Decades from now, historians will write volumes on the death of traditional journalism in early 21st-century America.
Assuming they have integrity, those historians will begin by noting the alliance between corporate journalists and the political establishment.
At a campaign event on Monday, former President Donald Trump shamed a “fake news” NBC reporter for failing to cover the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate terrorist attack in Afghanistan and correctly predicted that most Americans would “never see” his exchange with the reporter on television — thereby reminding us that during his years-long battle with the hostile press he has single-handedly exposed the corrupt establishment media.
“Who are you with?” Trump said to the reporter in a clip posted to the social media platform X.
“NBC,” the reporter replied.
“NBC fake news,” the former president said.
According to the Michigan news-focused MLive.com, Trump brought pizzas to a group of volunteers at the Trump Force 47 campaign office in Roseville, Michigan, on Monday. The exchange with the NBC reporter occurred inside that office.
Thus, the mere mention of NBC drew jeers from Trump’s supporters.
“Tell me, have you done a story on Afghanistan today?” the former president asked.
Do you trust the mainstream media?
The reporter tried to evade the question, but Trump pressed the issue.
Then, the former president mentioned his visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday morning.
“And the press doesn’t even cover it because they’re fake news, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said.
That comment drew raucous cheers from the former president’s supporters.
“Don’t worry, you’ll never see that on television,” Trump said of the exchange that drew applause from his volunteers.
President Trump exposes and NBC Reporter in front of a live audience! pic.twitter.com/GRQJFyGjbg
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) August 27, 2024
As it turned out, Trump told the truth about NBC’s Afghanistan coverage.
For instance, according to the Media Research Center, NBC’s “Today” morning show “completely ignored” the Abbey Gate anniversary on Monday.
Meanwhile, a search of the NBC News website also revealed no stories focused on the anniversary.
Of course, NBC’s Afghanistan blackout merely reminded us of a much bigger problem.
According to Gallup, a September 2023 poll showed that only 32 percent of respondents had either a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in mass media — a precipitous decline from the 68-to-72 percent responses the prominent pollster received in the 1970s.
Incredibly, the same poll showed that 58 percent of Democrats still trust the establishment media. Only 29 percent of Independents and 11 percent of Republicans expressed the same trust.
In other words, a majority of Democrats live in a world that the rest of the country recognizes as fraudulent.
For instance, establishment outlets interrupted or otherwise censored independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Trump on Friday.
“Democrats are in an information prison,” one X user wrote in response.
#RFK Jr. just gave one of the most moving, detailed and insightful speeches in American history in his endorsement of Donald Trump.
Conservative estimates have him at 5% in the swing states.@CNN and @MSNBC did not broadcast the speech. Democrats are in an information prison.
— tim (@TimothyELewis) August 23, 2024
When dealing with Trump, hostile reporters have abandoned all pretense to objectivity. They have taken off their masks, and most Americans now recognize the ugliness those masks concealed.
All that remains is for historians to explain how and why so many journalists betrayed their own profession.
