Media pays for getting Trump wrong

Two stories broke on Monday that are intertwined. One is the realization by liberals that President Trump may win by a landslide because of the kangaroo courts of New York.

The Hill reported, “The guilty verdict rendered against former President Trump is bringing moderate Republicans and longtime Trump skeptics to his side in a way that Trump’s campaign has failed to do for months.

“Longtime Trump critics, including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), among others, are rallying to Trump’s defense after the verdict — and other Trump-leery Republicans including Nikki Haley are expected to do so as well.”

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.

The other story is the Sunday night massacre at the Washington Post — the firing of its editor — which sent shockwaves through the credentialed media, which only goes to show how out of touch the media is.

The Daily Beast said, “The Washington Post’s executive editor Sally Buzbee has resigned, according to a press release issued by the newspaper.

“The move is a sudden and unexpected leadership change at one of the country’s largest newspapers—one that just last month won three Pulitzer Prizes for national reporting, editorial writing and commentary.”

Her resignation was so sudden and unexpected that Jeff Bezos, owner of the paper, had already lined up a temporary replacement until the permanent one can take over after the election.

Will Lewis, the chief executive and publisher of the Bezos Post, said, “Sally is an incredible leader and a supremely talented media executive who will be sorely missed. I wish her all the best going forward.”

That’s what they say as they shove you off on the iceberg.

While the nabobs of negativism nattered on about Pulitzers, CNN reported, “The changes to leadership come as Lewis moves quickly to turn around the Post, which soared with audience growth during the chaotic Donald Trump presidency but has since struggled to find its footing.

“Lewis, who unveiled the main contours of his revival plan last month, disclosed to staffers that the newspaper lost $77 million last year and 50% of its audience since 2020.”

Ah, the chaos of President Trump. He shut the border, didn’t surrender to Afghanistan, didn’t start a war and kept inflation down. But he fed the fish wrong, right?

Not to be a spoilsport, but he fed the fish correctly.

Trump always said the media would miss him when he was gone. Their accounting departments are now in mourning. The reason is the media sold out half its audience and appealed just to liberals. Now the media has learned just how disinterested in the news libs are.

Buzbee came in as editor to media adulation. News accounts said she was the first woman to lead the paper, which was news to Katharine Graham. A woman would save the Bezos Post because women have superpowers we mortal men cannot understand.

It took a year for anyone to admit how over her head Buzbee was.

Politico reported:

A year into her tenure, Buzbee’s efforts at creating a more inclusive newsroom have been stymied by an environment still reeling from years-old wounds over social media and editorial battles and trying to find its feet after a renewed sense of editorial purpose in the Trump era.

She’s lost prominent staff and, like many other national publications, struggled with a significant decline in readership following the end of the Trump presidency. The Post has experienced a slowdown in subscriptions, according to internal emails seen by staffers. Morale has ebbed to a low. In conversations with more than a dozen staffers granted anonymity to speak freely about newsroom dynamics, employees described the events of earlier this month — in which several prominent reporters accused each other of creating hostile work environments and one reporter was fired — as “mayhem” and “chaos.”

There is that word chaos again.

I don’t know much about leadership, but what I do know is if no one is following you, you ain’t leading.

The Politico story said, “Buzbee has earned plaudits inside the Post for being more accessible than her storied predecessor, Marty Baron. The Post grew in size and influence under his watch, with the help of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the paper in 2015 and infused it with cash.”

Two paragraphs later, it said, “Buzbee has taken a different approach, leaning into conversations with editors and expanding the organization’s leadership to include more diverse viewpoints. But some staffers have been less certain about Buzbee’s vision for the paper.”

So her plan was to substitute what was working — top down management — with a bunch of meetings and committees. I don’t want to pick on her. Losing half your audience is a team effort and the Bezos Post team certainly was up to the task.

One of her predecessors, Leonard Downie Jr., wrote in the Post on January 30, 2023, “Newsrooms that move beyond ‘objectivity’ can build trust.”

Beyond Objectivity reminds me of Beyond Meat because it is just as unnecessary, useless and tasteless. Like actual meat, actual journalism is wholesome and provides the public what it needs. Trying to pass off processed roughage as food or propaganda as news is unhealthy for the soul and for society.

He wrote, “increasingly, reporters, editors and media critics argue that the concept of journalistic objectivity is a distortion of reality. They point out that the standard was dictated over decades by male editors in predominantly white newsrooms and reinforced their own view of the world. They believe that pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading ‘bothsidesism’ in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects. And, in today’s diversifying newsrooms, they feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.”

Downie’s world is so diversified that there is no room for another side to any story.

The problem for Bezos and his Post is that there are other sides to the story. The media is learning this the hard way. The Post and the rest of the media no longer can turn a 49-state landslide into a forced resignation less than two years later over a manufactured scandal.

Politico reported, “‘Now he’s seen as a symbol’: Republicans rally around Trump.

“Republicans embraced Trump as both parties — and pollsters — tried to gauge the impact of the verdict on the election.”

Ace congratulated them for turning Orange Man Bad into Orange Mandela.

When the media and their sugar daddy Democrats hatched their multi-pronged lawfare against President Trump, they thought their plan was foolproof. They rejoiced when Georgia released a mugshot of him.

Within two days, though, Politico had to report, “The former president has raised $7.1 million since he was booked at an Atlanta jail Thursday evening, according to figures provided first to Politico by his campaign. On Friday alone, Trump raised $4.18 million, making it the single-highest 24-hour period of his campaign to date, according to a person familiar with the totals.

Well a conviction would be different, right?

The Daily Mail reported, “The Donald Trump campaign has raised a staggering $200 million since the former president was found guilty of 34 felonies last Thursday, his son Eric Trump said Sunday.”

Yes it was different as $200 million is nearly 30 times $7 million. A few more guilty verdicts and President Trump’s vault won’t have room for all the money.

We will see if Democrats have through their overkill made Trump the next president because it is a long way to go till Election Day.

But a year ago, Republicans had a wide-open presidential race. Democrats and the media closed it by making Trump the only choice for real Americans because we know if they get him, we’re next. Even RINOs may vote for him this time.

Democrats may pay the price in November. The credentialed media already is paying with layoffs and now the firing of Sally Buzbee. I may need a cigarette once this is over.