While we’re in the midst of a pandemic where the main thing on everyone’s minds is the physical, emotional, and economic well-being of their family members and themselves, it seems only natural that the national media would take time out of their minute-by-minute political sensationalizing of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak to talk about themselves and how they are “winning” in the Trump era.
NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian kicked things off with a tweet this morning promoting an article written by NBC News chief Andy Lack, headlined “Journalism is under attack from coronavirus and the White House. But we’re winning.”
The subheadline to the piece was “At this dark hour, Americans are scared. They’re hungry for accurate information and the unvarnished truth. Now, and in all the days to come, journalists will be there.”
Yeah, seriously. That’s what Lack wrote. Here’s Dilanian’s tweet, which includes the link:
NBC News chief Andy Lack: Journalism is under attack from Trump. But we're winning. The president put the bully in bully pulpit, but he hasn’t shaken the soul of the First Amendment. https://t.co/1GfegciY0K
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) April 27, 2020
Here’s how Lack described the media “winning” in the piece:
Despite these challenges [from Trump], what has become powerfully clear during this pandemic is that the heart of journalism has never been stronger. As ever, journalists are asking tough questions and going where the facts lead. Not looking to win any popularity contests — just doing what Woodward and Bernstein inspired my generation and the generations that followed to always do: seek the best obtainable version of the truth.
There are a couple of big problems with this “analysis.”
First off, the pressure to be another Woodward and Bernstein has led to some pretty colossal mistakes being made by journalists over the years, including all of the alleged “bombshell” reports they’ve done on Trump over the last 3+ years declaring “tipping points” for the Trump presidency that either never actually materialized or that ended up being fake news, both of which happened just this past weekend.
Secondly, NBC News is really one of the last national media networks to boast about “winning” in the Trump era, when you consider their very recent history of journalistic malpractice (which is otherwise known as “losing”):
Now do Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer
— RIP MAMBA & GIGI (@raider_chucky) April 27, 2020
Is that the same Andy Lack whose media company spiked negative stories about Harvey Weinstein? https://t.co/Ydh1rGzMgN
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 27, 2020
— Ecorunner🌲 (@FeldheimBaruch) April 27, 2020
Remember when all of your colleagues breathlessly questioned every single Republican non-stop about the Kavanaugh/Christine Blasey-Fords accusations?
It's weird–I can't seem to find any of those same journalists asking even one democrat about the Biden/Tara Reade accusations…
— From the Land of Sky Blue Waters 🇺🇸 (@HammsLager) April 27, 2020
The icing on the cake is that Ken Dilanian himself has his own credibility issues that date back to just a few short years ago when Obama was President:
Ken Dilanian routinely sent drafts of his stories to and closely worked with members of the CIA press office prior to publication while he was a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, The Intercept reports.
According to documents obtained through a FOIA submitted by The Intercept, the CIA at some points managed to convince Dilanian to make changes in stories:
If all of this constitutes the media “winning”, well then the definition of the word has obviously changed drastically.
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