In another blatant display of media bias masquerading as uncomfortably frank objectivity, CNBC editor-at-large John Harwood declared the GOP to be “fundamentally broken” and lamented how journalists are being supposedly too fair in their coverage of the party.
On Sunday, Harwood responded to a tweet from CNN’s Brian Stelter, who quoted Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan lamenting how media objectivity gave power to the GOP.
“In an unceasing effort to be seen as neutral, journalists, time after time, fell into the trap of presenting facts and lies as roughly equivalent and then blaming political tribalism for not seeming to know the difference,” Sullivan said.
In response, Harwood tweeted: “Good description of the challenge for journalism … hard for reporters to say plainly that the Republican Party, at this point in our history, is fundamentally broken … but it is.”
good description of the challenge for journalism
hard for reporters to say plainly that the Republican Party, at this point in our history, is fundamentally broken
but it is https://t.co/HXHn3cmJ4N
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) December 22, 2019
Anybody with even a modicum of understanding of the mainstream media’s political coverage, especially during the Trump administration, knows Harwood’s assertion to be misleading. And as reported by Fox News, conservatives across social media have been roundly trolling Harwood for making such a silly argument.
“‘The problem with journalism is that it’s just too fair to the right,’ sounds like a totally not insane thing to say. My goodness these people have lost all touch with reality,” tweeted Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist.
“This is precisely what reporters should not be doing. They should report on political parties without fear or favor and leave it to readers and viewers to decide whether a party is ‘broken’ or not,” tweeted Brit Hume of Fox News.
“Actually, it’s [journalism] that is fundamentally broken. Trump just helped pull back the curtain,” tweeted Dan Gainor of Newsbusters.
Beyond the pundit class, casual observers of today’s political climate chimed in with their own takes.
“The media is broken and overtly biased. Trust in it is low, and your tweet, John, is an example of why,” said on Twitter user.
“It’s absolutely bonkers to me that there are people who think the problem with the press is they’ve been too fair to the republicans. This is weapons-grade delusion,” tweeted another user.
“Sorry John, but your fundamentally full of hypocrisy, and you views are not worth the paper or the bandwidth they’re written on …” tweeted another.
Ironically, Harwood made his declaration about media objectivity after a recent poll showed that a majority of voters believed the media’s coverage of the president’s impeachment inquiry has been overwhelmingly biased. From The Hill:
A plurality of voters say that the media’s coverage of the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into President Trump is biased, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released on Thursday.
Forty-six percent of Americans said the media’s coverage of the ongoing probe was biased against Trump, compared to 12 percent who thought coverage was actually biased in favor of the president.
A significant portion, 42 percent, said that media coverage wasn’t biased one way or the other.
The results were largely split along party lines: 67 percent of Republicans said Trump is being treated unfairly by the media’s coverage of impeachment, while just 27 percent of Democrats agreed with that sentiment.
Fifty percent of independents sided with Republicans, saying the media wasn’t treating Trump fairly in their coverage of the probe.