New 12 months, new format!
After I kicked off this weekly collection in November, I needed to solid a vital eye on how cable information networks’ company selections had been shaping the protection hundreds of thousands of People consumed every single day. Since then, this Monday report has grown into one thing greater than that. Powered by your suggestions and the unimaginable reporting executed proper right here on Every day Kos, this column additionally turned a commentary on what the legacy media didn’t cowl.
I like this broader strategy as a result of I imagine that if the media goes to face as much as the troublesome years forward, we have to provide each pointed criticism and sensible options. That’s one thing I see occurring every single day on Every day Kos, and a part of my new strategy to this column will likely be guaranteeing these impactful tales are amplified to as many readers as doable.
Clearly, we’re nonetheless gonna dunk on the flunkies over within the company media. Let’s dive in.
The invisible Pete Hegseth
Sit by way of 5 mixed hours of Sunday morning cable information exhibits (like I did) and also you’ll rapidly understand there’s one thing lacking. From “Fox & Friends” to “Meet the Press” and “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” completely nobody is speaking about Pete Hegseth anymore. Hegseth, Donald Trump’s choose to steer the Division of Protection, has been a ghost since damaging tales about his office and private conduct hit the headlines early final month.
Cable information shops will not be interested by Hegseth’s vanishing act, however Every day Kos’ personal Oliver Willis positive is. In an excellent New Yr’s Eve piece, Willis solid gentle on the Trump marketing campaign’s aggressive effort to silence their very own nominees. That features declining media interview requests and avoiding all social media forward of affirmation hearings later this month.
That’s a rule made particularly for Hegseth, who simply can’t appear to remain out of bother. “Hegseth has taken to social media to complain about “anti-Christian bigotry” within the media, the “lying press” and the “Left Wing hack group” ProPublica,” Willis writes. No marvel Trump enforcer Susie Wiles is ordering nominees to clam up. However that additionally means the press received’t have any alternative to get clear solutions from Hegseth about his historical past of weird Jan. 6 conspiracy theories or his alleged sexual assault.
All that cable information silence has been an enormous profit for Hegseth. Senate Majority Chief John Thune reportedly advised Trump just lately that he believes Hegseth has the votes wanted to be confirmed as protection secretary. That actually wasn’t the case when Hegseth was the middle of media consideration a month in the past. Appears Hegseth’s numbers improved as he pale from People’ short-term reminiscence, and now the Republicans who as soon as deliberate to oppose him are falling in keeping with Trump’s needs.
With simply eight days till Hegseth faces Senate affirmation hearings, company media shops have determined to avert their eyes. The end result will likely be a catastrophe for American nationwide safety, enabled by company media silence.
Democrats in array
Democrats are already invisible on cable information, an early sufferer of the media’s bottomless urge for food for sound bites from The Trump Present. However the celebration’s wrestle to seize headlines isn’t slowing their effort to construct a bench of top-tier candidates for 2026.
Every day Kos’s Emily Singer follows the outstanding Home Majority PAC as they announce their high congressional district targets for 2026—and start the essential technique of recruiting expert candidates. The tremendous PAC notes that that is the earliest they’ve ever begun their candidate recruitment course of, pushed by the truth that simply three seats maintain the steadiness of energy within the Home. For congressional Democrats, the ability to throw the brakes on Trump’s agenda is tantalizingly shut and but impossibly far-off.
Home Majority PAC is eyeing key races in Colorado, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska, the place Republican candidates received by slender margins or in areas usually carried by Democrats. These efforts needs to be bolstered by whoever emerges because the DNC’s subsequent chair—one other matter that almost all cable shops nonetheless refuse to cowl.
Up to now just one main media voice has devoted critical time to protecting Democrats’ seek for a brand new celebration chief: “The Daily Show” host and avowed political nerd Jon Stewart. Every day Kos’ Walter Einenkel coated Stewart’s considerate dialog with DNC chair candidate Ben Wikler final month, and Stewart has talked about the chair race within the weeks since. That’s greater than may be stated for many of cable information, the place the subject by no means merited a lot curiosity.
The Democratic Occasion’s restructuring is not going to be televised, principally as a result of nobody finds it very attention-grabbing. Which will find yourself being a hidden blessing for Democrats, who will be capable of construct their 2026 marketing campaign equipment away from the glare of the headlines. Prime Democrats have determined that it’s price it to lose short-term media consideration with a purpose to mend the celebration’s election 12 months wounds in non-public. Are they proper?
Attain out!
Preserve the dialog going all week by sharing tales you suppose the media missed with me at @themaxburns on Bluesky! And bear in mind: In the event you’re tuned to cable information, you aren’t even getting half of the story.
Till subsequent week, preserve your eyes peeled and keep inquisitive, associates.
