They’re Still Lying to Our Faces

This is why we hate the legacy media and it’s absolutely why we don’t trust them any more.

Donald Trump has said networks should have their broadcast licenses revoked over late-night hosts who are too critical of him, after the ABC pulled comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” over remarks he made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Except that he didn’t say that. At all.

This lede, mind you, is from the supposedly ‘right-wing’ Australian. Even there, the Trump Derangement has claimed the normiecons, who gleefully join in the legacy media’s endless litany of lies about President Trump.

The irony is that the legacy media are so deranged that they’ll lie like a cheap rug in the lede, even as they report the real statement further in the story (where, apparently, they assume no one will bother reading).

Mr Trump said he had “read someplace” statistics that showed TV networks had been overwhelmingly against him in terms of “negative” and “bad press.”

“I would think maybe their licence should be taken away,” he said, adding the decision was up to Mr Carr – whom he praised as “outstanding” and a “tough guy”. The chairman of the broadcast regulator “loves our country,” he said.

Now, let’s read a full transcript of what Trump said:

“I read someplace that the networks were 97 per cent against me. I get 97 per cent negative, and yet I won easily. I won all seven swing states, the popular vote, won everything. And then 97 per cent against. They give me only bad publicity or press. I mean, they’re getting a licence. I would think maybe their licence should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr. That’s something that should be talked about for licensing too. When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do. If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years.” – Donald Trump

While the FCC’s Fairness Rule was abolished by the Obama administration in 2011, the FCC still has a policy against broadcast news distortion. As Trump suggests, when the coverage from networks is so overwhelmingly negative, it simply cannot be considered objective or fair. If the networks are indeed broadcasting distorted news coverage, the licences of their stations can indeed be re-examined by the FCC.

Trump is indeed correct about the overwhelming negativity of broadcast coverage:

A recent analysis by the Media Research Center has revealed that 92 per cent of the major network media coverage of President Donald Trump during his first 100 days in office was negative...

The report also noted a stark contrast in media coverage between the Trump and Biden presidencies, with coverage of President Joe Biden being 59 per cent positive.

Earlier research found that positive coverage of Barack Obama was double that of negative.

What this clearly shows is that the legacy media are no longer in the business of reporting the news: they’re acting as political cheerleaders.

The FCC is on to them.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr […] said channels with a “broadcast TV licence” had a bigger responsibility than, for example, podcasts.

He said broadcasters with a licence were free “to go on the internet and do whatever they want”. But “if they want to keep access to those valuable airwaves, I’ve been clear, we’re reinvigorating the FCC’s enforcement of public interest”.

As for late-night hosts, Trump correctly pointed out that Kimmel’s show was ultimately cancelled because of poor ratings, which is exactly what happened to Stephen Colbert.

It’s not just the FCC who is noticing how biased the legacy media have become: so have audiences. And they’re switching off in droves.

And so long as the legacy media keep blatantly lying, as they have in this instance, the more people will walk away from them.