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Turn on your favorite cable news channel at any time of the day or night and you'll be confronted with anchors talking in serious tones about what Donald Trump did today.
The year is 2025, but the mainstream media acts like it's 2017-2020 again.
Not all reporting was the same. Presenters like Nicolle Wallace and Lawrence O'Donnell at MSNBC have made the effort to focus on Trump's actions and provide much-needed context.
The greatest element of the reporting that O'Donnell and Wallace have provided is that it is calm, measured, and certainly not trying to intimidate viewers into watching the coverage.
CNN has shaken up its entire program and, in order to win Trump's favor, killed it Jim Acosta's highly rated weekday morning show to hand over this time slot to the Republican Wolf Blitzer. CNN made its intention to bury Acosta clear by offering him the midnight to 2 a.m. Eastern time weekday slot.
Acosta's show hasn't been the same since Warner Brothers/Discovery bought the network and put an end to his comments.
MSNBC, which is relying on the nightly return of Rachel Maddow to boost ratings during Trump's first 100 days, has fallen to third place among cable networks, failing to reach 1 million viewers for Maddow-led coverage of Trump's inauguration Don't crack the audience.
The channel has focused entirely on Trump, which seems to be the opposite of what many of its viewers expect.
The Democrats' reaction to Trump has received little coverage. The corporate media has censored itself because it is difficult to find much criticism of Trump, even after he took actions in his first week that were both unconstitutional And illegal.
The mainstream media made their playbook clear. They wanted Joe Biden to get out out of office because they thought Trump's return would boost ratings and hits.
The media hasn't realized that, with a few exceptions, sequels are never as good as the originals.
Americans have seen this show before. There is nothing new about a convicted criminal doing illegal things.
There seems to be a general feeling that many Americans will wait for Trump and get involved in the political process in 2026 and certainly in 2028, when the Democrats will have a new face as leaders of their party.
Much of the coverage of the first week of Trump's second presidency was embarrassing. There is no attempt to hold Trump accountable. The “free press” seems perfectly content to act as stenographers for Trump.
The more viewers tune out and tune out, the sooner the corporate press will get the message that this is not what many Americans want.
How do you think the media handled Trump's first week? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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