The Left can’t stand any bad press. And they’re willing to silence anyone who dares to stand in their way.
And now Democrats were just caught threatening journalists for one despicable reason.
Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle delivered a blunt assessment of liberal media bias on Monday, accusing the mainstream press of doing more harm than good for Democrats in the recent election cycle.
Her critique highlights how media indulgence of Democratic narratives may have backfired spectacularly.
“During this election cycle, I watched in astonishment as left-wing critics complained that the mainstream media was botching this election by ‘sanewashing’ Trump, failing in our duty to cover ‘not the odds, but the stakes’ and trading in false equivalence,” McArdle wrote.
“I was not astonished that progressives wanted us to spend more time criticizing Trump and less time pointing out the flaws of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. I was amazed because they were talking as if this might affect the election’s outcome.”
As Democrats scramble to pinpoint their failures after President-elect Trump’s victory, McArdle highlighted a troubling reality for the liberal media: Americans simply don’t trust them.
A Gallup poll she cited revealed 54% of Democrats have “high trust” in the media, but that figure plummets to 27% among Independents and a paltry 12% among Republicans.
“This was damaging for the news media that had already spent down the very reputational capital that progressive critics were begging us to use. But it was also bad for Democrats. By letting them win so many news cycles, we handed them a series of pyrrhic victories,” McArdle continued.
Her column took aim at the media’s kid-glove treatment of President Biden’s glaring cognitive issues, which Democrats seemingly hoped the press would ignore until Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
“The stories that mattered the most during this year’s campaign were the ones where we had given Democrats the most ‘help.’ In the 2020 election cycle, Democratic primary contenders counted on us to give them room to move well to the left, especially on social issues, which is how Harris created the fodder for this year’s negative ads against her. This cycle, Democrats counted on us to downplay Biden’s shocking and obvious decline. The issue was handled with kid gloves, under threat of blowback from campaign operatives, readers, and even fellow journalists,” McArdle wrote.
She also criticized major outlets for parroting Democratic spin by labeling legitimate concerns about Biden’s alarming behavior as “cheapfakes.”
“In the age of the internet, it’s no longer possible to win elections by working the refs, because the only decisions that matter are made by the folks in the stands,” she warned.
“The refs can keep your coalition in line, but they can’t help you expand it — indeed, they’re likely to shrink it, as more people conclude that the game is rigged. Which means the more often your party wins the calls, the more frequently they will lose the game.”
Even The Washington Post editorial board, usually a Democratic ally, acknowledged in November that the party’s refusal to confront Biden’s obvious decline undermined their credibility.
In a stinging editorial, they argued Harris and the White House’s denials of Biden’s mental fitness destroyed Democrats’ standing as “the party of truth.”
The editorial’s subheadline delivered a scathing verdict: “Democrats’ coverup of the president’s decline hurt their claim of being the party of truth.”
McArdle’s sharp critique underscores how the liberal media’s blind partisanship has left Democrats exposed, with even their most loyal allies questioning their honesty.
If Democrats can’t face their own failures — and the media can’t stop shielding them — their future prospects look grim.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
