On Comey, media gets wish, then predictably melts down
By: Rob Eno
For almost a year, the mainstream media has called for James Comey’s head. Now that Trump gave it to them, served on a platter, the media is in full meltdown mode. It’s not really shocking, just par for the course.
Prior to the election, and even the inauguration, of Donald Trump, the media published stories of people calling for Comey either to resign or to be fired for his handling of the Clinton email investigation. CNN, Business Insider, Time, and even John Podesta’s baby Think Progress published calls for Comey to go. But those are just a few of the examples of a constant pre-inauguration media onslaught. If all of the calls for Comey’s resignation were printed in one book, it would be longer than a Michener novel.
If the media shriekers were consistent, they would have been overjoyed at the news that they got their man. Consistency, of course, isn’t a media trait, and quite predictably the media melted down. Now that Trump has actually fired the man whom conventional wisdom said should be fired, there’s outrage. Here’s just a sampling of the headlines you’re seeing today.
· Boston Globe: “Donald Trump pulls a Richard Nixon”
· New York Times: “In Trump’s Firing of James Comey, Echoes of Watergate”
· Washington Post: “Comey’s firing should make all of us ‘mildly nauseous’”
· Washington Post: “Comey’s dismissal may turn the anti-Trump wave into a tsunami”
· LA Times: “Absolutely nothing about James Comey’s firing passes the smell test”
· CNN: “Firing James Comey is Donald Trump’s most unpredictable and dangerous move yet”
· MSNBC: “Former DOJ spokesman: White House trampling on FBI’s independence”
Surprisingly, MSNBC seems to be the most even-keeled of the MSM. Perhaps it was because the strongest voices calling for Comey’s head came from that network. Most notable was Tom Brokaw. On the “Rachel Maddow Show” Brokaw emerged as a voice of reason. He told Maddow that this isn’t Watergate.
It wasn’t just media outlets melting down. At about 5:50 p.m. EDT, the internet went into full meltdown mode as individual pundits gave the hottest of hot takes over the breaking news. Twitchy, as always, had a great rundown. The best hot take of them all was the retelling of Jeff Toobin, on CNN: “This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies,” Toobin reportedly said. Of course, this is an opportune time to remind Toobin that we live in a republic, where the executive runs the executive branch.
The firing of Comey proves one thing. If Donald Trump does something, even something the Left and media have been calling for, they’ll predictably, and without fail, get up in arms about it.
Robert Eno is the director of research for Conservative Review. He is a conservative from deep blue Massachusetts but now lives in Greenville, SC. If you see something you’d like him to cover, tweet him @robeno.
