Staff Reports
Analyzing the recent media frenzy surrounding former President Donald Trump reveals a striking pattern of bias that should make any red-blooded conservative’s blood boil. According to a comprehensive analysis by the Media Research Center, a staggering 95 percent of reports from establishment media following a foiled assassination attempt on Trump were negative. If any other narrative existed, it got lost in the deluge of leftist spin.
Over the course of a few days, ABC, CBS, and NBC managed to frame their coverage around this serious event in a way that could make even the most seasoned alarmist blush. The attempted shooting at Trump International Golf Course in Florida, supposedly perpetrated by a 58-year-old leftist named Ryan Wesley Routh, took center stage in the networks’ evening broadcasts. Yet, instead of focusing on the severity of the incident, these outlets chose to pepper their commentary with an anti-Trump agenda, leading to a shocking 95 percent negativity level. It appears the sounds of gunshots were drowned out by the cacophony of disdain from the mainstream press.
The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2024
The MRC’s analysis breaks down the information clearly: While the assassination attempt captured a whopping 70 percent of airtime dedicated to the campaigns, out of 21 critical remarks made about the event, a staggering 20 were negative towards the former president. One might ask whether these networks were attempting to deliver news or fan the flames of their prejudices. A reasonable guess would certainly lean toward the latter. A more conspiratorial thinker might wonder if they had a dog in the fight.
In the aftermath, NBC’s Lester Holt seemingly wasted no time linking Trump’s rhetoric to the assassination attempt. As always, the media’s favorite pastime of crafting narratives began the moment law enforcement apprehended Routh. Holt’s assertion that Trump’s “rhetoric” had a hand in the plots against him felt less like journalism and more like a desperate attempt to shift blame. Meanwhile, the ever-political Norah O’Donnell on CBS was quick to criticize the former president’s claim that leftist rhetoric is a driving force behind the violence aimed at him. In a world where facts are often secondary to the story, it becomes painfully clear that the narrative reigns supreme among these media giants.
And while the broadcast news giants rushed to capitalize on the attempted assassination, they barely gave a nod to the idea that the radical left’s pointed attacks on Trump might be contributing to a climate of extreme hostility. The MRC highlighted that out of a full 48 minutes of coverage, the networks allocated a mere 1 minute and 53 seconds to even considering that Democrats could share some culpability. This glaring omission starkly illustrates the media’s penchant for an anti-Trump narrative, leaving the actual stakes of the situation buried under their cynical interpretations.
Adding to the absurdity, this near-farcical situation is compounded by the fact that this wasn’t even the first attempt on Trump’s life in recent memory. Just two months prior, a 20-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks was implicated in a shooting that left a campaign rally goer dead and two others injured while attempting to target Trump. But despite clear evidence that violence against Trump supporters is a reality, the narratives stay tightly scripted—and it’s not on the conservative side of the aisle. It seems that in the grand eyes of the mainstream media, the only acceptable narrative is one that fits their preordained thesis: Trump is an enemy to be vilified, even in the face of unthinkable danger.
