Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series examining the 2024 election results and what they reveal about America’s evolving political landscape. The American Salient takes a hard look at legacy media and how its open partisanship in 2024 may have sealed its fate.
If legacy media’s coverage of the 2024 election was a horror movie, it would be The Media’s Last Gasp. It had everything: panic, denial, and a final, desperate twist that fooled no one. As the results rolled in, network anchors and opinion columnists clung to their scripts with the resolve of a toddler holding onto a favorite toy—a toy, unfortunately, that America was ready to throw out with the rest of the broken relics. The grand narrative of Harris-Walz “saving democracy” from the clutches of Trump? America bought a ticket to see it, sure, but left the theater before the credits rolled.
Playing the Role of “Objective” Journalists
In 2024, media outlets tried to pull off the performance of a lifetime. They claimed to be neutral, earnest defenders of democracy while cheering from the sidelines as if Kamala Harris were their team’s last hope to win the championship. We were told that democracy itself was on the ballot and that Trump’s victory would mean America’s certain decline. Yet, as the days wore on and Americans tuned in to hear the supposedly neutral coverage, many noticed something: the talking heads were far from neutral. They were casting themselves, along with their chosen candidates, as the story’s heroes, forgetting that news anchors aren’t supposed to have catchphrases or fan clubs. Just as debate moderators aren’t supposed to constantly put not just their finger, but their whole body mass on the scales.
The media had so thoroughly convinced itself that it was the moral guardian of the nation that it completely missed the irony. They criticized Trump for being “divisive,” yet their coverage displayed all the subtlety of a halftime pep talk. When Harris couldn’t quite reach the end zone, the media scrambled for narratives faster than a quarterback on fourth down.
Election Night: When Credibility Took a Nose Dive
Election Night 2024 was a sight to behold. As the results began to come in, the smiles turned to nervous glances, and the bravado started to fade. It wasn’t long before the “neutral” anchors started sounding like campaign operatives whose candidate forgot to show up. While Trump racked up state after state, the media’s portrayal of the election became a clinic in cognitive dissonance. In their minds, Harris-Walz was still on track—polling errors, voter suppression, misinformation—they threw every excuse at the screen, as if one might stick. Anything but the reality that millions of Americans were rejecting the narrative they’d spent four years constructing.
I made a point of watching multiple networks, and it was like tuning into a Shakespearean tragedy performed by high school understudies. The heartbreak, the tears, the existential despair as their storyline crumbled—it was gripping television, but probably not in the way they intended. Instead of steely professionalism, we got petulance, thinly veiled contempt, and an almost cartoonish refusal to acknowledge the obvious: they had misjudged the mood of the country, and no amount of punditry could put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Post-Election Blame Game: It’s Everyone Else’s Fault
Once the dust settled, you might think the media would’ve taken a moment for introspection. Surely, after yet another misfire, they’d consider recalibrating their approach. But no. According to legacy outlets, it wasn’t their messaging that was flawed—it was everyone else’s comprehension. Perhaps the voters were simply confused. Maybe they’d been led astray by misinformation or the omnipresent bogeyman of “election denialism.” It couldn’t be that the media’s message was out of touch. No, they decided, it was that America was out of touch with the media.
Within hours of Harris’s concession, articles began trickling in with the same tired excuses. One editorial board declared that America’s “moral fabric” was fraying; another opined that a rise in “anti-democratic sentiment” had brought Trump back to power. Gone was any pretense of introspection. The media simply doubled down, convinced that the real issue wasn’t their bias—it was the public’s inability to recognize how enlightened they all are.
The Real Losers of 2024: Credibility and Trust
For years, legacy media insisted on viewing itself as the guardian of democracy. They warned us that Trump’s rise signaled the end of freedom as we know it. But here’s the punchline: with each cycle of breathless hyperbole and transparent partisanship, they chipped away at their own credibility more effectively than Trump ever could. By the time 2024 rolled around, the trust deficit was so deep that for many Americans, media endorsements were a kind of reverse barometer—if the legacy media endorsed it, it was probably time to go the other way.
The truth is, Americans saw through the act. Voters had weathered the media storm of 2016 and 2020, and they weren’t about to get swept up again in 2024. The more the media preached about Trump’s threat to democracy, the more it rang hollow to those who remembered the promises of “unity” and “decency” in 2020. The selective outrage, the double standards, the glaring omissions—by Election Night, legacy media had all but thrown their last shred of credibility out the window.
What’s Next for the Media?
Legacy media now faces a crossroads. They can either continue down their well-worn path, cementing their role as a partisan echo chamber, or they can try the radical idea of regaining public trust. After the 2024 debacle, it’s hard to imagine many Americans turning to the same channels and columnists who’ve been crying wolf since 2016.
Yet, old habits die hard. If 2024 taught us anything, it’s that many media outlets would rather dig in their heels than consider they might be part of the problem. Who knows—maybe they’ll reinvent themselves, maybe they’ll double down on partisan narratives. But one thing’s for sure: if they keep treating the public as clueless sheep in need of shepherding, they’re going to find themselves shouting into the void, while more Americans turn to voices they actually trust.
The 2024 election wasn’t just a political realignment; it was a journalistic one. The gatekeepers no longer hold the keys, and the American public has walked out the door. Good night, Lester. Good night, Norah. Good night, David. And when the studio lights go out, try not to trip over the teleprompter—or the remains of your shredded narrative—on the way out.
Charlton Allen is the founder and editor-in-chief of The American Salient and the founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc. Learn more about him at charltonallen.org.
