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In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, major newspapers are giving former President Donald Trumpās federal criminal indictment for alleged crimes related to the January 6 insurrection a fraction of the coverage they gave former Secretary of State Hillary Clintonās use of a private email server in 2016, according to a new Media Matters study. Media Matters reviewed print coverage in five newspapers ā Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post ā for stories mentioning Trumpās indictment in the week following U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkanās October 2 unsealing of special counsel Jack Smithās latest filing, which reveals damning new evidence of the former presidentās alleged crimes.Ā We found the papers ran 26 combined articles mentioning Trumpās indictment in the week after the unsealing of Smithās filing. But those same papers published 100 combined articles ā nearly 4 times as many ā that mentioned Clintonās server in the week after then-FBI Director James Comeyās notorious October 28, 2016, letter on new developments in that probe, as we documented in a 2016 study. The papers ran more than 6 times as many combined front-page stories that mentioned Clintonās server (46) as they did front-page stories that mentioned Trumpās indictment (7) over those periods. Obsessive news media focus on Clintonās server in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign helped Trump to victory, even as Comey ultimately reconfirmed that no charges were appropriate in the case. But eight years later, with one presidential candidate facing active prosecution for federal charges related to his attempt to subvert an election, outlets are making different choices.
to be clear, the media isnāt the thing we should be mad at here, itās the government and the political system that has allowed this bullshit thus far.
Media outlets are never going to be āunbiasedā itās impossible, as demonstrated by conservatives being stupid as of late surrounding any number of events, including the recent debate. HOWEVER, we can simply report things ourselves, perhaps we should be moving towards a highly decentralized and vetted news system, rather than a more monolithic approach. Something that actually informs people on the important details, rather than being a ātrust me broā reporting system.