The late professor Ted J. Smith accused the liberal networks of an “omnidirectional bias,” of granting negative coverage to Republicans regardless of where the winds blow, or the facts land. Nothing can go right or deserve praise. That goes double for President Trump over his talks with Russia and Ukraine.
We've seen a lot of CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan squabbling with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over whatever President Trump is doing globally. In this case, Brennan attempted to draw a contrast between Zelenskyy being lectured at the White House for being ungrateful (“bullied”) and Trump cordially meeting Putin on the tarmac in Alaska. She suggested European leaders were coming to the White House to avoid Zelenskyy being “bullied” by Trump and J.D. Vance again.
Rubio shot back: “They're not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied…this is such a stupid media narrative that they're coming here tomorrow because Trump is going to bully Zelenskyy into a bad deal.” You have to guess Brennan is hearing this from Democrats who've run the State Department, like John Kerry.
The ongoing narrative is that Trump is somehow “Putin’s poodle,” and never mind that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton pushed a “Reset Button” to try to be warmer to Russia. The Democrats are always considered wiser, whatever it is they do.
By Monday afternoon, they were having trouble finding anything wrong with the Zelensky meeting. Zelensky dressed up and said thank you repeatedly, so the meeting was smooth. NBC's Keir Simmons suggested Putin would be disappointed there weren't fireworks and yelling.
The only thing more annoying that reporters trying to give Trump an L when not a whole lot has happened yet? "Fact checkers." The live-blog analysis at PolitiFact was trashing Trump at every turn, and defending Obama. You can't say Obama "gave" Crimea to Putin! Well, Putin took it, and Obama offered nothing to stop it. Oh wait -- he put out a statement of disapproval. This is what reporters think is What Smart People Do.
This sounded like Yamiche Alcindor of PBS getting angry with Trump at a press conference in Europe in 2019: “Why do you keep using the misleading statement that Russia outsmarted President Obama!...Why keep repeating what some people would see as a clear lie?”
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.
