It would have been reasonable to imagine that, on the eve of Election Day, the left-wing media would make a last desperate push to fire up the party’s base. One might have predicted hysterical headlines describing how America – democracy itself – is on the brink of destruction if Republicans win. It wasn’t to be, though, unless editors kept their powder dry for the big day.
Has the leftist press resigned itself to the beating just about everyone expects the Democratic Party to take in congressional contests as well as many statewide elections? Where were the flashing neon warnings? Was the hope of a blue surge to diminish the red wave finally dead? Or were the pro-Democrat newspapers, news channels, and websites already focused on the damage control and postmortem reports to be published on Nov. 9?
Left-Wing Media Preps Postmortems?
There appeared to be a consensus that Republicans would take the House with a relatively comfortable margin of newly gained seats and that Democrats had a slim chance of retaining a majority in the Senate. Buried among main headlines and some below-the-fold teasers on Nov. 7, several clues lurked about what the establishment news outlets might be cooking up to explain away Democratic Party losses.
By mid-afternoon, the top headline in a notable Washington, DC, newspaper was, “Republicans sue to disqualify thousands of mail ballots in swing states.” A headline beneath that one read “Black voters in Florida express fear, confusion as DeSantis election laws kick in.” What strategy was at play? Setting up the narrative, perhaps, that millions of Americans are now disenfranchised and Republicans’ midterm gains will have been entirely due to their discriminatory electoral practices.
Little wonder that black voters in Florida might be frightened and confused; the left-wing media have tried to convince them that the state’s new election laws were designed specifically to prevent them from casting their ballots.
The same paper also gave Joe Biden a “bottomless Pinocchio” in a Nov. 7 opinion piece, suggesting that his recent claims about the economy and other issues were riddled with an almost uncountable number of factual errors and/or exaggerated claims. Perhaps, then, the plan was to save face for congressional Democrats by throwing the party’s likely one-term president under the bus. Voters aren’t dissatisfied with the Democrat-controlled Congress – oh no, not at all; they are just furious at Biden. And, of course, at least half of that statement is almost certainly true.
What about the other major left-leaning media outlets?
The New York Times: Would rain keep voters away from the polls? That was the big question over at the Gray Lady. Would Democrats lose control of Congress because their supporters can’t get wet? That remains to be seen – but don’t a great many of them vote by mail these days? The disaster-mitigation plan was less clear with this one.
CNN: The nation’s fastest failing cable news network went heavy on the Paul Pelosi alleged hammer attack. How has it affected Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s political future? Has the FBI successfully crushed the “salacious conspiracy” being pushed by conservatives regarding the incident? The network certainly wasn’t engaging in desperate last-gasp plugs for endangered Democrats.
(Photo by Ann E. Zelle/Getty Images)
MSNBC: The centerpiece of the homepage for NBC’s stepchild was all DeSantis. Words like “bonkers” and “authoritarian” jumped out immediately. Since the Florida governor is unlikely to lose his re-election bid, this all seemed to be more about 2024, powered by the assumption that a presidential run is in the offing.
ABC: It took a shot at a salvage operation with “Democracy, stability on the ballot in 2022 midterms.” Well, that’s not wrong.
Politico: It is said that the last of the five stages of grief is acceptance. Politico was already there with the headline “Specter of midterm wipeout threatens Dem plans to shake up presidential primaries.”
It seems, perhaps, that for the left-wing media, it was all over but the crying. Rather than launching vitriolic Hail Marys at the Republican end zone, the Democratic Party’s favorite cadre of reporters may instead have been gearing up for some serious Monday-morning quarterbacking. One should expect that will consist of a combination of blaming Biden – not entirely unfair – blaming the messaging, excoriating the voters, and mostly condemning Republicans for their crusade to prevent everyone from voting. It’s going to be an interesting week.
