The US election loser: The mainstream media

“If it’s a fair election, he will win.” 

That was the unanimous conclusion of a debate I attended recently. One commentator also quipped “if it’s not a rig or kill him strategy, he’ll win!

The audience duly laughed at the second comment but both are actually pretty depressing because they were not about some tin pot dictator’s version of an election but the presidential election of the most powerful country in the world. Former President Trump v Vice President Harris.

‘IF’ it’s a fair election.

Fair media coverage would be a start.

I get it, politics is a dirty business but TV networks and National newspapers seek to inform the country of news stories. They can’t do that if they hold half of the country in contempt.

In 2016, after Donald Trump won the presidential race against Hillary Clinton, I attended a discussion in London about the result. The moderator was a well-known Guardian journalist. His opening remark was “This was the result nobody expected.”

There was murmuring dissent amongst the audience. 

“I expected it,” said the political analyst on the panel, an American Democrat. “Anyone who was listening to the people expected it.” 

The audience murmured agreement. Many of us had expected it – because we got our news from sources other than the mainstream media. The latter told us Hillary had it in the bag. Editors had their champagne on ice. One even ran a headline ‘When my friend Hillary is in the White House.’

In 2016, while the election was in full swing, I visited the USA. Hillary Clinton was bidding to become the first female president of the country. Her opponent, Donald Trump, had been a media favourite for decades. He was a flash billionaire, always good for a sound bite and Hollywood loved him. He made cameos in movies, rappers sang about how they aspired to be him, his then wife,  Ivana, appeared on the cover of glossy magazines. Chat show hosts loved urged him to run for president because‘he’d be so good at it.’

So he took them up on it. 

However, he decided to run, as a Republican. The media that had hailed him as a business visionary and ‘Robert Redford lookalike’ turned on him. (Check out the new film The Apprentice which covers his early life)

In the past 10 years if there has been a genuinely objective, fair analysis of what he has to offer as president and why 75 million people voted for him in 2016, it would be good to see. If there is an American fashion magazine that has had his attractive model wife, Melania or his stylish daughter Ivanka on its cover, it would be good to see. The level of petty spite against even his family has been unprecedented. Trump himself was banned from twitter. 

There was bound to be a reaction. It came in the form of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. He bought twitter, renamed it X and gave Trump a social media voice again.

As part of his 2024 campaign Trump has appeared on the most listened to Podcast in the world and been endorsed by the show’s host. The 3 hour interview has been viewed over 65 million times. Attendees at his packed rallies post videos of the lively events and gain millions of views within minutes of being uploaded. 

Love him or hate him, his campaign in 2024 has been epic. Operatic. It’s been inspired, creative and fun. There hasn’t been anything like it in politics, anywhere. 

From two assassination attempts to him doing a stint at McDonald’s and driving around in a garbage truck afterJoe Biden described his followers as garbage it’s been an absolute rollercoaster. 

Late into the early morning hours of election day he was dancing on stage at the four rallies he held over 12 hours. 

The revolution will be captured on iPhone and uploaded. It doesn’t need the slow, plodding tv networks to reach the masses.

By contrast the Harris campaign has looked lacklustre despite the presence of big celebrities at some of them. If anything the celebrities have been a liability. The public loves to see celebrities performing but they don’t want to be lectured by them. Plus it’s been the same old, tired celebrities, reading from teleprompters with little genuine enthusiasm. Even worse, it’s said that those who strongly endorse her do so because they are on the P. Diddy list of sexual predators. True or not, mud sticks. 

Meanwhile Trump has assembled an A list team behind him all of whom have huge followings across social media platforms. He doesn’t need endorsements from newspapers few read anymore. Very likely those newspapers would not highlight how it’s Trump, who they have constantly smeared as ’racist’ who is pulling in the backing of groups as diverse as Muslims, the Amish, BLM. 

Friends and colleagues who rely on the mainstream media either don’t know any of this at all or only know it in the vaguest terms.

Perhaps I’m naive in thinking that even politics should be a fair game. Clearly it isn’t. But I do believe that journalism should be honest and at least give the semblance of impartiality. That it doesn’t will make the mainstream media the biggest loser in this election. Mistrusted, out of touch, partisan and dull it increasingly preaches to a dwindling audience of the converted. 

Instead, it’s the energetic citizen journalists, the probing podcasters and the passionate canvassers  who are going out and speaking to the people the mainstream media ignores. It is they who are providing stories and videos of what is going on at the coal face. And from what they’re saying, yes, if it is a fair election, then Trump will win. Bigly.