ArcaMax

The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a left-wing hive of activists badly disguised as journalists. They run the very biased "fact checker" PolitiFact, and one of their executives, Kelly McBride, moonlights as the baldly boosterish "public editor" making excuses for National Public Radio.

Tom Jones -- not the hip-swaying Welsh pop singer -- is their resident Brian Stelter, penning a daily media newsletter. Check out this headline: "Fox News goes all in on MAGA by adding a Trump to the payroll."

"The network continues to peddle itself as a legitimate news outlet," the subhead reads. "Hiring the sitting president's daughter-in-law makes that claim indefensible."

Fox News is creating a Saturday night show hosted by Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of the sitting president. Just like Stelter, Jones ripped Fox as "simply an extension of the Republican Party and, in particular, a megaphone for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. ... 'News' really doesn't belong in the network's name."

He underlined it, with rhetorical highlighter: "If Fox News really does see itself as a legitimate news outlet, then the hire of Lara Trump is just baffling. ... Don't they see the obvious conflict of interest?"

It's very easy to point out that NBC News hired Chelsea Clinton as an "objective" reporter. NBC still pays Jenna Bush Hager as a morning show host. But Jones said that's different -- Trump is in office now. Chelsea was making $600,000 a year for doing less than one fluffy feature story a month as her mother prepared for a 2016 run for the White House. She resigned before it became too obvious.

But if a news network is "not legitimate" for hiring a Trump while Trump is president, what about hiring a former Biden press secretary as a contributor, and later as a host of a weekend show, while Joe Biden is still president? Jones and Poynter didn't see that as a problem for MSNBC -- at all. Jen Psaki was still in the White House while she negotiated that deal.

They seem incapable of imagining anyone could write "MSNBC goes all in on Team Brandon by adding a White House spokesman to the payroll."

Jones greeted the Psaki news with pure gush: "Psaki has earned rave reviews for the job she has done. Chris Wallace, back when he was with Fox News, called Psaki 'one of the best press secretaries ever.'"

What about Kamala Harris' "chief spokesperson" Symone Sanders-Townsend? In the very same newsletter, Jones expressed zero concerns, just this blurb: "The debut of 'Symone' -- MSNBC's show hosted by Symone Sanders, a former senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris -- debuts Saturday at 4 p.m."

The headline on that newsletter was breezy: "A new press secretary, interesting reads and notable media tidbits to wrap up your media diet for the week."

When "Inside with Jen Psaki" debuted in 2023, Jones posted a piece with the bland headline "Jen Psaki officially enters the Sunday morning lineup." He liked it just fine. "Was it groundbreaking? Not really. Was it different? A tad. But was it solid? Sure." Adding Psaki's show to Monday nights a few months later? No problem.

Again, Jones found absolutely zero need to wonder about conflicts. He didn't find it "baffling" that MSNBC would ignore the "obvious conflicts of interest." Nothing was "indefensible."

This is why conservatives don't take the Democrat defense team of Stelter, Jones and Oliver Darcy seriously when they preach about "legitimate" news outlets and media ethics. Everything is situational on the Democrat side. Apparently, there are no conflicts of interest when everyone is allied in "saving democracy" from Trump. "Journalism" and Democrat messaging are indistinguishable.

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Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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