The legacy media had an unfortunate incident when Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” lamented Trump was influencing what people think and that controlling what people think is “our job.” This admission is a surprising revelation from what is largely a coordination propaganda machine that pretends that other sources of information are fake news and that they are impartial and unbiased.
The statement is in part an ongoing reaction of legacy media’s view of President Trump’s dynamic news conference from last week. Unlike the days of old, legacy media no longer can decide what the “news” of the day is or is not. Setting the narrative (or themes and talking points) is what they have done for decades. Now when they try to do it they are no longer successful and cannot yet fathom how this has happened.
Primarily they haven’t noticed that fewer people still trust legacy media and now get information from other sources. They themselves tend to sneer and dismiss other sources such as Fox (or “faux” News) and not take them seriously. Because of that they are blind to the shift in public trust. You would think that the steady decline in market share and rock bottom credibility ranking with the general public would be a hint but no, they cannot accept that it is a new reality.
The legacy media continues to ignore that internet, radio and other news sources are available and the public can get that information without them setting the narrative. You can check and see what an opposing side is saying and decide for yourself. Or you have someone like Trump who takes them head on and speaks over them to the audience. That’s what happened in the 2016 election. Trump got his message out over the GOP establishment and legacy media to the voters despite the constant efforts to smear, defame and poison the information so that he would not be elected. Legacy media provided Hillary debate questions in advance. When Donald Trump claimed it was rigged and crooked, he was right. Worse for the legacy media was that the public could see it. The conclusion of legacy media is that Russians and the FBI rigged the election not that they no longer controlled what the voters think.
In the past legacy media would have just talked over Trump and ensured that at the end of the day that their version of reality would be “that’s the way it is” even if it wasn’t. Not any longer.
Breitbart is a great example of a news organization that doggedly attacked legacy media and took great pains to explain what was not being said by them and how they were biased. It is not a surprise that Steve Bannon ended up at the White House with Trump, he was a large force at Breitbart steering the ship and was effective at countering the left’s template and talking points.
Donald Trump sensed the shift and now has the legacy media in turmoil, one might even say chaos. They have no idea what to do and why their usual methods of destruction aren’t working. Trump is still standing and their desperate dreams of seeing him do a Richard Nixon wave as he boards a helicopter after resigning are a perfect example of just how disconnected they have become from the new political landscape.
It will be interesting to see if Trump’s humor and intellect will sway any in the media, it seemed to have something of an effect on many of the reporters. Then again the anger has unhinged certain people to the point where they publicly admit that they aren’t reporting the news but are attempting to control the voters. The pretense of fairness is shredded and legacy media still refuses to understand that the landscape has changed. The balance has shifted and that they, quite simply, no longer have control.