The media largely ignored the fact that the father of the Orlando terrorist was placed behind Hillary Clinton Tuesday at a campaign rally, but also endorsed her and her gun control policies. Instead, they obsessed about a joke Donald Trump made during a rally, hinting at gun owners resisting efforts to confiscate their weapons under a Clinton administration.
It was the latest Trump media frenzy, and an example of the double standard: what Trump says is treated worse than what Clinton does.
The media have a left-wing bias because they share the left’s utopianism, and because most journalists entered the profession to “change the world.” But the way that bias operates has not been adequately discussed.
Comedian Evan Sayet notes that the modern left-winger rejects adulthood and romanticizes the narcissistic socialism of kindergarten. What that means for media bias is that Republicans are cast in the role of censorious parents, while Democrats are the rebellious, romantic teenagers.
As “parents,” Republicans are the constant targets of resentment — but are also expected to pay for what Democrats want to buy. If they disagree, it is because they are unfair. And they are never allowed to deviate from the principles they preach.
The Democrats, on the other hand, are rewarded for utopian dreams, however unrealistic. Their excesses are always excused; in fact, they are celebrated when they break the rules. And when they govern, they are never held responsible for their failures.
Trump upsets all of that because he is the rare parent who lives like a teenager. He does what he wants — and says whatever he feels. He is highly successful, both as a businessman and a father, because he takes his ambitions and responsibilities quite seriously. But — perhaps because he is a former Democrat — he refuses to be square.
That is what irritates the media, and the conservative NeverTrump faction. Both constantly cite what Trump says, and constantly ignore what Hillary Clinton does.
Those conservatives who still support Trump — who understand the basic calculus that winning is always better than losing, and that any third-party vote effectively helps Hillary — are understandably frustrated at the media bias on display.
But that bias is to be expected: the media were vicious towards the moderate John McCain and the patrician Mitt Romney. And if, as some argue, Trump’s running mate were to take over, the media would treat Mike Pence with the same hyper-partisan disdain.
The obvious way out of this rigged game is to change the rules, to reset the expectations for Trump’s behavior. Of course he is going to say outrageous things. What is even more outrageous is the way people over-react — like the feminists accusing him of inciting violence against women, or the Harvard Republicans accusing him of “poisoning our children.”
Words matter — but they should matter on both sides. And what matters most are Hillary Clinton’s record of failure in high public office, and her lies about the same. Dare the media to look away.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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