt media” pushing “completely false” allegations.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican nominee for vice president, delivered a similar message on the Sunday edition of CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“I think what Donald Trump is talking about is, frankly, what appears to be the monolithic support of the national media for Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” Pence said. “The American people are getting awful tired of this two-on-one fight with many of you in the national media doing half of Hillary Clinton’s work for her every day.”
The media critique dovetails off a week of accusations levied against Trump by women who claim Trump sexually harassed them, in some cases decades ago. Though the accusations were greeted with initial fanfare from the media, subsequent information undermining claims made by at least five of the women has received far less interest.
The issue exploded with an accusation by Jessica Leeds, published in the New York Times Oct. 12, claiming Trump had touched her inappropriately during a commercial flight in 1979. Evidence to call her story into queston quickly emerged, but the Times’ online homepage on Sunday made no reference to the contradictory information, including disputes about an armrest, four days after the report was initially published.
The Times did not answer a query by the Washington Examiner about why it seemingly hadn’t grappled with this new information. It did retain the link for a recorded interview with Leeds.
Trump singled out the Times in his criticism on Twitter over the weekend, saying in one message, “The failing NY Times reporters don’t even call us anymore, they just write whatever they want to write, making up sources along the way!”
Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
The failing @nytimes reporters don’t even call us anymore, they just write whatever they want to write, making up sources along the way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2016
The attack came in addition to more generic broadsides. “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places – SAD,” Trump said in another. He added, “Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!”
Nonetheless, Democrats insist the escalating media criticism is unmerited. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee for vice president, said in a Sunday interview with Raddatz that Trump was seeking to “bully” the media, among others, because of the election.
“[Trump] is swinging at every phantom of his own imagination because he knows he’s losing,” Kaine said. “He’s making weird claims that, no, I couldn’t have assaulted this person, she’s not attractive enough to assault.
“How bizarre is that? He’s blaming the media; he’s blaming the GOP; he’s saying that America can’t run a fair election. And this is what bullies do,” Kaine added.
