Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

ADAM WEISS: The Media’s Bias Is Reaching Ludicrous Levels

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While the media hardly mentioned it, hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters swarmed the White House gates on Saturday night, throwing objects at Secret Service and Capitol Police as they continuously attempted to breach the perimeter. Now just imagine if they were wearing MAGA hats and carrying pro-Trump signs. It would be top news around the country, and the FBI would be identifying and rounding up each and every individual who took part. Instead of this, NBC led with the laughable story “Fears grow that Trump will use the military in ‘dictatorial ways’ if he returns to the White House” on Sunday morning.

You can’t make this stuff up. And the mainstream media’s bias is reaching ludicrous levels.

We have almost all sat across the table from a colleague, friend or relative reciting some absurd tale that they read or heard or heard on the mainstream media. Perhaps they fell for the alarmist “Russia Hoax,” or the Jesse Smollett lies or the blatant twisting of truths concerning Nick Sandmann and the Covington kids.

When almost the entire media industry sets a skewed political agenda and parrots talking points enough to control the minds of millions of Americans, setting in motion a “group think,” we’re left with a disconnect. This dangerous, undemocratic disconnect treats at least half the population as less than.

A recent research by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications discovered that only 3.4% of American journalists identify as Republicans. Politics shouldn’t matter in the media; facts should be presented without knowing where one stands on the party spectrum. But the press has lost such integrity, worsening the divide and ridiculing prominent portions of the country.

Let’s be honest here. Republicans are business-minded go-getters with an in-built adherence to capitalism, entrepreneurship, and enterprise. Most don’t harbor self-indulgent and grandiose aspirations to change the world in the literal sense. Instead, they focus on the work, doing what needs to be done and earning a living to feed their families. On the flip side, several journalists – who are overwhelmingly liberal – carve paths into journalism with the starry-eyed belief that they can change the world. Instead of delivering unbiased facts and relying on dry truths to tell a story, journalists have crossed the line into emotionally charged activism with political partisanship.

It all seems incredibly hypocritical from an industry bent on bringing as many “diverse” voices to the scene as possible.

Remember, these corporate-monied outlets pledged to diversify hiring practices following the death of George Floyd in 2020. A recent analysis of the U.S.’s major corporation by Bloomberg shows that 94 percent of added jobs over the past three years went to people of color, with white applicants sidelined. In some ways, they succeeded with their diversity goals. Only they missed one crucial demographic: the right-leaning. It is no wonder that a Gallup poll from last fall found that 58 percent of Democrats have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the press, compared to a paltry 11 percent of Republicans who would agree with such sentiments.

And let’s not forget that Elon Musk was once a mainstream media darling – a forward-thinking visionary developing climate-friendly cars and championing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). That quickly subverted when he purchased Twitter in October 2022 and had the audacity to take a stand against censorship and allow those with conservative views to return to the platform. Now, all we see is hate-fueled coverage – the latest focused on “illegal drug use” without any firm facts or real reason to write the story in the first place.

But, of course, nobody has been a more prominent victim of the media’s partisan antics than former President Donald Trump. Just a few months into his first term, a content analysis by the Pew Research Center revealed that 62 percent of his coverage was negative, and only five percent was positive, compared to his predecessor, Barak Obama, who basked in 42 percent positive coverage and only 20 percent negative.

Trump never stood a chance. And don’t expect this election cycle to be any different. The media has its pre-ready narrative, doubling down in a way we’ve never seen before.

While it would certainly be nice if the mainstream practiced what it preached regarding fairness and delivering multifaceted points of view, the reality is that it isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Take heed that technology has brought us alternative media, a chance to understand varying points of view and come to our own conclusions.

But I refuse to give up the fight to stop illuminating the media institution’s blatant discrimination against those who politically diverge. It feels a long way off. However, enough voices, eventually, can one day bring about real change.

Adam Weiss is the CEO of AMW PR, a New York based political strategy and communications firm. His firm has worked with Jim Brown, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Eboni Williams, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Andrew Giuliani, Governor Haley Barbour, Steve Hilton, Anthony Scaramucci, and more.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.