Every honest member of the news media will admit that almost all reporters prefer Vice President Kamala Harris to President Donald Trump, and further that they loathe Trump and are positively giddy over Harris.
This media bias is evident in the dozens of stories basking in the “joy” of the Harris-Walz ticket. Republicans always worry that media bias will tip the electoral scales against them, and this isn’t false.
But Harris has an asset more important than media bias: her opponent’s inability to coherently and factually critique her policies, her record, and her party.
Media bias has its limits. Most reporters are liberals who try to overcome their personal preferences. Most of the rest can be shamed into something resembling balance.
Most bias works through omission and cover-up: The news media fail to criticize, question, or investigate their preferred candidates, instead writing vibesy stories about how the candidates like food.
The conservative media fill a crucial role here, informing readers of facts the left-leaning major media would never report. Sometimes, the liberal media continue to ignore the uncomfortable facts, but often conservative media coverage forces the liberal media to cover a story. To be more charitable, some of what conservative journalists unearth, liberal journalists ask about.
However, the entirety of the conservative media does not have even a fraction of the power to drive a story that the Republican presidential ticket has. Even if reporters dislike Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), they find it hard to ignore the factual criticisms Trump and Vance raise.
For instance, look at this CNN story about Walz’s war record and his claims. What’s remarkable is that it engages in the details of Walz’s misleading statements and actions.
Consider this passage:
“‘He said that we – and he was making a point about gun control – “shouldn’t allow weapons that I used in war to be on America’s streets,”’ Vance said of Walz.
“Vance pointed to a video promoted by the Harris campaign on social media Tuesday, in which Walz is speaking about his decision to change his position and support an assault weapons ban after the Parkland shooting in 2018.
“‘We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,’ Walz said in the video.
“Walz deployed with the Minnesota National Guard in August 2003 to Vicenza, Italy, as part of support for the US war in Afghanistan, according to a Minnesota Guard spokesperson. He did not deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq or a combat zone as part of his service.”
CNN covered Walz’s misleading statements because Vance brought it up.
This replays every four years: The liberal media ignore a story until the GOP nominee mentions it, and then the liberal media acknowledge the problem.
Now imagine if the Republican ticket had not only one candidate who could articulate Democrats’ flaws but two.
Sadly, when Trump talks about Harris, Walz, or Democrats, he’s often incoherent, irrelevant, or factually sloppy. This gives the media the out of saying, “That’s not an actual quotation from Harris.” It also just confuses everyone listening.
And so Trump’s great weakness, speaking accurately and coherently about what actually matters, is a great asset to Harris.
On this, Matt Continetti has a crucial column:
“What Harris is trying to avoid is substance. She doesn’t want to offer specific answers, concrete policies, persuasive explanations in an open setting. If that were to happen, she might be unprepared. She might whip up a word salad. Her Progressivism might show. The press might be forced to cover something other than the ‘joy’ and ‘vibes’ she has brought to the trail.
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“Why would Harris want to do that? Republicans and conservatives (and I) will continue to complain that she’s ducking the media. It won’t matter. Harris and her media allies will engage in a conspiracy of silence until she has no choice.”
Only Trump can force that decision sooner rather than later. Only Trump can tie Harris to the Biden record of inflation, unchecked immigration, and disorder here and abroad. Make her endorse or repudiate past policies such as abolishing private medical insurance, promoting the Green New Deal, banning fracking, decriminalizing border crossings, and exploring the possibility of racial reparations. Expose her appeasement of pro-Hamas forces within the Democratic Party. Remind voters of her radical plans to restructure the Supreme Court. Draw a picture of a world where Commander in Chief Harris is wildly out of her depth. Wrest the mantle of change from her grip.