Bernie’s Weekly Q&A (12/20)

Ann Selzer, Elon Musk, Bob Iger, and more.

Welcome to this week’s Premium Q&A session for paying subscribers. I appreciate you all signing up and joining me.

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Now, onto the Q&A:

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Do you think CNN and MSNBC will employ the same tactics they did in the first Trump administration once his second term begins? Meaning constant, screaming BREAKING NEWS banners with hair on fire pundits. And do you think it will be as effective? Trump is riding quite a wave now, and his coverage thus far hasn’t been like that; it’s been actually pretty tame aside from Hegseth. — Joel G.

I think pandering to your particular audience is in the DNA of cable news. That said, I think CNN and MSNBC will continue highlighting stories that make Donald Trump look bad. To be clear, much of the coverage will be legitimate news. But they won’t show the same journalistic restraint for Trump as they did for Joe Biden. Effective? Cable news preaches to the choir, as I say — so if effective means influencing how people think about Trump (or anything else) … minds are already made up when they turn on the TV. Coverage may be pretty tame so far, but I suspect that won’t last — and Trump himself will be part of the reason.

Bernie, I don’t understand why anyone would run for public office in this country. Because in today’s world, if you do, you are just setting yourself up for partisan media and politicians to try and destroy you. Do you think that scares off our best and brightest? — Rob O.

I do. And I don’t know why anyone would want to expose himself or herself to the partisan scrutiny that they’d have to endure. The people who would run anyway are people who crave power — or in Donald’s case, power and the limelight.

Bernie, I agree with you that wokeness is in retreat (for now) but I don’t agree with your timeline. The other conservative websites I go to (and John Daly, I think) have noticed its decline for a couple years now, and that wokeness peaked possibly a year after Biden took office. I do think Trump benefited from ‘wokeness fatigue’ in this year’s election, but if anything, him being in power for four years encouraged (for lack of a better term) wokeness from “The Resistance.” Your thoughts? — Alex D.