Media Trumping, and Our Trumped Media

On April 26^th, within minutes of the polls
closing in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states, media outlets up and down
the Eastern seaboard projected Donald Trump as the big winner. With no votes
tallied, no precincts fully accounted for or counted, the news sites, the
bloggers, and the heavy anchors at their news desks predicted who would carry
the New England states: two old, white New England liberals. Well, make that three:
Sanders, along with Clinton and Trump.

Of course, I find it very offensive that the polling sites
decide who is going to carry the states before actual votes are tallied. To ally
my fears (and to rub in another victory for his guy), one Trump fan told me
that these Internet polls draw projections from the exit polling. Yes, exit
indeed, as in "watch election integrity, free of media prodding, EXIT out
the window.”

For all the conservative efforts to limit the power of the
media to shape, read distort, our
elections, once again this country is riding a crash course toward conventions
and general elections, with the CEOs of NBC, CBS, and ABC crowning the next
nominee. Actually, nominees, since Big Media has wanted Hillary as Democratic
nominee—and President—for four years. Donald Trump has strengthened their hand.
This media pressure is nothing new. President Obama was a media creature. The papers,
the nightly newscasters, and especially the Sunday morning talk shows wanted a
hyped-up narrative of “the first black President.”

Oprah Winfrey dived right into Election 2008. Besides giving
out free cars and high ratings for the American Broadcasting Corporation, the Queen
of Day Time TV deigned her blessing to Barack Obama as our next chief executive.
She could have selected Hillary Clinton, but the identity politics of the first
black President exceeded the left-wing feel-good need to endorse the first
woman president.  Perhaps she was
thinking of running for the White House herself. She might have the chance,
since the current GOP front-runner toyed with her as his next VP. Of course, he
will change his mind as quickly as he opposed then welcomed, the hesitated,
then opposed an expansion of H-1b visas.

We were off to a great start this election cycle, and now we
have the anti-conservative touting himself as the anti-Obama. Look at that
face! All that stuff Donald Trump said about abortion, gay marriage, gun
control … all that other stuff Donald Trump had done in regards to illegal immigration
(hiring illegal aliens, allowing them to continue to work for his firms, within
his corporate empire): none of it matters.

The Mainstream Media keeps covering this guy, and the
right-wing media seems content to cover for him. Every time he barks, the press
asks “How high?” He says the same things over and over, and more people still
want to hear it. I actually listen to the Sunday Morning talking heads. How can
they keep interviewing this guy? Apparently, more viewers are tuning in.
Nielsen’s loving them, I suppose. As for me, I have tuned them out. I rarely catch
the nightly news. Before going to bed one night, I watched the Los Angeles news
affiliates talk about the GOP front-runner’s latest exploits. Two stories back
to back regaled the sleepy LA area audience with Trump’s silly statements or
creepy feats. It was YUGE, and it made me sigh: UGH!

Ben Shapiro was right. Trump is the master of the media, and
HAS trumped the press in the process.

The lying, vain-scream media are an easy target, anyway. The
conservatives proved repeatedly that they deserved our revulsion, not our respect.
The liberal-laced media elites have been telling us what we need to think,
rather than what we want to hear. New Media journalists emerged since then, including
The Drudge Report, followed by Breitbart,
Truth Revolt, Hot Air.

To their credit, the Heritage Foundation’s new news media
affiliate The Daily Signal has done
an incredible job writing and promoting pro-liberty and pro-life reforms all
over the country, even if conservatives fear the worst in the upcoming general
election. And they do so without trying to pick Presidential winners and
losers.

The diversity of opinion is a blessed necessity, and the
monolithic influence of conservative counter-media efforts is more than
welcome. But let’s cut the crap once again (transgendered bathrooms aside). Some
conservative forces are just as guilty of pushing the hugely populist, yet questionably
principled front-runner. Certain talk radio and major news sites, bent on
raising their profile, have created their own sick and twisted version of a media
hyped Presidential creation.

Why?

It’s all about the money. Ratings, viewers, advertising.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Wash away a constitutional Republic, and replace with
populist optimism. Of course, Trump made the media the focal point in this
campaign, and manipulated the coverage to his gain. He’s been on TV for years,
as a loud-mouth boss looking for the next apprentice. He also knew how to laugh
at himself with his cover of the “Green Acres” theme song one year.  Donnie, they may love you, but I still choose
Ted Cruz.

There are the chattering classes in Washington, and the
cash-in cohorts like consultants, campaign managers, and lobbyists who win big
when lawmakers vote in their interest (as opposed to the public interest in line
with the national charter). Now we have the conservative media crowds, too. Consultants
got rich off the pro-amnesty donor class who wanted Jeb! Now the conservative
news outlets are ranking in the dough for cooking Trump’s worth and viability. Trump
has been quite a money-maker for them. He says something inflammatory, they get
to talk about it—for or against—and millions of their loyal listeners drink it
up like kool-aid on a summer day. And the mainstream media hates them for it.

Unfortunately, their drunken need for easy press and solid,
consistent media coverage is costing us a healthy discussion on the future of
this country, and our much-needed recovery from the aggressive cancer of Obama’s
progressivism.