The message was simple and stark: “Silence the Fake News Media.”
That’s the headline on a campaign fundraising letter sent out under the name …
The message was simple and stark: “Silence the Fake News Media.” That’s the headline on a campaign fundraising letter sent out under the name of Donald Trump Jr. The Democrats, you see, “are attempting to STEAL this election, and their friends in the Fake News media are complicit.” I’m sure many Trump supporters believe this. The early narrative was that the networks, including Fox, had projected Joe Biden the winner because they wanted him to send Trump packing. And when the president launched his campaign to show the election had been stolen, the media made a very ripe target. But much has happened since then. The key battleground states have completed their counting, and their governors, in some cases Republicans, have certified Biden’s wins. Campaign lawyers have filed more than 30 suits alleging various kinds of fraud and have yet to win a significant victory, with judges—some appointed by Republicans and in one case by Trump—at times dismissing the claims in scathing language. And on Tuesday, a very high-profile Republican, Bill Barr, essentially agreed with what the media have been saying about the lack of widespread fraud. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” the attorney general told the AP. To be sure, Barr said the Justice Department is continuing to investigate, that there have been isolated indications of fraud, but nothing “systemic.” He specifically knocked down the conspiracy floated by Sidney Powell, who was eased off the Trump legal team, that Dominion voting machines somehow siphoned votes from Trump to Biden.
