It was a rather fierce battle this week with so many events throwing the Old Generation Media off balance. There were Trump’s policies, the ongoing deportations, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s first White House press briefing. Then there was the airline tragedy in D.C., and the media could not decide if they should blame the crash on Trump or get mad at him for blaming the crash on others.
There was plenty to sort through, but by using our very meticulous method of subjective judgment, we managed to find one that came out on top. Or, the bottom, as it were. It was not an easy process, but it was a fun one all the while. Now, let’s get through our list as we note those outlets that distinguished themselves with markedly undistinguished performances.
THE CONTENDERS
WASHINGTON POST – On the morning after the air crash, the printed paper managed to get the story on its front page but chose to bury it below the fold under five hit pieces on Trump. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung gave an example of WaPo reporters playing the “Deadline Gambit” game, where the reporters spent time building a story on the ICE roundups but gave his office only a couple of minutes to comment before publishing. The paper ran a lengthy investigation on Elon Musk, looking into the prospect that he cheats at video games.
NBC NEWS – The Justice/Intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian had a number of curious comments about Tom Homan attending ICE raids in Chicago, including saying the public was unaware that Biden had been conducting similar deportations at the end of his term. (Why do you suppose the public had not been informed, Mr. Journalist?!) At the White House Press Briefing, Peter Alexander was peppering Karoline Leavitt about the various programs affected by the administration’s spending pause, but when she asked him about which programs, the reporter stammered that there are so many he could not name a specific one – to which she quipped that he wanted her to comment on a hypothetical, regarding departments he could not name. Reporter Jacob Soboroff was on with Stephen Colbert to promote his border documentary and declared that efforts at deterrence do not work. He completely missed reports this same week showing Trump’s deterrence efforts have slowed border crossing to a fraction of what they had been.
MSNBC – Tom Homan humiliated Joy Reid after her insipid comments about the immigration raids. Rachel Maddow brought back Tim Walz for a Defeat Tour appearance. Alex Witt chastised a reporter for using the term illegal aliens instead of the approved “undocumented immigrants.” Lawrence O’Donnell delivered an angry rant on how the press was too polite and professional during the WH press briefing. The Democrats held their winter meetings to select new leadership and the party agenda – all shown on the struggling network. The ratings in January hit historic lows.
CNN – Bakari Sellers had to delete a post he made about tying Trump to the D.C. plane crash. Abby Phillip attempted to steer blame for the crash onto Trump during the live coverage of the aftermath. Stephen Miller ended up laughing at Jake Tapper over his comment that showing government workers donated to Kamala Harris was “demonizing” them. Kasie Hunt was upset on air because ICE agents were wearing gear with “ICE“ displayed for the cameras during their immigration roundups. The ratings in January hit historic lows.
THE WINNER
CBS NEWS
The network trotted out its new evening news program after the departure of Norah O’Donnell and generated only modest interest.
Margaret Brennan landed the first interview with Vice President J.D. Vance, and she exposed her condescending elitist mentality.
Major Garrett covered some of the ICE raids and was upset that there were too many agents for the amounts of arrests and whined that this was a spectacle for the cameras.
There was an indication the network was going to settle the lawsuit brought by Donald Trump over the controversy with the “60 Minutes” Kamala Harris interview that was conducted ahead of the election, which was shown to be heavily edited. This is a development angering those inside the network. But even as many were saying the lawsuit was merit-free, the network is set to turn over to the FCC the complete transcripts and the unedited video of the Kamala interview, something the production has steadfastly refused to do ever since the edits to the broadcast were exposed.
