ABC News didn’t hold back last Thursday, crowing over former President Trump’s conviction. All 34 charges brought by Manhattan’s hard-left D.A, Alvin Bragg, were ruled in favor of the prosecution. According to ABC, not just was Trump’s spirit disheartened, but this would sway a significant number of voters away from the ex-President. Is this how they hope to secure Biden’s potential re-election? If so, it’s a shame for journalism,
ABC’s Aaron Katersky was quick to comment, expounding on the cheers from Trump’s critics outside the courthouse. Despite Katersky’s jubilation, the question remains whether this verdict will weigh significantly on voters’ minds. Jonathan Karl, a known anti-Trump journalist, seemed to infer from recent polls that up to 20% of would-be Trump voters might rethink their choice in light of his conviction.
ABC’s pro-Biden correspondent, Mary Bruce, went so far as to call the guilty verdicts a “political gift” to Democrats. Bruce even suggested that it was a boon for Biden to campaign against a now-convicted felon. Yet, she warned her colleagues not to appear too celebratory, bating that it wasn’t a hollow victory orchestrated by Biden, who she assured, had nothing to do with the trials.
As the day wore on, ABC’s David Muir suggested that independent voters and fence-sitters might now rethink their votes. He mused about Trump’s New York upbringing and subsequent success in the city while implying that the verdict had surely broken Trump. He even insinuated that the trial will influence the race, now poised to be a close finish.
Latching on to Muir’s bias, Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott quoted a COVID-era Reader poll indicating 20% of Trump’s supporters might reconsider their support following a guilty verdict. She ventured that this could make a significant difference to the race, aligning with Muir’s earlier speculation.
As the day wound down, it was clear that ABC had one mission: to brand Trump as a convicted felon while highlighting what they thought would be the prosecution’s impact on voters. It was nothing short of an attempt to influence public opinion about Trump, who left New York after feeling hounded by politically-driven charges.
Almost as an afterthought, ABC’s Chief Legal Analyst, Dan Abrams, cautioned that although a prison sentence was possible, it seemed unlikely given that this was a first-time offense and that it was the lowest class felony. His fellow journalists had, by then, painted a vividly negative picture of Trump, contradicting Abrams’s attempted caution.
In closing, it’s clear that journalistic ethics were left by the wayside as ABC turned the coverage into a full-on lambasting of Trump. Objective reporting was sacrificed in favor of furthering their political agenda. Rather than focusing on unbiased coverage, ABC decided to spin the verdict to savor their own political victory, even though the full implications of it are yet to be seen. ABC was so focused on celebrating that it seemed they’d forgotten we’re not a ‘winner takes all’ nation, but a nation for everyone. That’s something worth remembering-the news is for the people, not for the networks’ political inclinations.
