America is currently in the grips of a media circus as the Trump trial continues. One of the most absurd elements of this spectacle is the coverage on MSNBC. Lawrence O’Donnell, host of ‘The Last Word’, has been reading out what can only be described as poor diary entries on the events in the courtroom. To add to the farce, Stormy Daniels showed up in a loose black outfit; O’Donnell compared her modest attire to that of a nun. You can’t make this up.
Fast forward a few days, and not missing a beat, O’Donnell took a jab at Trump’s appearance in court. He said when Trump closes his eyes, his face shifts into “tortured elderly shapes,” and his mouth looks like a crumbling old building. The description would almost be comedic if it wasn’t tragically obvious that O’Donnell is trying to underhandedly tarnish a reputation.
Fellow MSNBC host Brian Stelter shared with Ari Melber that the GOP is in dire straits, with all of Trump’s supporters showing up at his Manhattan trial. Using a hypothetical scenario, he pondered whether any Democrats would attend the impending trials of Senator Bob Menendez and Joe Biden’s son Hunter, showing his bias and casting unfounded doubts on the GOP.
But who are they to question about Democrat presence? Will these channels even cover the Menendez and Hunter Biden trials? The likelihood seems slim, a fact that speaks volumes about their partisan leanings.
The New York Times, in fact, shed light on MSNBC’s ideological tilt in a nearly 3,000-word piece by Jim Rutenberg and Michael Grynbaum. According to them, the network’s pivot leftward was a ratings magnet, but it also led to a few hitches. One misplaced argument was that MSNBC was compromising its ‘straight news’ identity. Anyone who’s been keeping track will tell you this identity vanished a long time ago. In fact, Lester Holt from NBC News openly claimed that “fairness is overrated”.
In another development, the media exploded with outrage when Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker, Harrison Butker, delivered a Catholic-leaning speech at Benedictine College’s commencement ceremony. Butker commended his wife Isabelle for being an indispensable homemaker, which irked feminists who view the term ‘homemaker’ as an offensive slight. NBC Nightly News even featured a disgruntled student stating that having a family wasn’t her current priority, and Butker’s speech made her graduation feel ‘less special’.
In conclusion, it’s ludicrous to see that the current media landscape is rife with bias, partisan reporting, and a disdain for traditional values. It is clear that in our society, narratives are being pushed and reputations tarnished, not based on facts, but on what rakes in the most views. Media fairness might indeed be an outdated concept for some, but ignoring it will only create a more divided and less informed society. We owe it to our audience to present facts, not fiction.
