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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.
They are great, and have been around for quite a while now. Stephen Colbert (OāLielly used to rail against them all the time; and cons call them āhatefulā, lol):
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1466651
I donāt think Stephen Colbert was being serious when he said that quote. Mind you, all the quote sites that cite him saying that do not provide the source. Based on his persona from The Colbert Report, I imagine this was part of a joke, especially given the names he called out.
Yes, he was totally doing that in character, if memory serves. Mocking the likes of Klannity and OāLielly getting butthurt over the factual Media Matters.
I remember linking to that site in an exchange with someone I know, and they responded (this was over email) with āoh, Media Matters. Of course youād rely on something even more liberal than the MSM!ā, or words to that effect. Not bothering to rely on the subject at hand, of course. It was just, oh, Media Matters, and noping out, LOL.
For qons, fact-checking qon nonsense and using their own words against them is like salt on a slug. Itās weird how so many of the prominent ones now openly sneer and whine about being fact-checked! For years, the more low-info base would cry about sources, now people like bobo and empty g and āJDā āVanceā will whine about in in the moment. Not realizing it is not the flex they think it is to cry about not being able to brazenly lie without being called on it.