The NPR/Mike Pompeo feud shows how media bashing divides voters
This is particularly true when conservatives raise campaign funds or reach the all-important audience-of-one President Donald Trump.
Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona reaped some of those benefits with a viral video moment. As she hurried down a hallway outside of the start of President Trump's Senate impeachment trial, CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju tried to ask her a question.
Instead of a simple "no comment," she responded: "Manu, you're a liberal hack. I'm not going to talk to you."
She got noticed. As Raju's colleagues defended his nonpartisan professionalism (I happily include myself in that group), McSally received "THREE CHEERS" in a tweet from the Trump campaign, along with the encouraging, "THIS is how you handle FAKE NEWS @CNN."
Not surprisingly, the tweet offers a link for donating to McSally's campaign. The "liberal hack" slam was so memorably precious that the Trump team sent it out with a link for her campaign donation. A new link, "Liberalhack.com," later appeared, followed by the marketing of a new T-shirt saying, "You're a liberal hack, buddy."
You may know McSally as the Republican who is likely to face Democrat Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut married to former Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. Kelly reported a big fundraising advantage against McSally, ending 2019 with $6 million more in the bank than she did.
If McSally, a former Air Force combat pilot, feels a little media bashing couldn't hurt her fundraising efforts, she's probably right.
When all else fails, according to an old sarcastic political motto, blame the media. In today's polarized era, charges of media bias appear to be having the effect of reducing public trust in media, particularly among Republicans, according to a new Pew Research Center study of attitudes over the past five years.
Republicans have become more doubtful of major news media over the past five years, the Pew study finds, especially on the far right, while Democrats' trust has stayed largely the same -- or, in some cases, strengthened.
More research remains to be done, but as the influence of the major parties fades amid the rise of new social media, it becomes increasingly easy for politicians to create their own reality and bash everyone else's.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2020 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
