Politics
WATCH: ‘The Office’ Star Rips ‘Left-Leaning’ Media Over Biased Coverage
“The Office” star Rainn Wilson, who played the iconic role of Dwight Schrute on the NBC classic, criticized “left-leaning” media over relentless, partisan coverage of President Donald Trump and his administration while failing to provide the same level of scrutiny for former President Biden.
Wilson shared his thoughts on the current political climate and the mainstream media’s role in creating it while speaking with MSNBC’s Stephanie Rhule on his “Soul Boom” podcast on Tuesday.
The actor pointed to MSNBC’s refusal to cover former President Biden’s cognitive decline as a primary example, in addition to the network’s coverage of the illegal immigration and inflation crises, both of which were massively downplayed by MSNBC and other news outlets. This is a sharp contrast to the way these same networks cover the Trump Administration, Wilson observed, which has long been characterized by overly critical and negative angles.
“This is where I would push back: when I see this kind of insight and passion being directed at the current administration and the lack of this kind of insight and passion being directed at the previous administration,” Wilson said.
“I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about left-leaning news media organizations — were kind of like, ‘La la la la, everything’s fine. Look, the economy is great, la la la, immigration’s not that much of a problem,’ and really being Cleopatra, queen of denial.”
Rhule pushed back by claiming that criticism from President Trump, as well the ability to engage in open discussions on the Elon Musk-owned X, is more to blame for cratering trust in the mainstream media.
“It’s the media, it’s medicine, it’s banking,” Rhule said of the decline in trust. “Losing that trust is not by accident, it’s by design,” she added.
She further claimed, without evidence, that there is a “concerted effort” to destroy the media due to its position as the “last line of defense of holding power accountable.” Ruhle specifically cited Musk’s X as a key factor in the public’s ever-growing distrust of the mainstream media.
According to a Gallup survey from October of last year, just 31 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair” amount of trust in the media, a new record low.
An additional 36 percent indicated that have no trust in the mainstream media to report news fairly, while 33 percent of respondents indicated that they have very little trust in the press.
