The Media Are Depressed, Defensive. They Should Stay That Way

Ever since MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and main squeeze Mika Brzezinski embarked on that pathetic trek to Mar-a-Lago last month, the national news media are feeling very low and demoralized.

That’s fantastic! We should all spend substantial time in deep prayer this Christmas season to keep it that way.

After the ever-obnoxious Scarborough and Brzezinski committed the unspeakable sin of meeting with the incoming president of the United States — formerly known as “fundamental journalism” — their peers roasted them into oblivion. A former CNNer described the trip as “groveling” and “kissing the ring.” The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple urged Democrats to “turn off ‘Morning Joe’” and turn to “reading a newspaper.” (Not bad advice so long as they don’t read any other Wemple pieces.)

The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times is taking a firmer hold on the opinion section of his paper. After years of throwing good money after bad, he’s hoping to make the paper’s editorials and columns at least somewhat enjoyable, rather than running up-beat headlines like “Mocking anti-vaxxers’ deaths is ghoulish, yes — but necessary.” (Yes, the paper actually ran that headline in 2022.) For that effort, an anonymous staffer at the Times complained to CNN that the publication was becoming “more bland.”

If all of that weren’t enough fun, then came the news on Saturday that ABC had agreed to pay $15 million for the eventual building of Donald Trump’s presidential library in order to settle a defamation suit.

CNN drama queer Jim Acosta on Monday called the settlement “unusual and disturbing.” Brian Stelter said Trump had got ABC to “bend the knee.”

The news website Axios sent out an internal memo advising staff that it’s “important for everybody to be careful and aware of the risks” in reporting potentially libelous content.

Good advice! Christmas had truly come early.

I have no idea how the lawsuit would have ended if ABC had instead gone to trial. It centered on anchor George Stephanopoulos describing Trump as having been held civilly liable for rape. The network wagered it was best not to see it through, and if the result is other journalists in Washington and New York feeling pressure to be more “careful and aware of the risks,” that’s a good time for everyone.

The media have been allowed to run too much for too long. Their protections are enshrined in the Constitution, and they made a mockery of it. It’s way past time for this to end.

They’re in a foul mood these days. Good.