Mainstream media ignores successes under Trump tenure

Thank you, O Great and Wise Gurus of Journalism, thank you!

Without you, we poor, dumb American slobs would be lost. Confused. Or even worse — informed.

For example, how would I have known that the first signing of a peace agreement between an Arab nation (two, actually) and Israel was no big deal, if not for America’s dedicated and objective news media? Being the dope that I am, I thought going from “dedicated to the destruction of the Zionist entity” to “Hey, Bibi, let’s do lunch” was some kind of Middle Eastern breakthrough.

Instead, journalists like Nick Schifrin with the totally unbiased and completely nonpartisan PBS News set me straight: “Israel, UAE and Bahrain have never been at war,” he tweeted.

The same from ABC News’ Martha Raddatz during her newscast: “President Trump is proclaiming this a peace agreement, but the countries were not at war.”

What a chump I am! Obviously, this ‘so-called’ peace treaty between Arabs who spent decades crying, “Death to Israel” and the Israelis is a hoax!

Fortunately we have CNN to report the real news of the (allegedly) historic treaty-not-related-in-any-way-to-peace:

No masks!

“White House event with large crowd, little social distancing,” the CNN chyron across my TV screen read. “Today’s ceremony showcased the president’s continued defiance of the very coronavirus guidelines his White House recommends,” CNN anchor Jake Tapper intoned in his lead to the story.

To hell with peace in the Middle East — where are the masks? Now that’s breaking news!

And I never would have known it without the help and guidance from professional journalists.

The same is true about this news — or at least I thought it was news — from the Census Bureau:

“The U.S. median household income was $68,703 in 2019, 6.8% higher than in 2018,” they reported Tuesday, “the highest on record.”

Not only that, but Census data show 2019 saw the biggest one-year increase in median income since they started keeping those records. Real median income grew by 7.9% for Black Americans and 7.1% for Hispanic Americans, both record highs.

Not surprisingly given all that wealth creation, the poverty rate simultaneously fell to a record low of 10.5%.

Highest income ever? Lowest rate of poverty? Stop the presses!

Uh … never mind. A search of their website found the Boston Globe-Democrat didn’t have a single mention of this news in their “newspaper” as of yesterday afternoon. But they did find room for a column titled “Trump Is Desperately Trying To Distance Himself From His Failed Presidency.”

Across the border in New Hampshire, where Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is running for re-election, the unemployment rate dropped from 8% to 6.5% in August – a nearly 20% drop in a single month. Pretty amazing.

Or, as the AP reported: “State’s Unemployment Rate Down a Bit More for August”

See what I mean?

I thought news was when something unusual happened: a first-in-a-generation peace treaty or the lowest Black unemployment ever. But that’s just because I didn’t go to journalism school.

If I had, I would realize that America’s soaring COVID-19 death rate due to the coronavirus is a far bigger story than any of this other stuff … and that’s not even true!

Since the beginning of August, the average number of COVID-19 deaths per day has been trending downward, from around 1,100 on Aug. 7 to around 750 this week.

The positive test rate was about 8.5% two months ago. Now it’s around 5%.

Did you know that fewer Americans have been dying and the rate of infection has been falling for weeks? Not if you read the Globe or watch cable news. See, that’s the kind of news that’s actually not news, because,  well … MUST HATE TRUMP!

So thank you, Great Gurus of the Mainstream Media. Thanks to your outstanding performance, a new poll finds more Americans trust Donald Trump for reliable information on COVID-19 than trust you.

Keep up the great work.

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Michael Graham is a regular contributor to the Boston Herald. Follow him on Twitter @IAmMGraham.

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