As the Democratic National Committee plays to its increasingly left wing base, it has also made an in kind donation to the reelection campaign of President Trump. Its decision to drop Fox News as a setting for primary debates for the 2020 election is one of those great surprises that should come as no surprise. Instead of considering the Fox approach to media, the Democrats are amplifying the distrust many Americans now have for traditional news outlets. Fox pundits are openly biased, but CNN anchors still claim to be referees. In this game, officials must not root for a side.
The decision would be novel if it was not so off the mark. In a field where Democratic journalists outnumber their Republican counterparts by at least four to one, each party is certainly sensitive about partisan media bias. Conservatives understand the role of biased moderators in political debates. John Harwood of CNBC pressed Rick Perry in his “oops” moment during the 2012 primary and colluded with the Hillary Clinton campaign to bring down Jeb Bush in a 2016 debate. Candy Crowley infamously spiked a 2012 debate in favor of Barack Obama with an unwarranted “fact check.”
{mosads}But in this case today there is little that Democrats should concern themselves with over Fox handling their debates. Fox programming is distinctly labeled to keep bias out of reporting. “Wait right there,” you may be screaming into your monitor, “but Hannity!” What is compelling about the news and opinion format of Fox is that correspondents and pundits are clearly marked. Ratings grabbers like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson do not claim to be unbiased journalists. It is this formula that allows viewers to determine who has an agenda and who does not.
For all of its faults, MSNBC has been more open about its liberal bias. It is still not as seamless in its transitions between news and opinion, but at least the network is somewhat open about it. Not so for CNN. The network has now become a hollow shell of the original concept from a man who thought marrying Jane Fonda was a good idea. Its bias has been amplified by personal hatred of Trump. Chris Cuomo claims his lack of partisanship, but his own brother is one of the most partisan governors in the nation.
Don Lemon is so much of a hack that he said he would not shake hands with Trump and has claimed that white men are the biggest terror threat in the country. I guess he gets points for creativity. The biggest clown must be White House “correspondent” Jim Acosta, who will likely need rotator cuff surgery for excessive back patting. Acosta has accumulated such accolades as a “terrible person” and took down a news cycle for finding a way to get his White House press pass pulled briefly last year.
I previously wrote about the blurring of fact and opinion in left leaning media. Two years since then, bias has only been amplified by the fig leaf of impartiality. Besides the networks, the New York Times, Washington Post, and others have editorial creep, allowing opinion to leak into their analytical reporting. What was ignored under President Obama, from “caging children” to a golf simulator at the White House, are now given the spotlight as means of denigrating his successor. Trump gets heat for actions the media never revealed when they happened under Obama.
Recent fumbles have only played into the bad perception of media bias. Networks downplayed the story of two racists and an alleged rapist, all of them Democrats, in top state government positions in Virginia. Reporters howled over smirking teenagers at the March for Life, describing one as a school shooter. Every journalist worth their salt breathlessly parroted the false attack story of Jussie Smollett and claimed that doubt was the result of “right wing smears.” The disintegration of each story shows the power that Democrats hold in the media. It is as if most news outlets by default give liberal politicians and left wing causes a nice home field advantage.
The Democratic National Committee believes that it can use this edge in its attempted shaming of Fox. Instead, the difference between Fox and all its competitors has never been clearer. Fox is formatted much like an old fashioned newspaper with objective reporting and opinion editorials in separate sections. CNN and its mainstream media partners have, in the interests of defeating Donald Trump, placed the entire newspaper in a blender and are upset that you are not able to sort fact from opinion.
One of the most troubling and dare I say “problematic” developments in colloquial speech has been the overuse of the phrase “my truth” to blur absolute truth and opinion. Fox presents designated facts and opinion. CNN presents its truth every day. Our discourse is worse because of it.
Kristin Tate is a libertarian writer and author of “How Do I Tax Thee? A Field Guide to the Great American Rip-Off.” Follow her on Twitter @KristinBTate.