There's something that David Brooks of The Atlantic talked about recently that hasn't been getting the attention it deserves.
Now, to be fair, generally, most of what Brooks says doesn't deserve a lot of attention.
But what he said while on PBS NewsHour on September 25 is noteworthy. He had been bashing President Donald Trump for blocking some media outlets from the White House. He noted that this was during a time when Trump was speaking at the United Nations, among other things, and he acted as if people wouldn't get to see the visuals. Pro tip, David? We did, because we didn't need CNN to cover it.
But that wasn't the most interesting part of what he said. What was interesting related to this part, where he spoke about the media's "business model" and the closeness the press has with the Democrats.
🚨 There it is…
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) October 2, 2026
In a rare moment of honesty, The Atlantic’s David Brooks admitted something that should be a crime—and proves exactly why President Trump banned certain media outlets.
“Starting in 2015, we in the Main Stream Media learned that if you bash Donald Trump, the… pic.twitter.com/XjSKY76qUD
“But if I can vent one pet peeve about us.
Starting in 2015, we in the mainstream media learned that if you bash Donald Trump, the clicks go up, the ratings go up— it became the business model. I'm not saying, you know, we played it straight, we do our job, but it's become the business model.
And I get to, we get to go, at least to dinners, to sometimes off-the-record dinners between journalists, columnists, and politicians. And I would say over the last two years, used to be when you were at a dinner, an off-the-record dinner with a Democratic politician, there was distance between the journalists and the Democrats.
Because they're politicians. Our job is to keep some distance. In my view, at many places, in many of the dinners I’ve been to, there’s no distance anymore.
And that is the problem for the media. And that is our problem. We have got to reestablish some distance from the Democratic Party. These are people we cover. They're not people we root for. They're not people we're spin doctors for. They're people we cover.
And I do think we have done a not ultimately excellent job at maintaining as much distance from the Democrats as we keep from the Republicans."
Wow. Now, of course, we know this. But it's something to see one of them actually admit it, at least on some level, and to say that it's the "business model."
That's why there's constant media negativity bashing the president; it's playing to the leftist base for clicks. Then it becomes a feedback loop.
Why are reporters even going to dinners with Democrats in any event? It's one thing if it's covering an event. But you're not supposed to be cozying up to each other, which is how you get into these issues. And he speaks of it like it's a regular thing. That's a problem. Who is he talking about - what reporters and what politicians?
Brooks said he thought that there had been a problem for about two years.
Try more like 26 years. At any rate, far longer than two years. For sure, the past 10 years or so with Trump, it has been a constant. In a way, Brooks is minimizing the Democrat/media connection by just assessing it as about two years.
Brooks says they shouldn't be spin doctors for the Democrats. But that's exactly what many of them have been for years, and this is why the president and so many other Americans no longer trust them.
Then, too, Brooks is saying this, and we're hearing it. That's good.
Unfortunately, the people who truly need to hear it - the media that have engaged in this behavior - will not heed or care what he is saying. They've been doing it with impunity for too long.
The problem is the behavior. Not Trump calling it out.
We need to keep calling it out in any event.
Late though it may be, I'm glad to hear him say this.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 3, 2026
But they are spin doctors for Dems- and viewers know it
— Liz Peek (@lizpeek) October 4, 2026
It’s not TDS, it’s a business model.
— James Hirsen (@thejimjams) October 3, 2026
