After this last election, will the media start to change?

If the media is punished, for reporting on the president, then yes the media will change.

I agree with @MrGrimm888, Trump has already he would punish all the major broadcast networks.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/22/media/trump-strip-tv-station-licenses-punish-media/index.html

Trump will try to end freedom of speech. I guess be watching BBC and Al Jazeera.

If you’re asking whether the mainstream media will stop running sensational stories about Trump, then no, of course not. They will only do so if it’s not a moneymaker. But it absolutely will be.

The popular vote was 50% for Trump to 47 for Harris, so yes, “most people” voted for Trump but it’s “most” by a narrow margin.

@jca2 I read that Trump received 3 million fewer votes than in 2020 and Kamala received 15 million fewer than Biden. People don’t love Trump more, they’re just sick of Democrats.

This is evidenced by state measures as well. Pro-abortion bills in many states received more votes than Kamala did. A bill protecting trans people from discrimination in NY won by a wider margin than Kamala won the state by.

@MrGrimm888 and @Tropical_Willie I’m not interested in conspiracy theories about Trump. I’m actually curious about what the media will do. They are already getting punished by the people who no longer have any faith in their credibility. People are tuning out. And the stories they have relied on were all “hate Trump” stories that the Dems wanted to have pushed. Those stories no longer work as they once did. This can be evidenced by the reaction to the sensationalized “Got him!” stories they kept running through the campaign. Every time the Dems did something that was viewed as underhanded, Trump’s popularity went up. Every time the media ran some story trying to rewrite something he said, his popularity went up. So will they change or is it going to be more of the same as the past 8 years? And if it does remain the same, what do they have to gain? Trump won’t be running again in 2028.

I think it already changed. Several major newspapers (Wash Post, USA Today, among others) were too cowardly to endorse Harris because they were afraid of retribution by Trump.

The beginning of a Hitlerian dictatorship, before your very eyes. Or maybe Putinian dictatorship, take your pick.

All hail Putin!

@seawulf575 “Trump won not only the electoral college vote, but the popular vote. That means that most people in this country felt he was the best candidate for the job.”

That is an inaccurate conclusion. An accurate statement would be:

“Most people who turned out to vote chose Trump.”

Perhaps > 50% of the population believes Trump is the best candidate for the job, it could also be that the people who felt that way about Trump made their voices heard by turning out to vote for him while the rest didn’t. We can’t know based on the election results alone, we’d need polling data to understand pubic sentiment about the candidates.

I voted for Harris but didn’t think she was the best candidate for the job (I think Cornel West was).

Which media? FOX news has been praising Trump

Doubtful. People dont seem to understand how media works and how they make money. But if lies and fake polls and yellow journalism are profita le, bet your ass theyll keep spewing it. Probably why Fox is #1. Not perfect but better than complete lies.

“According to Trump’s own words and actions he is a Fascist, a racist, a xenophobe, a dictator wannabe, and so many more things.”

Fixed that for you @seawulf575.

But, to answer your question — No, the media will not change. If anything they will double down on the sensationalistic news style because it drives numbers which makes money which is all they actually care about.

And both can be true. Trump is, by his own words and actions all of those horrible* things and the media way over reports it and exaggerates to stir up attention.

*of course “horrible” is an arguable point if you too are a horrible person.

“Most people in this country felt he was the best candidate for the job.”

“He is a Fascist, a racist, a xenophobe, a dictator wannabe [...]”

How are these two statements contradictory? In 1943, reports claimed about 80% of Germans approved of Hitler.

No. I hate it but the people who work in those media outlets aren’t real people with real original thought. They are paid, quite well, to say exactly what they are told to say. The reason they exist is to police the government. It is not their job to decide of whom the government will be composed. This is the worst loss in the way our country works. A real free press is the best check on government. Very few outlets qualify to be called that. My understanding is that internet/podcast news will continue to grow into our free press and the CNNs, ABCs, NBCs, etc. will descend into the place other evil organizations eventually go.

Since I discovered independent journalism, I no longer pay any attention to major news networks. I don’t read/listen to just one, but many, which in my view offers a better chance at credibility.

A lot of people seem to think the same.

The media changing in response to the political winds of the day is the first sign of a fascist dictatorship. The media should call a duck a duck even if it thinks it is God Almighty.

@gorillapaws That is true. But in 2020 there were 20M more people that voted Democrat. Where were they this time around? Obviously they didn’t feel Kamala was even acceptable and couldn’t vote for Trump. Or maybe some of them did vote for Trump. So the overall sentiment remains that a majority of people liked Trump more than they liked Kamala.

@SnipSnip I give you a GA. The media (all the media) is supposed to be watchdogs for the people, not mouthpieces for a political party.

@snowberry You may be right. That might be why the credibility of the major news outlets as well as people’s confidence in them is at an all time low. Because of the independent journalism, alternate views are being shown, lies of the media are being called out, and if more people are going to these sources, it is going to hurt the major media outlets severely.

@flutherother you are correct. But I saw that shift back in 2008 and it has only gotten worse since then.

Wulf. I followed your instructions sir.
No conspiracies required, to draw the conclusion that Trump will punish/destroy his detractors.

Journalism is “just the facts.”
We decide how we feel, about the facts that the media presents. (Ideally.)

I know you want this to be praise Trump thread. It cannot be, if fact is relevant.

You’re question, IS flamebait Wulf…

Trump gets personally offended, by people who expose truths about him, if those truths paint him in a negative way.

Trump fired almost ALL of his advisors, in his first term, because he didn’t want to listen to a viewpoint other than his.
Many highly respected people he hired, who quit or were fired have voiced concerns about Trump’s inability to hold office.
That’s important information, in a democracy.
In Trump’s first term, he was constantly calling true stories and facts reported about him “fake news.”
Trump has a TERRIBLE relationship, with the media, because he doesn’t want his actions reported as that usually points out his countless lies and spreading of false information.

A news outlet could just run repeating recordings of Trump, and he would be equally mad at them.

Your question has severely flawed logic, as you seem to indicate that the media only lies about Trump. Which IS FALSE.

Your position is built on the false premise, that Trump has been defamed by the media, because they played recordings of his voice, and pointed out when he was lying.

You seem to have manufactured this false reality, and want to flag anyone for pointing that out.

The “details” of this question, are no different than an editorial piece. There is no basis in fact.
Therfore, you cannot try ro punish others for their interpretation of reality.

Flag me all you want, but your details and premise are all built on your biased opinion.
You formed an opinion, but just want people to agree with you?

This shouldn’t even qualify, as a question that meets the standards of a GENERAL question…

Trump has threatened retribution on his opponents, of reelected. Repeatedly.
He has said he will essentially attack the intelligence agencies and parts of the Judicial system that have been trying to do their jobs.
With that in mind, it’s only logical to assume Trump will punish the media, for reporting the truth, if the truth doesn’t make him look good.…
My initial response was perfectly logical, and in no way based on opinion.

Your opinions that the media has been “unfair” to Trump, are 100% biased and in no way based in reality.

Media has evolved over time, and with technology. I can agree that media networks covered Trump VERY often, and that was likely driven by an attempt at making more profit by covering a story that brought them higher audience numbers.
But they were not repeating lies, or spreading false information like the FOX “News.”
This is also provable…

@seawulf575 “there were 20M more people that voted Democrat. Where were they this time around? Obviously they didn’t feel Kamala was even acceptable and couldn’t vote for Trump. Or maybe some of them did vote for Trump. So the overall sentiment remains that a majority of people liked Trump more than they liked Kamala.”

Your logic is flawed. We can’t infer anything about the people who voted for Biden in 2020 and didn’t vote for Kamala in 2024. Maybe they hate Trump more but refused to vote for Kamala because of Gaza for example. All we can definitely conclude from the popular vote is that the majority of the people who turned out to vote selected Trump.

Doubtful.

The mistake of this question is to assume that media has an agenda that is anything but putting money in the pockets of the media. ALL TV media, left, right, center, whatever is interested in one thing and one thing only—you staying on their station so you can watch their advertisers. That’s it. Any so-called political agenda is there ONLY becuase they are trying to amplify an echo chamber. This is why I refuse to watch any so-called TV “news” programs. They are not. So the answer to the question is of course they won’t change. They have a winning formula of hooking suckers into watching them, and they will be doubling down.

And this doesn’t matter if it’s Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or any of the other network or cable “news” channels.

@Caravanfan “ALL TV media, left, right, center, whatever is interested in one thing and one thing only—you staying on their station so you can watch their advertisers. That’s it.”

I respectfully disagree. There’s a reason why people like Bezos, Murdock and Musk want to own media companies and social media platforms. It’s not the returns from selling ads. They have a massive influence on what Americans see and hear. They shape the conversation. They define the language of the conversation and also determine where the boundaries of the conversation are. When was the last time you heard from a full-blown Marxist in the mainstream media?

Here’s a list of the owners of American media

@gorillapaws Musk and Bezos just want the data that those media platforms collect. The rest is just gravy.

@gorillapaws Yes, that too. My point is that news channels have no interest in sharing the news. Their interest is keeping you watching that news channel. Period. They script everything so that they keep you watching through the commercials.

Me and many many others have stopped watching all mainstream news, including local news, as well as unfollowed them on social media platforms since the election results. They are losing viewers.

At the “last” election media will report an 89% turnout with 98% voting for Trump. There will be no more elections.

No bias! Journalism 101. Where did it go?

I saw this from an interesting perspective yesterday. When Trump went onto the Joe Rogan podcast there were 47M+ viewers. When he was interviewed on X by Musk there were over a billion viewers. ABC’s Good Morning America is the top rated news show with just under 3M viewers. 16x more people watched the Rogan podcast than did GMA. It seems like broadcast media, whether it is normal or cable, is on the decline. Trust is on the decline. Bias is at an all time high. And this is not picking on right or left leaning outlets. More people are going to online sources to get the information they want.

I guess, to me, if I ran a news channel, I’d look at past history and see that what I have been doing isn’t working and change. Figure out why a podcast is more entertaining than the news, for instance.

@seawulf575 Can you fact check if President-elect Trump is suing CBS for $10 billion dollars?

If true what are the results most likely be?

@RedDeerGuy1 I believe he did sue CBS for $10B. I don’t believe that lawsuit will go anywhere. His complaint is that CBS’ 60 Minutes show interviewed Harris and then completely edited an answer she gave about the war in the ME. Their online presentation gave the answer she really gave which was a huge word salad that made her look completely foolish. When they aired on TV, they cut out her entire answer and substituted in a 1 sentence answer. Some have said it was the answer to a different question. The case basically is saying that by doing that, they tried to intentionally influence the election. At best CBS provided Harris, free of charge, the use of their program to be edited to meet her needs. Advertising is a campaign expense. This could be seen as an unclaimed campaign contribution that exceeds allowed levels.

I don’t think that case will go anywhere legally because CBS can fall back on “editorial discretion”. I mean, in today’s crazy legal system anything is possible, but I don’t think it will even see the light of day.

I can’t answer this question as it is based on a false premise.

@Caravanfan “My point is that news channels have no interest in sharing the news. Their interest is keeping you watching that news channel. Period. They script everything so that they keep you watching through the commercials.”

For certain.

^^And, it’s so incredibly annoying.