“Donald Trump is out on BAIL.” Yet corporate media ignores that and more as they normalize Trump.

Corporate media is helping Trump at expense of our Republic

When is the last time you saw a corporate media story mention "Donald Trump is out on bail?!  Seriously, think about it.

As a reminder, in August, Trump was required by a Fulton County judge to post $200,000 in bail in exchange for not having to remain in custody awaiting his trial on 13 felonies a grand jury charged him with—including for violating Georgia’s RICO law.  Thus, it is factually correct to state that Trump is out on bail but corporate media ignores that.  

Speaking of Trump’s crimes, when is the last time you heard a corporate media story or anchor mention that Trump is facing criminal charges for violating Georgia’s RICO law or was charged with racketeering?!  I bet it’s been a while.

And how can any article about Trump not mention that he attempted a coup and incited the Jan 6 terrorist attack?! That would be akin to writing about Osama Bin Laden and not mentioning his role in orchestrating the 9/11 terrorist attack. I would imagine that would be unthinkable to just about any reporter, but when it comes to Trump, articles now cover him as if he’s just another politician.

Even when we hear about Trump’s criminal cases, the media has framed them in ways that dilute Trump’s crimes. For example, in what the media calls the “classified documents” case, Trump is charged with 32 counts of violating the Espionage Act.  Yet when is the last time you heard the media discuss Trump being charged with ESPIONAGE? Have you ever heard one of the Sunday morning news show hosts ask a Trump supporting Republican member of Congress: How can you endorse a person charged with Espionage?! Nope.

There’s also Trump’s criminal charges in New York that the media refers to as the “hush money” case. But Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has implored the media to call the case what it really is:  the election interference case. Bragg’s point is that Trump made the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to hide damaging information from voters just days before they headed to the polls, thus, Trump defrauded Americans.

As Bragg recently stated, “The case — the core of it — is not money for sex,” objecting to the corporate media’s framing of this as the hush money case. Instead, Bragg explained, “We would say it’s about conspiring to corrupt a presidential election and then lying in New York business records to cover it up. That’s the heart of the case.”

Yet the corporate media continues to make this case one about having an affair—not election interference. And, of course, we don’t see the cable news anchors press Trump supporting Senators and House members on this point. (BTW Bragg is quietly preparing his case for trial which as of now is scheduled for March 25. Given the delays in Trump’s other cases, this could end up being Trump’s first criminal trial.)

What do we see from the media in terms of covering of Trump? Normalization. For example, over the weekend on the front page of The Washington Post the headline read, “Trump is preparing for a new trade war with China.”  (Below is a screen grab of the front page)

How exactly is Trump--who is not even the GOP presidential nominee--preparing for a “new trade war”?! Even if Trump won in 2024—in large part thanks to the corporate media’s normalization of Trump--the soonest he could engage in such trade war is a year from now. And worse, nowhere in the article are Trump’s 91 felonies, his attempted coup or his role in the Jan 6 attack even mentioned. Not one word about that.

Same goes for stories today about Trump responding to the killing of the three US servicemen on the border of Jordan. Not a mention of Trump being out on bail, his 91 felony charges etc.

The why behind the normalization of Trump is the question. The infamous statement by then CBS head Les Moonves during the 2016 campaign comes to mind. That is when Moonves candidly said, “Trump “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” Moonves continued, “The money’s rolling in, this is fun…I’ve never seen anything like this and this is going to be a very good year for us.” The former CBS head honcho added, “It’s a terrible thing to say, but bring it on, Donald, go ahead, keep going.”

There is no disputing that Trump has been good for business because drama and chaos sell. As I’ve written about in the past, corporate media will always pick covering drama over protecting our democracy.

Another factor at play is the concept of “access journalism.” If cable news anchors press Republicans too much on Trump’s crimes, they may lose access to them in the future. From the point of view of some corporate executives that is not something they will risk.

Now to be clear, there are some great journalists in the world of corporate media who will press elected officials, speak the blunt truth and not stick to the corporate media talking points created by network executives. But still they are navigating in the corporate media world where mega corporations own cable news and other larger media outlets which in turn has an impact on what we see on air or read in papers. After all, MSNBC is owned by Comcast and CNN is owned by Warner Brothers—both publicly traded companies where executives are charged with increasing the stock price. And to these executives, Trump is ratings gold. While for other top corporate media executives, Trump as a Republican means lower taxes for them and their wealthy friends.  

We need to call out the corporate media in 2024 for their normalization of Trump, a person who by all rights should already be in prison.  Please use social media, emails and phone calls to the networks to make your voice heard.  You would be amazed how much we can impact the coverage if enough people speak out—and speak out we must.  The stakes are simply too high to be silent!

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