As the historic and revolutionary election of businessman Donald J. Trump as the next president became a crushing reality in the evening hours on Tuesday, the mainstream media joined in a collective groan. First of all, the reporters were disappointed that all of their hard work to push Hillary Clinton into the White House had failed. Secondly, they had every fact and figure completely wrong in the lead-up to the election.
It was perhaps MSNBC’s anchor Rachel Maddow who most succinctly embodied this collective devastation:
Listen closely as Maddow reacts under her breath with a “Well, that’s a bitch,” when co-host Brian Williams announced some good news for Trump:
CNN contributor Sally Kohn also began imploding Tuesday night and said white people had some ‘splaining to do:
New York Times columnists joined in sharing in the despair on Wednesday. Paul Krugman wrote, “Is America a failed state and society? It looks truly possible. I guess we have to pick ourselves up and try to find a way forward, but this has been a night of terrible revelations, and I don’t think it’s self-indulgent to feel quite a lot of despair.”
Thomas Friedman stated, “How do I explain Trump’s victory? Way too soon to say for sure, but my gut tells me that it has much less to do with trade or income gaps and much more to do with culture and many Americans’ feeling of ‘homelessness.’”
Sean Alfano said Trump’s victory was dependent on “consolidated support from white voters” and commented on how bad the media misjudged the movement:
[T]hey portrayed Trump supporters as “out of touch with reality. In the end, it was the other way around.”
For the next four years, the mainstream media are going to have to come to grips with President Trump. It remains to be seen whether they can overcome their bias.
