Media top headlines July 1
Reaction to Bill Cosby's sudden release from prison, Nikole Hannah-Jones getting tenure granted by the UNC board, and liberals rejoicing over Donald Rumsfeld's death round out today's top media headlines
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the latest high-profile Democrat to have a career-threatening scandal to seemingly vanish from the mainstream media’s focus. Critics say it’s another example of widespread double standards and liberal bias plaguing America’s press.
"The media doesn’t cover the biggest stories, they cover the stories that further the points they previously made. Think of CNN hosts and New York Times’ journalists as prosecutors. They are trying not to inform the county, but persuade Americans," OutKick media columnist Bobby Burack told Fox News.
"They tell us Donald Trump is bad, white supremacy is our greatest threat, that Republicans are trying to suppress the vote, and that White men are to blame for it all," Burack added. "Unless a story provides enough juice to be spun as evidence of those talking points – the media has no use for it."
Sheldon Whitehouse, Andrew Cuomo and Ralph Northam are among the high-profile Democrats to get a pass from the mainstream media. (Getty Images)
CUOMO’S REFUSAL TO RESIGN EVOKES COMPARISONS TO NORTHAM’S RESISTANCE AFTER YEARBOOK PHOTO SCANDAL
A recent NewsBusters study indicated that coverage sexual misconduct claims against Cuomo have largely disappeared from mainstream media coverage. Stories about the nursing home scandal that also reflects negatively on Cuomo has dried up, too.
Cuomo is not alone in getting a pass from the mainstream media. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s, D-Calif., association with suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang has all but evaporated. Incriminating reports about then-candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter were essentially blacklisted from social media last year.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam refused to step down amid a 2019 scandal over a photo that appeared on his medical school yearbook page showing two men – one dressed in blackface and the other dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Yet the Democratic governor remains in office two years after facing pressure to resign from critics on both sides of the aisle.
The New York Times recently celebrated Northam’s survival with a glowing feature headlined, "Black Virginians Took Ralph Northam Back. Neither Has Forgotten," that claimed he became a "racially progressive governor" and showed "how a crisis can also provide opportunity" for a public figure.
"After four years of accumulating resistance subscriber dollars and Twitter followers during the Trump era, the mainstream media has no choice but to continue attacking Republicans and covering for Democrats. We see this day in, day out with the media's attempt to create a new figure for its viewers to hate," Washington Free Beason reporter Matthew Foldi told Fox News.
Foldi, who worked as a Republican operative before pivoting to journalism, feels Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be constantly villainized if he got caught up in anything close to scandals that Cuomo and Northam have managed to survive.
"Additionally, the media can't go after their Democratic friends because they are in bed--both literally, a la Alex Thomas, or figuratively, a la Chris Cuomo, in bed with the Democratic Party," Foldi added, referring to a Playboy reporter who dated former California lawmaker Katie Hill and the kid brother of Gov. Cuomo who hosts a CNN primetime show.
Foldi said the Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., scandal involving memberships to all-White clubs is "particularly instructive" when examining the way media handles controversies among members of their preferred party.
"Whenever there is a whiff of Democrat-manufactured controversy, the networks send their American Bridge trackers masquerading as Capitol Hill correspondents to every Republican office. In this case, silence," Foldi said. "Senate Democrats crucified Brett Kavanaugh for drinking beer in high school, but every single one escaped having to answer if they support one of their colleagues currently belonging – by way of his wife, after he dumped his ownership in her lap to try and avoid criticism – to a beach club with a longtime policy of banning minority members."
MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC were all called out for skipping significant developments in the story last week when Whitehouse was confronted by a local reporter. The scant coverage was in sharp contrast to the constant coverage the networks dedicated to Justice Amy Coney Barrett during her 2020 confirmation when they reported on her membership to the Christian group People of Praise, which critics likened to the dystopia of the "The Handmaid's Tale."
"Democrats love virtue signaling about eliminating systemic racism, but they have yet to comment on Sheldon Whitehouse's decades of membership in at least three whites-only clubs, and they know they can get away with it because no ‘mainstream’ journalist would dare press them in any serious manner about it," Foldi said.
The Times features a newsroom of far-left staffers who have been accused of bullying conservative colleagues. Many observers consider MSNBC and CNN to be wildly partisan, network newscasts are often accused of favoring the left, and free speech advocates have long called for tech giants such as Twitter to treat both sides equally to no avail.
NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham feels the media's coverage of ethics, squabbles and scandals is "the most fertile ground for exploring double standards and liberal bias" that is rampant in the country.
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"The New York Times can excuse Ralph Northam in blackface and yet tried to sink Marco Rubio's presidential campaign by harping on his and his wife's traffic tickets. They can try to get Trump impeached over asking foreign leaders about the sketchy business dealings of Hunter Biden, and then fail to question Joe Biden seriously about the business dealings of Hunter Biden," Graham told Fox News. "Reporters can say with a straight face that Obama's presidency was ‘scandal-free,’ and then cover Trump as a perpetual-motion machine of corruption."
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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