Most days, the news cycle is bleak. Every story about the industry seems to include the word “under siege,” and if a newsroom isn’t laying off staff, it’s probably cutting back or downsizing in some way. In March, the co-founders of Axios Mike Allen And Jim VandeHei reduce This semi-official obituary while exploring the shifting power dynamics in our information landscape: “Traditional media, at least as the dominant center of power, is dead.”
Allen and VandeHei wisely observed how Americans categorize themselves into dozens of different isolated media bubbles. But the problem is, bubbles Maybe pop. While the days of old mass media may be long gone, even in the age of influencers and information silos, the big networks and old newsrooms still have the ability to break through. In the past several weeks of political upheaval, complete with an assassination attempt against Donald Trump, The national media has reasserted itself in a 2024 election story that the public has Most do not care.
Just ask the President Joe Biden. What begins with a presidential debate produced by the OG news channel, CNN, concluded four weeks later with the president’s televised address about his decision to pass the torch to Who is Kamala Harris? About 29 million people has been picked up across networks. If this were a summer blockbuster, it would be titled Mainstream media strikes back.
Let me be clear: The Biden backlash is not a product of the media. The coverage is not the work of crooked editors trying to force Biden out of the race. This is not a muscle-flexing contest or a click-bait strategy. These conspiratorial claims (and I’ve read them all in my social media responses!) suggest that some omnipotent entity controls the commentariat. If only it were that easy! When CNN John King, seconds after the debate, airing that “there is a deep, widespread, very intense panic in the Democratic Party,” he had no idea that Nicolle Wallace also said the same thing on MSNBC.
But it’s true that the conventional wisdom about Biden’s weaknesses hardened very quickly. Newsroom leaders sensed that a big story was brewing within the Democratic Party—even though most Democrats in power initially spoke anonymously. Well-sourced reporters signaled that Biden’s candidacy was under threat—not because they wanted it to be, not because they were hungry for a compelling story, but because that was the reality inside the party.
Even before the debate, the staying power of the “MSM” was on display. All the major networks came together in April and demonstrated their collective might with a public statement pressuring Trump and Biden to debate. The Biden campaign, in a scandalous miscalculation, proposed a June debate, much earlier than previous general election debates. CNN (one of my former employers) provided all the production resources—as few media outlets can do.
Just three months before the debate, Biden delivered a major State of the Union speech that surprised both Democrats and Republicans. Jerry Nadler was heard telling Biden afterward, “Nobody is going to talk about cognitive decline now.”
But of course, that conversation continued about a minute into the debate, when Biden appeared hoarse and broken voice. CNN host Anderson Cooper then said the political commentator Van Jones During the June 27 debate, he looked as if he had been punched in the stomach.
Opinion writers at The New York Times wrote columns calling for Biden to resign. Editor at Atlantic have commissioned numerous stories about Biden’s inability to lead for another four years. MSNBC anchors are wondering about alternatives like Harris. These traditional media strongholds—some openly left-leaning, others fiercely independent—have fed the fears that are blowing up progressive group chats. “The president’s insistence on remaining the Democratic nominee would be not just an act of self-delusion, but an act of national endangerment,” they write. New Yorker Editor David Remnick written two days after the debate.
These media, though stifled by eroding business models and rising competitors, still wield great influence—and Biden’s turmoil has reaffirmed that. While the bubble is real, “and the trend is accelerating,” VandeHei said, “there is also the staying power of large institutions in critical moments.”
A wide swath of liberal readers, including White House aides and Biden campaign strategists (now Harris), were paying attention to every new development and data point. Suddenly, people were talking about newspaper editorials—not exactly a daily occurrence. Insiders were analyzing comments on Biden’s morning show of choice, Good morning Joe, for clues as to what might happen next.
Political historian Brian Rosenwald, The author of American talk radio, told me he thought the coverage of the Biden crisis was “disproportionate” but justified. “With each generation, the media has fragmented more” from the Big Three network model, “but this is one of those rare moments where it almost approaches the old landscape,” he said. The scrutiny of Biden’s condition is relentless, he told me, and “when we get this kind of intense focus, it still packs a punch.”
Old stores like The Wall Street Journal And Washington Post contributed a critical report on Biden’s failing health. Some Biden loyalists lamented the reliance on anonymous sources and attempted to deny the stories. But the leaks were largely confirmed. The report pointed in the right direction toward Biden’s inevitable departure.
The criticism is sometimes very harsh. WaPo Editor Matt Murray reminded its staff, about a week after the debate, that “we serve the greatest good of our readers and our democracy by shedding light on our leaders even in difficult times and even on topics that may make some readers uncomfortable.”
TikTokers and YouTubers find themselves quoting the work of the death media as Democratic infighting intensifies. After all, someone still has to sort through the raw material everyone else is dissecting. “I just did Megyn Kellypodcast and we spent half the time arguing about mainstream media,” VandeHei recalls.
Biden’s inner circle acknowledges the importance of conservative media by booking interview with ABC George Stephanopoulos and NBC Who is Lester Holt? Rather than allaying concerns about Biden’s competence, the interviews only perpetuated the anxiety. While the malarial swamp of the right-wing echo chamber was filled with wild conspiracy theories about Biden’s death, the reality-based media signaled that Biden was increasingly isolated and likely to resign. As Jones speak on CNN, “We have new information about our leader and we decided that we have a responsibility to the country and to the party to give someone else a chance.”
On Sunday, Biden bowed to pressure and announced he would not seek a second term. On Monday, shares of The New York Times Company closed at a 52-week high.
