Opinion by: Saagar Enjeti
The consequences for corporate media are finally starting.
Yesterday, President Donald Trump’s campaign announced that it would not allow any reporter from Bloomberg News to cover its rallies.
Their statement says quote Bloomberg News has declared that they won’t investigate their boss or his Democrat competitors, many of whom are current holders of high office. Adding that “since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News or other campaign events.”
The move was, of course, met with whining from the cable news syndicate and couched as another attack by the president on the so-called fake news media.
With Bloomberg News Editor-in-chief John Micklethwait writing, “The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth. We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate and will continue to do so despite restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”
The New York Times Editor-in-chief Dean Baquet, he even got in on the action saying quote “Bloomberg News is one of the largest and most influential news organizations in the world. We condemn any action that keeps quality news media from reporting fairly and accurately on the presidency and the leadership of the country.”
Anyone with a functioning frontal cortex should snort at the idea that a media organization which bears the name of a Democratic presidential candidate can possibly cover their potential opponent fairly. Bloomberg News let the cat out of the bag in their original statement after the New York mayor’s candidacy was announced. They said quote we’ll continue our tradition of not investigating Mike.
As I noted at the time, Bloomberg News said the quiet part out loud. They confirmed that when oligarchs own media companies there are massive conflicts of interest and it showed just how hollow so much of the sanctimonious preaching from the Brian Stelter types over at CNN are when they tell us that the people at Bloomberg News, the Washington Post and the New York Times are the fairest people on this earth.
It should chill you to your bones, that the Editor-in-chief of the newspaper of record feels compelled to stand up for a news organization that has openly admitted its bias and is owned by the 9th richest man in America. Before our very eyes we have one of the most transparent displays of the alliance between the news media and the moneyed elite in this country.
And if you think that conservatives are the only ones talking about this, check out this clip from a familiar figure from about 16 years ago.
The man makes a good point. Recall that Washington Post Editor-in-chief Marty Baron said that Sanders was peddling a quote “conspiracy theory” for suggesting that his negative coverage in the newspaper was in any way tied to the paper’s ownership by Jeff Bezos.
That is what drives us all mad. People are smart, they know that when somebody owns something that they have influence over their product. They know that when a news organization literally bears somebody’s name, they’re going to act in their favor. That’s just how business works, don’t try and tell us otherwise. If they did that from the very beginning then maybe people would have some trust left in the media.
But they’re going to continue to gaslight us, and we’ll continue to shake our heads. The struggle continues.
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