Brittany Bernstein of National Review Online explains that legacy media outlets are disappointed in American voters.
Donald Trump’s overwhelming electoral win offered Democratic partisans in the press the opportunity to look in the mirror and figure out how they had missed voters’ brewing discontent. But by all appearances, the very pundits most in need of self-reflection have no intention of seizing that opportunity.
Trump improved his standing with the very groups his “hateful” rhetoric was supposed to alienate — younger voters, African Americans, Hispanics — exposing what passed for election analysis at the major corporate media outlets as wishful thinking.
In fact, Trump’s performance was the best for a Republican presidential candidate in exit poll history, according to CNN’s Harry Enten. “He literally goes all the way back through history and breaks history.”
Trump had Republicans’ best showing among 18- through 29-year-olds in 20 years. For black voters, it was the party’s best performance in 48 years. And he enjoyed support among Hispanic voters not seen for a Republican candidate in the entire existence of exit polling, which began in 1972.
Trump improved Republicans’ election performance in 49 states and Washington, D.C., over the 2020 election. With votes still outstanding, he could be the first Republican to win the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004.
Rather than grappling with how they themselves may have contributed to this reality, or at least failed to pick up on it until it was thrust into their faces, the most committed partisans in the mainstream press apparently plan to wag their fingers at American voters for the next four years.
One radio journalist who spoke to Brian Stelter was so close to getting the point: It is “hard not to see this election as just a national repudiation of what we do. We spent four years reporting so aggressively” on election denialism and the fallout from January 6 – and many voters evidently didn’t care.
But instead of refocusing their reporting to be more in line with voter concerns, progressive pundits and their counterparts in the Never-Trump media space are returning to their well-worn 2016 playbook.
