We always have a little fun this time of the year and hand out some turkey awards. Frankly, I feel bad for the poor turkey who never ran to be the dish of choice for Thanksgiving or the symbol of these awards.
So with all due respect to the turkey, let me say that there is a clear-cut winner in 2016. In fact, I can’t recall the last time that anyone ran away with the award like this.
My “turkey of the year” is the media.
First, they gave Trump a billion dollars of free media. I guess that Trump was good for ratings because they chased him like a bunch of girls chasing Elvis in his prime. They went everywhere that Trump went and ate out of his hand no matter what he fed them.
Second, they went out of their way to destroy Trump, from 24/7 negative coverage at CNN to the New York Times determining that it was their duty to protect us from his presidency.
In the end, Trump shocked them with a victory that not a single expert at these outlets saw coming. Now, he is playing them like a violin with daily speculation about his appointments.
Remember the old commercial? Bo knows baseball? Trump knows media!
A few weeks ago, Gallup made it all official: Nobody likes the media anymore. Worse than that, nobody believes them, as we see from this recent survey:
Americans’ trust and confidence in the mass media “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly” has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media.
This is down eight percentage points from last year.
One of three Americans believes that the media will call it accurately!
How long would a car maker survive if only one of three Americans had faith in their cars? Or what airline could stay a business with a reputation like that? Or who would buy a ticket to a baseball game if only one of three thought that the umpire was being honest behind the plate?
So the media is our “turkey of the year”. No doubt about it. They are off to a great start to win the award next year!
