Steve Krakauer, media critic, reports that The Acela Media is out of touch more than ever.” He cites their belief that the January 6 Committee is the most important issue of our time and that the public is bored to tears. He writes that the corporate press has been “hammering” the issues of “democracy”, January 6 and election denial nonstop in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
He begins with the bizarre episode in which Peter Strzok tells MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace that “9/11 is nothing compared” to January 6. Then he turns to the polls.
Monmouth’s latest poll on Americans’ attitudes to the January 6 committee revealed more. The results were released Wednesday. Only 8% of Americans believe that the hearings have changed their views about that day, which is the same percentage as August and up from 6% last June. 44% of Americans say they don’t believe the committee can conduct fair hearings — this is the highest number since August, up 8%. Most importantly, only 36% of Americans believe Donald Trump is “directly liable” for the events of that day. This percentage has been steadily declining since the hearings began.
He mentions the Gallup poll that we just completed, which shows that independents are losing faith in the media. Their belief that the press is fair has fallen from 42 to 27 percent.
The Siena/New York Times poll is another example. It is difficult to get partisans on the same page about everything these days. But this poll shows that there is one area of agreement – disdain for journalists. 57% of respondents said Republicans pose a threat to democracy while 63% said Democrats. However, 84% of those surveyed said that “mainstream media” was a greater threat to democracy than 57%.
Guess how much the media has been talking about the public’s belief that THEY are a threat! Guess zero.
The media seem to be more concerned about the state of democracy than the average American. Only 7% of respondents viewed it as the most pressing issue facing the country. The “election denier issue” is not as important to voters as the media would have them believe. According to a New York Times poll, 71% of Republicans would vote for someone who rejects the 2020 election results. However, 37% of independents and 12% of Democrats are open to voting for someone who does.
Journalists boast about being the smartest and most judgmental people, and democracy is only saved by following their blinders and their paranoid visions that Trump will return to power and become a right-wing dictator. It is convenient that everyone listens to them and votes Democrat, while the Republicans vote for the Whigs.
They don’t listen to their audience. They are lecturing about how reality-based they are, and you are not.
A Harvard-Harris poll compared what Americans consider their top issues to the party’s most important concerns. Only 7% of respondents ranked January 6 among the top three issues (inflation was #1 with 37% and jobs/economy #2 with 29%). What were the top issues that Democrats were most concerned about? January 6 was the #1 issue, with 27%. I wish they had asked about media.
This makes liberal journalists cranky. Krakauer ends with this headline from Chris Cillizza, CNN’s Chris Krakauer: “January 6 seems to have taught us absolutely nothing.”
Here conservative Twitter pulls up Cillizza’s stupid tweet from 2016: “Let’s say for the billionth-time: Reporters don’t root for any side. Period.”
