Other than watching the daily histrionic fits on the TDS-riddled left over virtually everything President Donald Trump says, claims, or does, my favorite effect of the Golden Age of Trump has been the precipitous and steady decline in ratings, revenue, and viewership of the (pick one or more) mainstream, legacy, left-wing, lapdog, sock puppet, quasi-official Democrat state, media.
Yep, from the twin clown cars of cable — CNN and MSNBC — to the alphabet media — ABC, CBS, and NBC — to once-vaunted and highly respected newspapers like The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, media outlets with a gleeful wont to trash all things Trump continue to pay "bigly" for their various biases — most of them, stubbornly so.
Case in point:
Since his arrival at the Washington Post, publisher and CEO Will Lewis has fought to reverse the outlet's plunge in revenue and readership. While WaPo is far from the Lone Ranger of left-leaning media outlets with regard to toilet-swirling ratings, loss of revenue, and declining readership or viewership, the CEO does stand out for his bottom-line message to WaPo staff and writers: get onboard or get out.
As political commentator and author Jonathan Turley summed up the state of WaPo's decline:
[Lewis's] greatest challenge has been the staff itself, which seems willing to embrace bankruptcy rather than give up its bias.
Exactly. "Willing to embrace bankruptcy rather than give up its bias" couldn't be more accurate to also describe CNN and MSNBC on-air "journalists," et al., as well.
The interesting (and of course, hilarious) irony, here, is that the likes of CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Anderson Cooper, Brianna Keillar, and Jake Tapper, along with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, Katy Tur, Rachel Maddow, and Nicolle Wallace, and others, are in effect losing or spending OPM — other people's money — rather than their own (other when they face pay cuts as their respective outlets continue to fail).
My point is it has a nice socialist ring to it, doesn't it?
Back to WaPo
WaPo's Lewis reportedly got into a recent "heated exchange" with a staffer in which he explained that the very survival of the paper is at stake if its content doesn't change:
We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around. We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.
Lewis also stressed WaPo's “reinvention journey,” including its “reimagining” of its op-ed pages that he wants to “champion American values,” along with other initiatives.
And how'd that play out? According to Turley, "the response was fury from the staff, which called for Lewis and other new editors to be scrapped."
Then Lewis really brought the hammer down:
The moment demands that we continue to rethink all aspects of our organization and business to maximize our impact. If we want to reconnect with our audience and continue to defend democracy, more changes at The Post will be necessary. And to succeed, we need to be united as a team with a strong belief and passion in where we are heading.
I understand and respect, however, that our chosen path is not for everyone,. That’s exactly why we introduced the voluntary separation program. As we continue in this new direction, I want to ask those who do not feel aligned with the company’s plan to reflect on that.
The VSP is designed to support you in making this decision, give you the ability to weigh your options thoughtfully and with less concern about financial consequences. And if you think that it’s time to move on to a new chapter, the VSP helps you take that next step with more security.
Boom. Get with the (new) program, or get out.
I've long believed that many, if not most, among the left-wing media elite actually believe the leftist drivel they write or spew is not only correct; they also believe that their beliefs are baseline beliefs held by a majority of Americans. This is preposterous, of course.
Similarly, as we've seen with CNN and MSNBC, despite similar reports of management coming down on hosts for their over-the-top left-wing bent, nothing much (make that, zero) seems to have changed, on-air.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Will Left-Wing Media Ever Change? WaPo Suggests Trump Wants Russia and China to 'Carve Up the Planet'
So here's the thing:
All one needs to do is look at public support for mass-deportation of illegal aliens, the need for ending waste and fraud in the federal government, and most telling, the decisive — some would say "historic" — 2024 presidential election, in which Trump won all seven swing states, the "Blue Wall" states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and popular vote, and the GOP regained control of the Senate and held onto the House, for proof that the leftist media's strategy has failed miserably.
Moreover, Trump continues to enjoy record approval ratings (for him) by taking action on the pledges he made throughout the 2024 campaign.
In other words, if the TDS-riddled media were right, and Donald Trump was anywhere near the incarnation of evil tirelessly portrayed by the left-wing ad nauseam, it doesn't take a rocket scientist (no Elon Musk pun intended) to figure out how things are going to continue to fare for the likes of the Washington Post staff and the Trump haters of cable media, throughout the Second Age of Trump.
