Ever since the advent of national news outlets in America, the country’s mass media has almost universally been more liberal. Those who are more Republican have accepted this as fact, using this as a go-to line whenever debating someone of the opposite party. This election season, however, has revealed the true severity of the media’s political leaning, and Republicans have finally, after decades of tolerating this as an unwavering feature of the culture, begun to say “no more.”
All it took for Republicans to build up the courage to fight the media monsters was the most absurd, outlandish, outspoken, yet fascinating candidate in U.S. history: Donald Trump.
Never before had a candidate verbally attacked the media as steadfastly as Trump. Every rally and interview seemed to include a swift jab at The New York Times or Washington Post, and even the presidential debates included Trump calling out moderators for being biased toward Democrats.
People called Trump and those who believed him crazy, and they had every reason to. The idea that a system as immense as the national media was actively trying to sway the country’s opinions and votes was absurd. But then again, so was the idea of Trump running for president of the U.S.
Once WikiLeaks started releasing batches of tens of thousands of emails, it was soon revealed that Trump was not, in fact, a crazy conspirator, but instead very right about the media teaming up with the Democratic Party. The evidence, much to the dismay of Democrats and pure joy of Republicans, was well documented and now public for the entire world to see.
The evidence included correspondence between CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and the Democratic National Committee, with Blitzer asking the DNC for juicy questions to shoot at Trump during an upcoming interview. Other emails showed “neutral” moderators tipping off Clinton’s campaign to upcoming debate questions. Many have been aware of the love affair between the mainstream media and Democratic Party for years, but nobody, not even The Donald himself, could have anticipated such blatant bias.
It’s one thing for Rolling Stone to publish articles titled “Donald Trump Cannot Be President of the United States” or for Buzzfeed to only post negative articles pertaining to Trump and not Clinton, but for massive news outlets, such as CNN and NBC, who have the gall to claim impartiality to engage in such partisan behavior , it is simply wrong. There is no way around it.
The major takeaway from this election is that the country portrayed by the mainstream media (and even some vocal celebrities) is not, in fact, reality. The media is capable of deplorable bias but not capable of manipulating politics in its favor. In the end, it is the American people who get the final say, and, well, it appears the media isn’t fooling anyone.
Whether your candidate won or lost, I do think some good came from this election. Finally, the idea of full transparency is at the forefront of America’s attention. Transparency of both the government and national media is no longer only a concern for Americans but now an expectation. Now that this corruption has been exposed, it is our duty as Americans to keep those who claim to be working for us in check, to make sure the system never sinks back into such fraudulence.
The election may finally be over, but it cannot be said that no good came of it. The U.S. is still suffering from severe growing pains, stuck somewhere in the awkward adolescent years of this country’s development. That being said, the recent revelations concerning media and government transparency cannot be overstated, as they are paving the way for a more honest and candid country, which ultimately benefits us all.
Andrew Hall is a UF management junior. His column appears on Fridays.
