There was some talk following the 2016 presidential election that the press would try better to identify and understand its blind spots. Considering national newsrooms misunderstood the U.S. electorate and the reasons for President Trump’s surprise victory, a period of serious self-reflection seemed long overdue.
Based on the last two years of reporting, however, a good argument can be made that the national press learned nothing from Hillary Clinton’s defeat and has no plans to change the way it covers major issues.
Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., would argue further that coverage has become both sloppier and more partisan since Trump took office.
“They haven’t learned,” Brat told the Washington Examiner Wednesday. “They don’t want to learn. They’re propagandists for the Left.”
[Opinion: NowThis News is not news; it’s a straight-up propaganda outlet]
He continued, claiming last year alone saw a marked increase in partisan reporting.
“You got opinion and ethical normative language woven in to every single piece on the news page, and on the front page,” he said.
His chief complaint it that the national press not only gives outsized coverage to Democratic candidates, but that it also goes out of its way to avoid asking those same candidates pertinent and difficult policy questions.
Brat’s commentary is especially noteworthy given that his ascent to Congress mirrors Trump’s own improbable path to the White House. Both men were written off by the press as longshot candidates, and both were terribly underestimated by their rivals right up until the votes were counted. Yet, both Brat and Trump went on to score decisive victories against well-funded and entrenched opponents, catching most everyone in media and political circles by surprise.
“The press has not only not learned, they’ve shown they don’t want to learn,” the congressman told the Examiner. “They have their thesis statement, they’ve hardened themselves, and they’ve become just explicitly partisan.”
Brat continued, arguing the press are “given special power, dispensation through our system because their the fourth rail or whatever you call it, and that’s because their duty is supposed to be reporting the news and accurately covering [issues].” However, he added, citing two Democratic candidates running in Virginia, policy positions are rarely (if ever) given the attention they deserve from media. Instead, reporters mostly busy themselves with horse race coverage and identity politics.
“The press totally failed in its duty to give people the information,” Brat said of the Virginia races. “They don’t do that. Instead, they’ll make generalizations and label you in passing.”
He added, “They’ll put you in a box, and it’s very hard to overcome that box by the press.”
Based on what I’ve seen in the national press’ exceptionally faulty coverage of the Trump White House, I don’t think Brat is wrong about the partisanship issue. As I wrote earlier, the fact that nearly all of the erroneous Trump coverage and “scoops” published since the Jan. 20 inauguration have reflected poorly on this administration suggests the national press have a political bias in one very specific direction.
Indeed, if the botched Trump reporting were merely a case of bad journalism, at least a few of the bogus stories would go by chance in the president’s favor. But these stories never seem to slant in that direction, unless we’re talking about Fox News, which is a whole other kettle of fish.
