GUEST COLUMN: Mainstream media struggles to stay relevant as social media breaks from “The Narrative”

Crime is out of control. Not just in our cities but in our news media. Journalists lost control of the narrative before, during, and after the election. They are furious that social media allows voters to see attacks on citizens, hate crimes and huge mobs robbing stores.

The legacy press tried to suppress the crime narrative leading up to Election Day. Then just 19 days after the vote, The Washington Post admitted, “During the last three years, homicides nationwide have reached their highest levels in decades.”

That should have resulted in a come to Mencken moment for the political press. Instead, they either ignored it or tried to rationalize it.

The Post’s own “National Columnist” Philip Bump followed up that news report in his own newspaper with, “The overblown, heavily political fear of American cities.” (Worth noting that when reporters become columnists at major news outlets, it typically reflects the reporter’s inability to even pretend neutrality. Like Bump.)

Bump actually had the nerve to compare crime in 1990 to now. The birth rate has been near 4 million a year since that time. So more than 120 million weren’t even born then, not counting new immigrants – legal and illegal. Still Bump argued, “Crime in New York City is up — but it has been far worse.” Wow, comforting. Your coworker was just murdered on the subway, but, hey, 32 years ago it was more dangerous! You just won a free subway token.

The legacy press has come full circle. They can’t stand that people don’t trust their spin on crime. It was the same leading up to the vote.

CNN’s Jake Tapper tried to blame the 2020 crime spike not on liberals looting, burning and violently attacking others in an orgy of rioting instead on … then-President Donald Trump. “Between 2019 and 2020, the Trump years, the U.S. homicide rate rose about thirty-percent. That’s the highest increase recorded in modern history.”

Jake’s smugness comes through even when you read his comments. He continued, “If you don’t feel safe, if you or someone you care about has been accosted or assaulted, that’s your experience. Fear is primal. It’s a crucial emotion.” In other words, don’t be irrational, don’t listen to worries about crime. Be like common man Jake, worth $16 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

NBC’s Lester Holt tried the same strategy right before the election. He brought on “civil rights attorney” Alec Karakatsanis who blamed conservatives, “I see an attempt by the right-wing to scare people into unwinding certain very small reforms,” he claimed. Get back to me the next time you see a bunch of legacy media elites risking their lives on the New York subway.

It was the same on Election Day. The Atlantic was worried about crime: “The pollster Stan Greenberg has found that worry about rising crime under Democrats is a more potent fear than any other issue this cycle.” The article added more feelgood numbers about crime. “FBI data released in October show that violent crime was roughly flat last year (with a drop in robberies canceling out an increase in murders).”

Ah, yes, murders and robberies always just cancel each other out in that great Excel spreadsheet in the sky.

The same time, NPR ran a rationalization about why crime really isn’t so bad, headlined, “Stories about crime are rife with misinformation and racism, critics say.” You are stupid or racist if you worry about being mugged.

Republicans won the House of Representatives, in large part because of New York seats the GOP gained tied to its anti-crime campaign. Then came the Post article, admitting, “Even now, as the bloodshed has slowed, the homicide rate outpaces pre-pandemic levels.”

But the Post buried its lede. It profiled nine cities ravaged by murder, admitting, “Victim data collected from each city profiled here show Black people made up more than 80 percent of the total homicide victims in 2020 and 2021.”

Can you imagine a major news outlet hiding something so horrible to people of color? Unless, of course, journalists were worried the problem might cause African-Americans to vote Republican.

But the news gets out. The New York Post reported, “Felony crimes — including murder, rape and robbery — have surged on the subway system by 40 percent so far this year compared to 2021, according to newly released NYPD stats.”

Those were the kind of stories even CNN reported early this year. Like, “New York man arrested in connection with 7 separate attacks against Asian women.” Or, “Horrified by the surge of anti-Asian violence, she’s giving her community tools to protect themselves.”

The left and their buddies in the legacy press can’t hide crime anyone. People are going to see videos and get reports about assaults and murders, homelessness, drug use and the horrific decline of our once-great cities. And no amount of government propaganda or media spin can stop it.

But the more journalists try to bury the story, the more the only thing they bury is their own credibility. 

Dan Gainor is the Vice President of Business and Culture for the Media Research Center. He is a veteran editor with more than three decades of experience in print and online media. Dan has appeared on Fox News. This column first appeared on Fox News Digital.