“Bloodbath” Hoax Latest Evidence of Media Outrage Fatigue

Following a flood of sensationalist – and false – headlines suggesting that former President Donald Trump said there would be an armed revolt and mass violence if he loses this November, the public has reacted with a collective shrug. It seems that after years of countless left-wing efforts to weaponize the press against Democrats’ political enemies, the American people have grown weary of and wise to the media’s schemes.

During a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on March 16, Trump warned about the threat of China manufacturing cars in Mexico to avoid U.S. tariffs, saying it would be a “bloodbath” for the auto industry if Biden has another four years in the White House.

Democrats and the media quickly pounced on the comment, taking it out of context to allege that Trump was threatening civil war or mass insurrection if he does not win this November.

“Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses election,” NBC News declared. “Trump says country faces ‘bloodbath’ if Biden wins in November,” read a headline from Politico. Virtually identical headlines went out from CBS, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and a host of other legacy media outlets.

Of course, as was clear to anyone listening to the entirety of Trump’s remarks and not just a few seconds-long clip of them, the former president was only making the point that a second Biden term would be a disaster for the U.S. auto industry.

But despite the media’s best efforts to generate widespread public outrage, the story quickly fizzled and then faded from the headlines.

Noted Trump hater Ian Bremmer posted on X that “the Trump ‘bloodbath’ headlines are disingenuous and embarrassing.” Los Angeles Times opinion columnist Jonah Goldberg – another outspoken Trump critic – even worried that the “bloodbath” hoax was “only helping” the former president. Seeming to confirm that analysis, the Trump campaign has since turned the brouhaha into a fundraising opportunity.

“Every time the media exaggerates or misleads on a specific story, it provides an opportunity for Trump and his Praetorian Guard to claim that the media exaggerate or mislead on every story,” Goldberg writes. “This has been the go-to strategy for Trumpworld from the Russian-collusion story onward. And it has worked.”

Goldberg is correct that the media’s deception indeed gives Trump all the ammo he needs to expose their corruption and dishonesty. What he seems to miss, however, is that Trump’s “strategy” has “worked” because his claim that the media spins every story to try to damage him politically is accurate, and is a claim that many Americans believe because they have seen the evidence of it with their own eyes.

The most notable aspect of the bloodbath hoax is not how much the media contorted themselves to portray Trump as a bloodthirsty aspiring dictator, or even how shameless they have been in refusing to back down once their deception was quickly uncovered. Rather, it is how little most Americans outside of already committed Democrat voters seemed to care at all.

One major factor driving this collective ambivalence is likely record low trust in the media – something which itself is driven by the media’s repeated attempts to push narratives just as ridiculous as the bloodbath hoax. According to Axios, “Only 32 percent of the population reports having ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ of confidence that the media reports the news in a full, fair and accurate way.” 39 percent of Americans also say they “don’t trust the media at all,” an all-time high.

But more than just not trusting the media, many Americans simply seem exhausted by the constant deluge of hyperbole and apocalyptic messaging emanating from their TV and phone screens. The media has already spent the majority of the 2024 political season referring to Donald Trump as a once-in-a-lifetime “existential threat” to American democracy. Many outlets routinely publish articles comparing Trump to Hitler and suggesting a “totalitarian” regime would emerge during a second Trump term.

A recent Pew poll found that 65 percent of Americans “say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics.” The media’s coverage of Trump specifically and of politics generally – which frames how most Americans think about politics – undoubtedly has something to do with this finding.

Aside from Trump, Democrats and the media have employed similar hyperbole to suggest that electing any conservative would be a surefire way to end American democracy as we know it.

In 2021, for instance, Los Angeles Times columnist Erica Smith called Republican California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder “the black face of white supremacy,” suggesting that Elder, a black man, would impose a white supremacist agenda on the Golden State.

In 2014, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz stated that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker “has given women the back of his hand” because he believed in abortion limits. She then said the entire “Republican tea party” was “grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back.” The media dutifully defended her claims.

In 2012, then-vice president Joe Biden proclaimed that Mitt Romney would put black people “in chains.” That same year, the Chairman of the Democrat Party compared the GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to “Joseph Goebbels,” the Nazi propaganda minister. Once again, both remarks got favorable media coverage.

In 2004, The Guardian suggested that then-President George W. Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler rise to power and that the Bush family were part of the “financial architects of Naziism.” Neither claim had any basis in fact.

This pattern of deception was sent into overdrive with Trump’s ascension in 2016. But eight years later, it may be the case that the American people have simply had enough, and the media’s favorite tactic to slander and defame conservatives simply won’t work any longer.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.