Opinion: The Legacy Media's Courtship with Disaster
For the umpteenth time the legacy media has overplayed its hand. Only this time, its faithful Hollywood followers might be hesitating to react swiftly ever again.
The past three years have been a steady deluge of the innuendo, hints and incessant twaddling from “journalists” who have gotten their jollies from tormenting the public they proclaim to be protecting. The classification of a “civilian” is becoming nonexistent. You are either an ally or a dissident.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated in a “60 Minutes” interview in early January: “I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.”
Over the weekend, the legacy media took this one step too far and compounded this sentiment multiple times. First, Jordan Uhl insidiously altered a recording of Ben Shapiro’s podcast broadcast at the March for Life event. Every progressive leaning publication from the Huffington Post to Haaretz to The Young Turks ran with the edited video.
Second, BuzzFeed published a story asserting that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was directly instructed to mislead Congress during Cohen’s testimony. It was the empty-shell-echo heard around the country. The legacy media decided to latch onto this falsehood before confirming BuzzFeed’s sources. Every prime-time newscast eluded or insinuated the validity of the story. The intensity surrounding the story became overbearingly erroneous to the point that a representative of the Robert Mueller’s investigatory team had to nullify the rumor in the possibility that it could damage the integrity of the final report. Yet, BuzzFeed defends its article in the hopes of being politically prophetic.
Third, CNN opted to edit down a video to the point of singling out a non-violent interaction between teenage boys of Covington Catholic High School and a Native American activist. The teens were waiting for a bus after participating in the March for Life when they were jeered by members of the Black Hebrew Israelites. The Native American man took it upon himself to come between the groups and bang his drum in front of one of the students. The high school students happen to be wearing MAGA ball caps. So, CNN rushed to reverse the roles and conjure a worthless story. As a result, many of the boys have been harassed and threatened since the story broke.
What the legacy media did not anticipate from their level of gothic drama was the gradual admissions of guilt and reflection of their loyal-lefty base. Celebrities, pundits and journalists have recanted and resolved to act less hastily in the future. Whether they keep to that promise is not the point. They have verbally made a social contract with their audience, and as the legacy media continues to break that promise, they will be breaking with their audience.
The American public is fatigued with the legacy media’s fictional news genre. That’s what shows like “Scandal” and “Designated Survivor” are for. News consumers don’t want fiction — they want facts. They are ravenous for it.
Recent practices of the legacy media have left them vulnerable to substitution and possible ejection. A thriving cavalry of independent and conservative media is preparing to be an intimidating competitor in the area of journalism. The American public welcomes it.
The other dangerous reality the legacy media is not calculating is when President Trump is no longer in office. Another president may not use as much administrative restraint as Trump has. Imagine if someone like Rep. Alexander Ocasio-Cortez (like Sen. Kamala Harris) becomes president. They will not take kindly to any corrective contribution. Ocasio-Cortez has already shown how she would address being corrected or challenged by those who favor her like CBS and The Washington Post. Should she continue to resist being challenged by her peers, the more emboldened she’ll become to less accurate in her presentations.
If the legacy media assume they are shielded by their loyalty to their biases, they’re dreadfully mistaken. They can either humble their “champions” now, or may be intimidated by them later.
Rosemary Dewar (@Rlynnd1) is a contributor to Athens Now Alabama and the Washington Examiner.
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