OPINION:
MSNBC, in what’s an obvious attempt at rebranding to recapture lost viewership, has changed its cable network name to MS NOW.
As if.
As if that makes up for Rachel Maddow.
The problem with today’s media has nothing to do with names and everything to do with substance. Everybody knows that if you’re looking for the latest anti-Donald Trump rant, tune in to CNN, to NBC, to MSNBC — errr, MS NOW. This is the state of the media during Trump’s first presidency.
“The press has been unrelenting toward [Trump] since Day One,” Family Research Council wrote in December of 2017.
“Our latest numbers show that coverage of Trump on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in September, October and November [2017] was more than 90 percent negative,” the Media Research Center wrote.
This is the state of the media during Trump’s second presidency.
“Media Research Center finds 92 percent negative coverage of Trump in first 100 days,” ABC News wrote in April.
“Leavitt blasts ‘left-wing’ media for ‘false coverage’ of Trump’s foreign policy wins,” CBS Austin wrote this week, citing remarks from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
What’s a MAGA gotta do to win the love of the media?
The Weather Channel took top honors in the most-trusted category of 52 different news outlets that were surveyed last year by YouGov. The Weather Channel! Is The Weather Channel even considered news?
So say Americans — who named The Weather Channel as most trustworthy for four years running, from 2022 through 2025. BBC and PBS came in second and third in this category for 2025; at the other end, dead last, was The National Enquirer. Also scoring low on the trust scale were Infowars and Breitbart.
This is not a matter of branding.
This is due to the fact that most in media see their roles as telling Americans what to think, even to the point of disguising truths. Move over, fake news. We’re talking outright false news — purposely falsified news.
Russia collusion takes the cake. Hunter Biden’s laptop isn’t far behind. The entire yearslong reporting on COVID, the COVID shots and the utter nonsense being passed as science will probably go down in history as the longest-running media-driven scam in journalism history. But coming in a close second in that category is the “science” of transgenderism. Sane people know boys cannot become girls simply by popping a prescription pill or two and donning a dress. Sane people know that boys masquerading as girls to compete in girls’ athletic events is not just unfair, but also dangerous.
Then there’s the media take.
“Ana Navarro: Banning Transgender Athletes Is Not Going To Lower The Price Of Your Eggs,” ran one headline from The View a few months ago.
That’s the voice of a desperate leftist media celebrity trying to ding Trump.
This is what today’s media markets have become: breeding grounds for the Trump Deranged, for the MAGA haters, for the anti-American.
And those with the most hate-filled voices are finding that viewers are fleeing — and finding alternatives for their news.
CNN has lost viewership. MSNBC has lost viewership. Fox News is gaining. Newsmax is gaining — so much it’s gone public, in fact.
The media failures to report the truth are real. The media biases to rail against Team Trump while coddling all-things-Democrat are real. The American people are noticing, and responding with free market choice changes. So what does the failing media do to address their trust issue; their bias issue; their elitist attitude toward conservative principles and ideas?
They do a name change.
They do a logo change.
They toss in some red, white and blue coloring on the logo, so as to appear patriotic and pro-America.
How nice. Now how about hiring more conservatives to bring some even-handedness to the reporting?
Until the content is addressed and until the anti-conservative bias is balanced, all these brand changes are for naught.
The saying is that you can put lipstick on a pig — but no amount of lipstick changes the fact that it’s a pig.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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