After Republicans nearly bumbled the presidential election, GOP leaders in Congress tried to pin their problems on their favorite scapegoat: the mainstream media. Less than a month after their nominee moved into the White House, the largest television networks were summoned before a congressional committee to answer for their error-riddled campaign coverage.
That was after the 2000 election, and it was a mistake. Except in cases of defamation and libel, the state has no business regulating the content produced by the free press. But now another Republican wants to rerun that episode.
Angered about negative Trump coverage, Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., wants to make the mainstream media fair again. He’s threatened to haul each major network before Congress for allowing news to “devolve from fact-based journalism to surreptitious propaganda.”
In a Nov. 4 letter and with a tone more fit for a strongman than Midwestern lawmaker, Cramer toyed publicly with the possibility of pulling FCC licenses from private networks that disagree with his nominee. Though he opposes the Fairness Doctrine, he insists the First Amendment should be interpreted as “a special freedom that comes with basic moral and legal parameters.”
Postmarked a few days before the election, the letter looks like an idle threat. But the sentiment Cramer voices won’t be going away. That’s what makes the unconstitutional hypocrisy so dangerous.
When Trump leveraged his celebrity to win uncritical media attention during the primary, his supporters didn’t have any complaints with the media. More than $2 billion in earned airtime helped their rookie politician dispatch 16 presidential hopefuls. And while Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio fielded questions about birth certificates and credit card debt, Trump got a pass.
Cramer’s criticism doesn’t correspond with any principle, only partisan politics. The loudest cries of media bias came after Trump won the nomination. With a smaller field and more resources available that’s when the press took a more critical view of the rookie politician.
Perhaps journalists deserve criticism for not being critical enough earlier on. But that’s not the concern of bureaucrats or politicians.
The content of the news is the prerogative of private organizations. Sure, this election cycle has unearthed plenty of uncritical journalists. But any collusion that occurred between journalists and Democrats is shameful, not criminal. Competition among networks proves a better method of self-policing.
The big three broadcast networks don’t dominate the news cycle. There’s no 1960s news monopoly in 2016. Today dozens of networks, hundreds of news outlets and millions of blogs craft their own narratives. If Trump didn’t get the coverage he wanted, it’s not because of bias. It’s because he’s a bad candidate.
For journalists, Trump is the celebrity candidate who keeps on giving. He’s generated millions of views and billions of clicks because his record and his statements are so outrageous and his personal conduct so salacious. If he loses, the press isn’t to blame for covering over the grave that this serial philander and scandal plagued businessman gleefully leaped into.
Win or lose, Cramer’s GOP conspiracy renews a dangerous president by feeding a populist appetite for using government agencies to silence dissent. The party of limited government came close to meddling in the airwaves 16 years ago. They shouldn’t make the same mistake today.
