Legacy media drives the final nail in its own coffin

CNN's breathless, intolerable coverage of its own anchor's book exposes the fatal flaw of today's corporate media

By any objective measure, what Trump is doing right now - engaging in the most blatant corruption scandals in American history - world it would be enough to make front page headlines for the rest of his political career. Trump is raking in billions of dollars from a cryptocoin that he launched, enabling him to launder money from foreign investors intent on currying favor with the president. He just accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar that he claims will serve as Air Force One, even though it’s doubtful it’ll ever be properly retrofitted before ultimately being transferred to him personally. When Trump announced a rollback of his tariffs, some people in his orbit were alerted beforehand and made off with millions of dollars in a rather obvious insider trading scandal. Trump’s latest gulf trip took place in three countries that just so happen to also have recently inked real estate deals with the Trump Organization, wherein we’ll soon see a Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai, a Trump golf resort in Doha, and a Trump Tower in Jeddah. In other words, Trump is swapping the benefits of United States for personal favor. It’s corruption at its highest order.

But you wouldn’t know that this was in any way out of the ordinary, because much of the legacy media is spending its time talking about the apparently very pressing issue of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. After all, why live in the moment and confront the worst corruption scandal in US history when you can transport back to the media’s safe space of litigating Joe Biden’s health circa 2021 to 2024? This is all owed to the fact that CNN anchor Jake Tapper and CNN contributor Alex Thompson have a new book detailing how the White House allegedly covered up Biden’s cognitive decline. And so because they want to sell their book, they ensure that every news cycle revolves around this issue. If you haven’t watched CNN in the last few weeks, trust me when I say that the coverage and book hawking is breathless. And it’s not just Jake Tapper; because the network is apparently a big club, Tapper’s colleagues cover it, too. And conservatives of course are desperate to talk about anything other than Trump’s scandals, and so they’re more than happy to jump onto the cognitive decline train. So because this issue serves everyone’s selfish interests, we’re left with nonstop coverage, on the left and right, about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline— all because a couple of guys want to sell a book.

But it’s not without cost. In an environment where attention is our most valuable and scarce resource, talking about Biden’s mental state comes at the expense of talking about other things— namely Trump’s corruption (which, unlike Biden’s health, actually impacts us). That cost is that as the US descends into a full blown kleptocracy, our esteemed fourth estate is instead focused on enriching two of its members, thereby giving Trump a clear runway to traffic in his own corruption. That matters because when Trump sees that his actions aren’t warranting much blowback from the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” crowd, then his takeaway is quite clear: carry on full speed ahead.

To be clear, this isn’t to excuse Joe Biden or the White House. Did the previous administration cover up Biden’s cognitive decline? Perhaps. But you know when we adjudicated this issue? In June and July of 2024, when it became clear he couldn’t run and dropped out of the race. That’s when this issue was put to rest. In other words, Joe Biden being too old is nothing new. What’s new here is the book.

I’ve been beating this drum for years, but the danger of making corporate media the Democrats’ message distribution system is that they aren’t on the Democrats’ side. Corporate media exists to serve its shareholders, its bottom line, and clearly, the personal wealth and ambition of its own members, no matter the cost. I hope this serves as a blinking red light for the left to invest in independent media. Invest in people and outlets whose priority is defending democracy and defeating Trump and his Republican Party. But legacy media is not willing to meet the moment— certainly not with the urgency it deserves. I don’t know how much more obvious they can make it.