Vice President Kamala Harris seems to have turned the media into the ideal scapegoat for her political problems. Former Obama White House assistant Dan Pfeiffer claims that the media environment is so strongly biassed against Harris that even the birds in the heavens must be right-wing. Made on an appearance on MSNBC, this comment could be the gastronomic equivalent of eating a salad at an all-you-can-eat buffet—when mountains of ice cream surround.
Pfeiffer’s claim depends on the belief that Republicans have a kind of media powerhouse that Democrats just lack. fair enough After all, the Democratic Party has channels like CNN and MSNBC—networks seemingly committed to bolstering its story without much effort. Pfeiffer, meantime, laments Harris’s desire for all kinds of media appearances—from local TV to podcasts—as though she is on a hunt for the Holy Grail of public acceptance. Ironically, though, every time she does show up, it appears to backfire. For any self-respecting political assistant, such embarrassing events on shows like “60 Minutes” were past times of dread, not simply headlines.
Look at the happiness and energy campaign Harris was meant to run. Though theoretically it sounds great, in practice it still requires facts and substance. Harris finds herself stumbling, wondering how she can manage more than a few snappy soundbites in a society when political arguments are sometimes more like a comedy roast. She not only wrapped up her candidacy before the year had finished but also crashed and burned during the campaign road headed toward 2020. Quite the irony because it wasn’t only the media characterizing her as a “substance-free shell, but voters who didn’t appear to buy what she was offering either.
Pfeiffer also noted that Trump is not following the media game to the same melody as Harris is. Democrats see Trump as sluggish, elderly, maybe unfit for the limelight, a two-sided story of woe. Pfeiffer slinks in the old dependable gripe that Republicans have Fox News and a complete roster of conservative media while Democrats are left in the cold. One laughs; after all, Democrats have their army of liberal commentators ready to support the line of thinking that “everything is fine!”
Knowing the subtleties and truths appears to be lost in the shuffle in a society run on sensationalism. Democrats should examine their own prejudice closely even as they lament theirs in the media. Since the Eisenhower era, the New York Times has not supported a Republican (yes, that Eisenhower); networks like ABC are known to produce coverage that hardly appears fair. Pfeiffer and Harris should think about the mirror; it might just show them the truth if they truly want to assign responsibility.
Therefore, the reality is a little harsher even if the left is out there mourning their media miseries. A level playing field fantasy feels more like a fairytale. Perhaps the most ridiculous fantasy in liberal political humor is the idea that Democrats are under attack from a hostile media. After all, the concept of a conservative media cabal dragging strings is shockingly antiquated given most reporters tilt left. Harris is still, in many respects, her own worst enemy entangled in a web of political miscalculations while the establishment media rules supreme—at least in their own echo chambers.
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