By Bryan Chai September 22, 2024 at 7:30am
Perhaps this writer is just naive.
But when perusing leftist headlines (the whole “know your enemy, know thyself” Sun Tzu thing), seeing the rare headline that’s in favor of former President Donald Trump — the GOP presidential candidate and known enemy of the liberal media — certainly piques your interest.
So, when seeing a blaring CNN headline touting, “Trump may be gaining traction in a key state,” one can’t help but be curious how CNN would spin this as bad news.
Turns out, CNN couldn’t even be bothered to attempt spin.
No, the article was just a wall of vomit-inducing, pro-Kamala Harris drivel — with a teensy bit of subjective “news” tucked away at the bottom.
“But [local retired police officer and restaurant owner Antonio] Munoz said many friends and others he encounters at community events are nostalgic for the pre-Covid economy and think that Trump is a better choice for their bottom line,” CNN’s John King reported. “Nevada also elected a Republican governor in 2022, and Munoz believes that makes it more hospitable climate for Trump this year.”
“He has grown,” Munoz told King. “I have friends that were Democrats who have turned the page. They feel that the country is not going in the right direction.”
The rest of the story was basically just King speaking to people in Nevada who ranged from pro-Harris to on-the-fence-but-leaning-Harris.
In other words, the article’s headline wasn’t paid off at all by CNN — the textbook definition of clickbait.
Do you consider this CNN headline to be clickbait?
How can anyone who clicks on that come away feeling at all satisfied with what the headline promises?
Oh, right, it’s CNN, so this writer truly should’ve known better.
There are two things worth pointing out about this duplicitous CNN behavior.
First, on a meta level, the move does sort of reek of desperation.
It’s no secret that CNN is struggling in all the ways that matter to the bottom line.
Ratings are not great, public (and professional) sentiment is low, and the network doesn’t even really try to hide its biases anymore.
That’s not exactly a recipe for success.
On a macro level, the move also reeks of fear.
In fact, most of King’s piece reads like a giant coping mechanism for the fact that Trump — despite the Democrats’ most sinister lawfare attempts — is effectively neck-and-neck with the highly manicured and overly produced Harris.
It appears to be dawning on CNN and its fellow left-leaning ilk that Trump is not a flash in the pan, nor will he just “go away” (the man has survived two assassination attempts in nearly as many months, for crying out loud) anytime soon.
And the best counter they have to the genuine political tour de force that Trump has become is to plug their ears and keep telling themselves how great Harris is.
It would all be hilarious if the forthcoming November election wasn’t such a deadly serious matter.
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