Mainstream media is once again running to the hills following a second presidential election victory for Donald Trump, leaving audiences to wonder how and why network anchors seemingly didn't shoot straight with them in their coverage.
With networks seemingly (and nonsensically) taking forever to call the election for Trump, a feeling of distrust in mainstream media seemed ever-present as votes rolled in on election night. Case in point: CNN didn't call the election for Trump until well after 5 a.m. Eastern Time.
The reality of a Trump victory seemed like it was never going to set in for network anchors on election night, and despite an obvious shift in priorities among the American public, broadcasters went steadfast past midnight as if Kamala Harris still might become president.
CNN's Jake Tapper was shocked to learn how much Vice President Harris underperformed, despite the Harris campaign's platitudes and non-answers.
According to "The View," Harris even ran a "flawless" campaign despite falling millions of votes short of Trump.
Over on MSNBC, blame for the loss quickly shifted to "white women" and "racism" on the part of Latino voters, even though they came out in record numbers for the Republicans.
At the same time, cable news' blatant disregard for public sentiment has been painfully obvious to one man in particular: Elon Musk.
"You are the media now," Musk posted on X just after 1 a.m.
Musk later noted, "the future is gonna be fantastic," as he continues to drive traffic to X, citing record usage of the platform on election night.
Watch more mainstream media meltdowns here.
"News should come from the people. From those actually on the scene and those who actually are subject-matter experts!" Musk said, echoing what has become one of the most popular forms of modern journalism.
Musk has pushed a free-speech mantra on his platform, leading to a steady flow of content creators and journalists jumping ship with the assurance that the vast majority of content on the X will not be de-ranked in any way.
'The mainstream media has always been a hub of misinformation.'
Social media coordinator and on-the-ground journalist Yaakov Pollak told Blaze News that if it weren't for Musk, it would be "a lot harder to get the truth to people."
He added, "Trust in the mainstream media is at an all-time low and has been super low for a while now. I do think that the [mainstream media] will continue to play a roll in calling elections; however, I do think more and more people are turning to X and other alternative media."
"Some independent journalists and will play a bigger role in the future," Pollak added.
This sentiment was shared by Oren Levy, whose viral news videos have broken dozens of stories around migrant hotels and the mayor's office in New York City.
"The mainstream media has always been a hub of misinformation," he said. "It's always had a political agenda with some of them. Some stories they won't touch, even when it's big issues. They're losing a lot of trust."
Levy added that he believes mainstream media are forced to turn a blind eye to some stories due to their donors, who "don't want you to see everything that actually happens."
Musk agreed in another statement, saying that the reality of the election was "plain to see" on his platform, despite what mainstream media said.
Musk continued, saying "legacy media lied" while repeating his new tagline, "You are the media now."
At the same time, though, Levy warned that misinformation is everywhere on social media platforms, even X.
"Some people are turning into the mainstream media themselves. More and more people are showing up to these [protests], but they have a clear agenda. Independent media has definitely been infiltrated," he concluded.
For now, Musk pushing for further video integration and even news articles seems to be making his platform look more and more like a replacement for networks, especially given that it comes with and offers recurring payments.
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