Fox News Silence Over Trump’s Bizarre Claim to be Immediately Installed as President Speaks Volumes
SAUL LOEB/AFP
Former President Donald Trump has insisted that he immediately be re-installed as president or that a new election be called. His reasoning? A Mark Zuckerberg interview in which the Facebook founder reiterated his previous claim that the FBI warned him of a potential dump of Russian misinformation weeks before the 2020 general election that Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
Yes, the former president really did demand he be reinstated as president 664 days after losing the election. By any objective measure, it’s nuts. Batshit crazy.
Trump first made the bizarre demand on his fledgling social media platform Monday at midday, then “re-truthed” his comments at roughly 2 a.m. Tuesday:
It is not clear what judicial body Trump is addressing here, however. He seems to think there is some magical branch of government that restores failed candidates to power if they complain loudly enough.
It’s not clear if Trump is joking or if he has become so detached from reality that he truly believes this is feasible. The unhinged ravings — they have increased in frequency since the raid on his Mar-a-Lago resort — are likely evidence of a person under a great deal of stress, which, given the criminal investigation he currently faces, is certainly understandable.
And yet, despite the jaw-dropping lunacy of his latest demand, the vast majority of conservative media are choosing to ignore the madness of the former president: In the past 20 hours, Trump’s claims have not been mentioned once on Fox News.
Which is no small thing.
Trump is still widely considered the presumptive leader of the Republican Party. His endorsements in GOP primaries ahead of the midterm elections were GOLD for Republicans running for office. And he is currently the favorite to win the Republican nomination for a 2024 run for the White House.
Is that why his allies in the conservative media are continuing to look the other way? How bad do things have to get before they pump the breaks on the Trump train?
The most charitable view would be that, like anyone who has lived with or cared for an elderly family member in mental decline, Fox hosts are affording this elder statesman grace, patience, and understanding. Trump, confined to Truth Social, is like an aged family member who frequently passes gas at the dinner table — he’s best left ignored if you want to finish your meal without any fuss.
But the more likely explanation is that conservative media — by their own very definition — are not news outlets, at least as we have traditionally understood them. Traditional standards of journalism hold that bias should not interfere with objective reporting. That is a quaint understanding of journalism from years ago, and our current political infotainment ecosystem leaves little space for the concept.
It’s a clear perversion of the “emperor’s got no clothes” parable, where a media outlet is willfully participating in the ruse.
Conservative media is CHOOSING to ignore Trump’s insane ramblings because they are afraid to offend an audience of viewers who actually believe that Trump’s claims might be valid. It’s the tail wagging the dog. It’s profits over principle. It’s as clear an illustration of “idiocracy” as we have at the moment.
Again, Trump is calling to be reinstalled as president immediately. It’s so clearly moronic. And yet conservative media are once again giving him a pass.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
