Consider for a moment all of the therapy couch musing seen from the press in the days after the Donald Trump election victory. Despite years of demonizing the man, somehow, the general public supported him at the polls at a level that defies interpretational spin; he won cleanly, took the popular vote, won all the crucial swing states, saw increased voter support from 2020 in 49 states, has the GOP running the Senate and House, and returns to 1600 Penn with a clear mandate.
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As a result, many in the media are contemplating what it all means that so much of this country ignored their constant bleating about what a threat a new Trump term presents, and they are struggling. We have heard two intertwined themes coming out – that the truth and accuracy are losing out to misinformation, and that too many people these days spurn the conventional press and get their news from other media sources.
The real amusement is that this reality has not led most of those in the news industry to contemplate where they went astray; instead, they blame the general public. We see them castigating voters for following these “fraudulent” news sources, calling them mostly uneducated and thus incapable of divining the “true news” delivered by the media elites. It is a classic delusion on a grand scale: “Could we be the cause for this? No – no, it is those ignorant voters who are to blame!”
Which brings us to Thursday, and the completely baseless hysteria that was ginned up regarding Trump and a supposed health crisis. Currently, the group involving the president-elect has not established a formal press pool as they are working on the transition, but this has not deterred the media from forming a herd at Mar-a-Lago, and this was the source of Thursday’s manic coverage. A clutch of official black SUVs was seen gathered on the property, as well as a helicopter hovering over the grounds, and then as the convoy left, an ambulance was spotted in the clutch of vehicles in the convoy.
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This led to wild speculation in the press gaggle that there was a health problem involving Trump, and then this took on a life with the assembled journalists. Soon, reporters were detailing this “event” transpiring on social media, with all the implications that a health crisis involving Donald Trump may be unfolding. Andrew Feinberg, White House correspondent for The Independent, was one of the “pool” members who broadcast this baseless report.
Word of Trump’s possible health condition spread like wildfire across the social media platforms, with some sending up thoughts and prayers, while many in the neo-resistance movement displayed varying signs of hopeful malady reports to follow. It was all fact-free speculation and unneeded excitement.
Trump was just fine. What was witnessed was the motorcade of VP-elect J.D. Vance leaving the Mar-A-Lago property. He has long traveled on the campaign with an ambulance as part of the fleet of support vehicles. Donald Trump was inside the property at a meeting, in fine condition.
But the press saw the need to rush out what it felt was a breaking story. The fact there was no scrambling seen from the convoy, nor the ambulance lights and siren not being employed during this egress should have been a tipoff that something was not amiss. And how about waiting to receive official word before streaking to social media with suggestive reports? Seems the kind of thing a responsible journalist might engage in while doing their job.
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Feinberg, after being informed of his overreaction as well as becoming community-noted on his post, eventually returned to his Xitter feed to tut-tut the excitement that he helped generate: “CALM DOWN PEOPLE…false alarm.” (That was the digital alarm he pulled, in Jamaal Bowman-like fashion.)
Following this recklessness, Trump’s communication director, Steven Cheung, blasted the press for this baseless hype job that they created out of whole cloth.
What is remarkable about this entire fiasco is how the “legitimate” press behaved, in contrast to their very messaging. These are the journos who, for weeks now, have decried that people are not listening to them while allegedly following misinformation and believing what they see on allegedly disreputable sources. Yet here was CBS News, and other esteemed sources, pushing out fraudulent reports and rushing to social media to spread the misinformation. Then, best of all, these professionals became corrected as other accounts and Community Notes got the facts and countered their fake news.
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These are the same news outlets that have expressed dismay that Trump has proposed having a number of independent news outlets included in the White House press briefing credentials list. What is clearly evident is that this is a needed tonic to the bastardized character of the press teams following the White House.