A focus group of 13 undecided voters criticized mainstream media outlets attacking President-elect Donald Trump while ignoring Vice President Kamala Harris.
A group of Gen Z voters largely agreed that mainstream media outlets have become “so corrupted” in their bias against President-elect Donald Trump that it affected the election.
The New York Times asked a focus group of 13 undecided voters on Wednesday about their feelings following the election. Though most of them voted for President Biden or were too young to vote in 2020, now more than half admitted to voting for Trump with only two having voted for the vice president.
For many of them, the press was a major factor in their decision.
One former Biden voter in South Carolina, 24-year-old Joseph, said, “The mainstream media was carrying Kamala Harris’s water. We need a check on the president to have a healthy democracy. If Kamala Harris was elected, there wouldn’t be a check on her from the media.”
Virginia former Biden voter Abigail, 23, said, “I saw how the media has become so corrupted in their cause against Trump. There was that Trump clip of him saying: Put Cheney in front of a bunch of shooters. But he wasn’t actually implying Cheney should be shot. I cannot vote for an establishment that just thinks it’s OK to lie to us.”
Georgia student George, 21, also mentioned the misleading Liz Cheney story, calling it “just despicable.” He added, “Seeing The Washington Post’s reaction to them not endorsing a candidate — people resigning — it’s hell on Earth over there. And The New York Times is just clearly biased. Everyone is just so not fair to Trump.”
27-year-old Lillian, a 2020 Trump voter from Virginia, said she decided to vote for Trump after seeing the “meltdown” the media was having over Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
Jack, a 22-year-old 2020 Biden voter from New York, acknowledged that the press has a “double standard when it comes to Trump versus Harris or just the Democrats in general.”
“We saw it with the ‘garbage’ comment by Biden. That was kind of just glossed over. Seeing people on MSNBC and even The Times, unfortunately, saying Kamala ran a flawless campaign. Maybe it’s because Trump actually had substance and Kamala just ran on joy,” Jack said.
“They go after Trump and never went after Kamala. They have their own biases. And they let it seep into their coverage of the election,” California 2020 Biden voter Mark, 24, agreed.
Some voters complimented Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance’s media appearances, with one deciding to vote for Trump based on Vance’s New York Times interview. Others praised Trump going on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Joseph said he made the decision to vote for Trump after hearing him on Rogan because “he just seemed more normal than the other side.”
“The Joe Rogan interview was huge for me. Trump enthusiastically said yes to a three-hour, open, honest conversation with Joe Rogan, who was a former Bernie bro. I think it’s very telling about which candidate is authentic and which candidate is not,” 22-year-old former Biden voter Jack from New York commented.
Lillian suggested Trump and Vance continue to go on Rogan regularly when they’re in office as “a cool way to check in and give a progress update.”
Some of them also attacked Harris’ lack of media appearances, with the few she did hurting her – one said he decided to vote for Trump after Harris appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
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“I was looking for a candidate that I felt I could trust. A key moment that stuck out to me was the ‘S.N.L.’ skit that Harris did, where she essentially made fun of herself. All her focus was going to entertainment industries and avoiding interviews. That came off to me as very phony,” 20-year-old Maryland intern Laura said.
Laura, who ended up voting for a write-in candidate, added she didn’t like seeing “Harris doing a lot of entertainment interviews and not focusing on actual interviews.”
Overall, many hoped that in the future there would be less attention given to biased media outlets and that the press would be more fair.
“I hope that people take the mainstream media less seriously and do their own research to know what candidates actually believe,” Joseph said.
Abigail agreed, “Yeah, I hope that in four years, the mainstream media wakes up and sees everybody is fine and stops calling Republicans fascists just because they disagree with them.”
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