Journalist Tantrums About Elon Musk Don't Fix Public Distrust

Tim Graham on Nov 27, 2024

ATTENTION! There Is Language In The Fourth Paragraph That Readers May Find Offensive. Thank You For Your Attention.

There's something about Donald Trump winning an election that drives journalists crazy. The National Press Club in the nation's capital is an epicenter of media arrogance, as anyone could see from its Nov. 21 "Fourth Estate Award Gala," in which they proclaimed they were honoring the "fearless pursuit of truth."

But as always, the "truth" is expected to lead to "justice," which in their view is the opposite of Trump winning the presidency again. Trump's victory demoralized journalists. They felt like 76.8 million Americans completely ignored their years and years or besmirching Trump as a fascist threat to democracy.

Axios.com co-founder Jim VandeHei uncorked a temper tantrum at the awards ceremony, as he boasted about being in a "war for truth, for freedom." Translation: For the Democrats. He can't stand anyone attacking them for making "fake news" or for, ahem, engaging in nonstop Democratic Party talking points. Joy! Vibes! Brat! And all that.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, like, everything we do is under fire," VandeHei complained. "Elon Musk sits on Twitter every day, or X today, saying, like, 'We are the media, you are the media.' My message to Elon Musk is: Bulls--t! You're not the media. You having -- you having a blue check mark, a Twitter handle and 300 words of cleverness doesn't make you a reporter!"

This is a little funny, since Axios.com was touted by the National Press Club for its "smart brevity." When it writes little bursts of text for busy, governing-elite people with low attention spans, they're still hailed as "smart."

At 1 a.m. on election night, as it became apparent Trump would win again, Musk tweeted, "You are the media." This enraged VandeHei because journalism is an elite profession, for highly educated people who educate the masses, even if the masses don't accept their lessons.

VandeHei lamented, "Being a reporter's hard. Really hard. You have to care. You have to do the hard work. You have to get up every single day and say, 'I want to get to the closest approximation of the truth without any fear, without any favoritism.' You don't do that by popping off on Twitter. You don't do that by having an opinion. You do it by doing the hard work."

VandeHei seems to forget that part of the reason people don't trust journalists is they show a lot of favoritism. They fear being seen as too centrist by their colleagues. They spend large amounts of time popping off on Twitter and opinionating on cable television. Opinions are more highly prized than investigations. Investigative reporters aren't making Scarborough money.

Naturally, "Morning Joe" played some of VandeHei's tantrum, and Joe Scarborough asked for a "slow clap," like VandeHei was Tom Cruise at the end of "Top Gun."

Scarborough oafishly equated all media criticism with lying: "It continues to need to be said when all of the garbage that's flying around on social media, lying about reporters, lying about the hard work they do, lying about the hard work editors do, lying about everything up and down about not only their alternative set of facts, but alternative set of facts about what people like you do."

Did he produce any examples? No. Because ovations and overbroad opinionating are all that matters.

If "smart" journalists want to figure out the election results, they can't conclude that every media criticism is a lie. They have to engage with critiques and stop thinking they are the most heroic and crucial actors in politics, that democracy dies when people unsubscribe. They need to talk less and listen more. Don't count on that.

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Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.