Whenever I mention that the news media leans ridiculously far to the left, that it has lost half the country with its attitude and that the tone of the coverage of President
The eye roll.
That big Anderson Cooper CNN eye roll, often accompanied by a few theatrical sighs.
And when I leave the newsroom, it gets even worse on social media.
But now
It is astonishing because it comes from
The study found that in Trump's first 100 days in office, the tone of the news coverage of the president has been a whopping 80 percent negative to 20 percent positive.
So what does fair and balanced really mean, anyway?
"It confirms what most people understand," said
Bevan spoke as a guest on "
"The response will be that Trump is deserving of this kind of coverage because he's conducted himself inappropriately, and these are self-inflicted wounds, and the press is doing nothing but covering him and his actions. But that's a little bit disingenuous," Bevan said.
"I think Trump has been treated unfairly by the press in his first 100 days. Everything he does is seen as a five-alarm fire."
Trump bears some of the blame for this. He mocked the media, called journalists "the enemy of the people," and went to
And now the establishment kicks back.
Many Beltway journalists are essentially establishment creatures, gatekeepers for the political ruling class, members of that class and fierce guardians of their place in the empire. The political class sees Trump and the 62 million Americans who voted for him as the stuff they scrape off their shoes.
While Trump's 80-20 negative coverage ratio is amazing, Presidents
So how was President Obama covered in his first 100 days? With a 60-40 positive to negative ratio, according to the
"That's a significant shift, a significant difference," says Bevan. "I think this is reflective of the fact that the media does root from the press box, and they do cheer for certain personalities, and they do cheer against others."
I have my own memory of the media's tone after Obama took office. It wasn't merely positive, it was adoring, gushy, in the way a small child looks up to a beloved parent, or a dog to the master who gives it biscuits.
It was as if the media were hugging a magical unicorn. Obama wasn't only given the benefit of the doubt. He was handed the Nobel Peace Prize though he hadn't done anything to earn it. And critics were trashed as nothing but racists.
Obama controversies, from his administration's gun-running scandal in the "Fast and Furious" debacle to using the
Later, in
"Because of the way the press covered Obama, they lost so much credibility," Bevan said. "And because they did not take these things seriously, the
"So you have a certain segment of the public, the people who voted for Trump, who literally do not trust what the media says."
And the divide between rigidly defined political tribes, one courted by the media, the other dismissed by it, grows even wider.
"It's not good for journalism, and it's not good for the country," said Bevan.
Agreed. But I don't see it changing any time soon. Do you?
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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who also hosts a radio show on WLS-AM.