Way, way back in the year 2000, Green Party Candidate Ralph Nader garnered two and three quarters of a percent of the popular vote and was vilified by the media for supposedly costing Al Gore the Presidential Election. "To hear his critics go crazy on him, a steam vent in hell would be too nice a place for Ralph Nader to pay penance if Al Gore ends up losing to George W. Bush. One by one, Democrats and activists eagerly lined up for batting practice last week on the rumpled old consumer advocate and Green Party nominee. '(Nader) cost him the election,' Delaware Senator Joseph Biden ranted," CNN November 13, 2000.
Poor Ralph Nader never publicly recovered and has been a pariah in many circles despite being one of the direct influences on the Left's Green New Deal. Honestly, when was the last time you saw Ralph Nader on a news channel? Nader is still politically active, he's available.
In the year 2016, it was Gary Johnson and Jill Stein's turn to take the arrows for a Clinton defeat. "Neither Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson nor the Green Party's Jill Stein managed to make a dent in the Electoral College, but they did post a significant enough showing in several states arguably to help elect Donald Trump," CNN November 25, 2016
In both cases, it wasn't the fault of the Democrat's flawed candidates for not being elected, or having been beaten by stronger Republican candidates, it was the fault of marginalized third party candidates that were left out of the debate process and left largely uncovered by the media. It was the fault of the Evil Electoral College, what were those Founding Father's thinking? It was the fault of voters in the heartland who weren't educated enough to make the correct voting decisions.
Then came 2020 and places like CNN were publishing negative articles at a 100 to 1 ratio against Trump, giving zero coverage to the Libertarian Jo Jorgensen or to the Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins.
When it appears today that in places like Wisconsin Joe Biden has won by a less than 1% of the vote, while, coincidentally, Jorgensen has been corralling about 1%, you would assume you'd see some stories about Jorgensen possibly costing Trump the election on CNN. Nope. When the media's team is winning, they don't care. Since Biden has apparently won, there is no outrage at third parties from the media, because It was never about third parties, it was about newsrooms throwing tantrums that their candidate didn't win. Corporate Media have held grudges that have lasted years, or in Nader's case, decades.
Think I'm exaggerating? Using CNN's logic from the 2000 election, this time around substitute Jo Jorgensen for Ralph Nader and Donald Trump for Al Gore. (As of 6 AM on 11/9/2020)
In Pennsylvania (20 Electoral votes) Biden won by 40,000 votes, Jorgensen got 78,000.
In Georgia (16 Electoral votes) Biden won by 10,000 votes, Jorgensen got 62,000.
In Arizona (11 Electoral votes) Biden won by 20,000 votes, Jorgensen got 50,000
If Jorgensen isn't on the ballot, using CNN's past political analysis, presto, 279-259 victory for Trump.
Why isn't the media talking about spoiler Jorgensen? Because their team won and they only used third party candidates to de-legitimize candidates they didn't like.
Nearly every day this fall, Barrack Obama was on the news on behalf of Joe Biden. Every morning when I pour a bowl of cereal, I half expect to see Jill Stein or Gary Johnson on the Milk Carton. I don't think I've seen the 2016 third party candidates in over 3 years.
This time around, if the results hold for a Biden 306-232 victory, the media will forget that the pollsters were all wrong. All of them. They'll forget that they thought they'd win in a landslide and were writing absurd articles like I Vote for Tamir Rice.
They'll forget that ultra-partisans like Van Jones lamented that The Fact that it's this Close Hurts. They'll howl that the Trumpies should be patient and graciously accept defeat because that's what they did, but they never accepted defeat. Earlier this year the movie 537 Votes came out on HBO. The premise? Bloodthirsty Republicans stole the 2000 election. Also earlier this year? Hillary on Hulu. The premise? Boorish Trump bullied his way to the Presidency. (Not surprisingly, the critics loved Hillary the Miniseries, the audience hated it.)
At one time, Left-Wing Corporate Media used to be about the news. Now it's about winning elections for their team. This election has made that fact crystal clear to the American public and there will be repercussions. Once Biden takes power, some left-leaning outlets will go bankrupt based on their own flawed business models. But what happens if Donald Trump buys a station like Newsmax or OAN and re-brands it as Trump News and drives them out of business using capitalism? Trump has a 70 million strong army who just pulled election levers for him if he returns to the private sector.
Unfortunately, no matter how badly you or I want it, Donald Trump isn't going away. He is the personification of "too big to fail."
Editor's Note: I thought this piece could be picked up nationally and submitted it to The Federalist first thing Monday morning. They declined and published this critique of Corporate Media instead: The Big Loser of the 2020 Election was CNN. I had to wait 48 hours until I could put my interpretation on the BOS Blog.