RUTHFULLY YOURS

When it comes to Kari Lake, the mainstream, drive-by, leftist media is in pants-wetting mode. In a fair world, as a candidate for the Arizona governorship, Lake would get admiring or, at least, objective coverage. But we don’t live in a fair world, so the media is attacking Lake with a savagery previously reserved only for Donald Trump (after he became a Republican candidate).

Until 2021, Lake was best known in the Phoenix area, where she worked for 22 years as a television news anchor at KSAZ-TV. Her political identity was kind of all over the place. She was originally a Republican, a registration she kept until 2006. That was when, because she was dismayed by George Dubya’s wars (which saw her voting for John Kerry in 2004), she switched to Independent. Then, in 2008, clearly dazzled by Obama, she registered as a Democrat and donated to several Democrat campaigns. However, in 2021, she launched her gubernatorial campaign as a Republican.

Despite being substantially outspent during the Republican primary, Lake won handily. Perhaps it was because she didn’t let Democrats bully her into hiding her suspicions that something was deeply wrong with the 2020 election results.

Wikipedia frames it this way: “Lake centered her campaign on promoting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and nationwide was ‘rigged and stolen’.” When saying this, Wikipedia means “Terrified or partisan judges shut down any efforts to analyze bizarre election results in real-time, and January 6 has effectively silenced most people. As a result, we have no obligation to prove that mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting, drop boxes, and long pauses counting votes in the middle of the night were meaningless in terms of the election outcome.”

What’s made Lake a national phenomenon is that, on the campaign trail, her instincts are extraordinary. She’s beautiful, intelligent, has tremendous presence and—perhaps most importantly—is unafraid of the media.

Unlike Trump, she doesn’t insult media members. Instead, she just calls them out when they ask questions that are manifestly biased. Trump was a cudgel. Lake is more of a cat, elegantly and cheerfully toying with her prey before confidently destroying it. It’s very satisfying to watch videos of her interactions with the media.

The media, of course, know an enemy when they see one. That’s why their coverage of Lake is venomous in the extreme. While their coverage of most Republicans averages 87% negative, their coverage of Lake is 100% negative:

A new Media Research Center study covering Sept. 1 to Oct. 26 found that midterm election news in CBS, ABC, and NBC’s evening broadcasts is about as negative on Republicans as it was during the Trump presidency (88% in 2018). But while that 87% number is already appalling, Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake scored a perfect 100% negative coverage.

That’s impressive, even by corrupt media standards.

At least a decade ago, a Democrat commentator whose name I’ve forgotten admitted that the invariably positive media coverage for Democrats versus the relentlessly negative media coverage for Republicans gave Democrats as much as a 15-point boost in elections. The media’s fawning on Democrats constituted massive free advertising, along with the patina of objectivity.

I suspect that things have changed nowadays. The media are so deeply disrespected that members of the public are likely to discount it, just as they once did with paid-for political advertising.

Also, thanks to Biden, even Democrats are beginning to realize that the media are harming them by propping candidates who shouldn’t be anywhere near power. Even SNL, in a surprisingly enjoyable sketch, is worried about the people the media promote (hat tip: Power Line):

If one recognizes the American people’s disenchantment with an activist media, that 100% negative coverage Lake is receiving could be the best thing that ever happened to her.

The only thing that remains to be seen, should Lake win, is whether she governs as competently as she campaigns. If that’s the case, she may well become America’s first elected female president. (Harris may occupy the office if Democrats delete Joe from the job, but SNL makes clear that she’ll never be elected to the role.)

Speaking of Joe, here’s a bonus campaign video straight from the Babylon Bee: