Legacy news outlets obviously running in fear from Donald Trump retribution.

NETWORKS RUNNING SCARED: Failing to focus on the President's health.

In the latter stages of Joe Biden's presidency, the legacy television networks along with their internet platform and print brethren of a certain political slant did their best to avoid reporting on or at-length discussing the Commander-in-Chief's health. To this day it remains a mostly hushed up issue despite the fact various source reportings have long detailed how Biden was suffering from numerous health issues, and the left wing press did their best to avoid it. It was a serious break in journalistic ethics, and it sadly continues to this day, but for a different reason.

Has the White House threatened legacy media reporting on Donald Trumps health?

The lack of investigative reporting and simple curiosity over the health of Donald Trump is distressing, albeit understandable. There's not a form of media that isn't scared spitless about retribution from the White House if they dare to dig into the issue, despite the fact it's already well known Trump has a condition known as CVI that could portend greater issues on the horizon. A former colleague who knows the inner political workings inside the Beltway believes not only have Trump's lackeys warned everyone about doing more on the story, but also promised there will be Hell to pay if anyone dares openly question his health.

While every White House has tried to tamp down potential health issues surrounding the President, no one can recall when it reached such a crescendo of threats and fear. The physical and mental health of the individual with their finger on such enormous power has to be a "first and foremost" topic of those charged with reporting on such matters, and at the moment, they are failing miserably. Every major network has platforms where investigative reporting can be produced and presented, so there's no excuse for not devoting the time to deducing what in fact is going on. There is no question this is critical and demands investigating, and if these networks and platforms truly want to be taken seriously, they must overcome their fears of retribution and hammer away without fear or favor. The truth is always out there, and real journalists never shy from what they might find.

UNEARTHING TRUE INTENTIONS: Social media continues to make it easy.

Where once it was a portal into the mind of what certain people were actually thinking and often derails the lives and careers of many people, digging into past social media posts and comments left dangling by those in the news, especially in the Trump Administration, has become far too easy and thus many times overlooked. Trump's hiring of E.J. Antoni as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is just the latest example, and in what has become a current trend, the legitimate news media might mention it once, but then news such as this is allowed to dissipate into the background. In part, that's the playbook Trump has learned from organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, (of which Antoni is a devoted member), and loyalists such as Steve Bannon. Allow the initial furor to hit, ride it out, both the news media and the general public will forget it ever happened.

E.J. Antoni and Donald Trump: The mouthpiece and the master.

Several Twitter accounts created and used by Antoni, posts now of course deleted in an attempt to avoid being used against him, show an individual immersed in bigotry, hate for alternative lifestyles, and an eager participant in numerous conspiracy theories that all are based in complete propaganda and misinformation. When Antoni was named to the position, legit media outlets such as CNN did the necessary digging and turned up what had been noted. To their credit, and those who reported it, we have a window to the soul of Antoni that easily indicates he is little more than another Trump puppet willing to do what he is told to hold a power of authority in the Trump Administration.

Almost every outlet suffers these days from social media exhaustion. Damning evidence will be uncovered, used in "breaking news" style reporting, and then forgotten within a few days. It leads one to wonder why no one has done a comprehensive and detailed dig into The Heritage Foundation and other far right wing groups that are, in many ways, running the Trump doctrine as they see fit. Again, I am told by those close to the situations there is an unwritten warning to all about possible retribution for getting too close to the truth and making a stink about it. We have already seen once highly-respected outlets such as CBS News pull back on coverage as mandated by ownership in bending a knee to Trump. Both Comcast (NBC) and Disney (ABC) are stuck in the same boat, not wanting to rub Trump and his allies the wrong way for fear of being snared in government actions as payback.

ANOTHER SETBACK AT CBS NEWS: Is new ownership about to make a hard right turn?

Now that the purchase of CBS from Paramount to Skydance Media is in the process of being finalized, CBS News staffers are quietly looking for new jobs as owner David Ellison moves to purchase the internet news platform "The Free Press" and then reportedly turn the news division over founder Bari Weiss. It's not lost on anyone in the industry that Weiss, who left the NY Times after proclaiming the platform had become "too Liberal", has become a recent darling of Conservative media and its followers. Instead of balancing CBS News back where it once was, there is not a single doubt Weiss would lead the division into more positive coverage of Donald Trump, MAGA, and all that is unbalanced on the right.

Bari Weiss: Bringing a new level and unwanted level of bias to CBS News?

As the promotional graphic for her podcast intimates, Weiss is completely on board with the Administration's attack on anything and everything even remotely hinting of DEI. She published a column in 2018 that accused Democrats and liberals of being fascist, using a fake Antifa Twitter account as part of her research. While the column was eventually sanitized and provided an accompanying note identifying the fake Twitter account after the fact, it still speaks volumes on who Weiss really is. She has also blamed various and unspecified population mental health issues on COVID-19 and the accompanying vaccines.

Fair to say that under the new ownership, CBS News will eventually change, and in some cases it might be for the better. The average age of the CBS News viewer is well into the 60s, and if the network is to survive in this new era, they will have to modernize and pay more attention to the digital and editorial needs of a younger audience. However, the fear among current CBS News employees is that direction will be more aimed at the younger MAGA crowd in order to keep stepped in line with Trump and his authoritarian demands. There is already deep concern that any report or investigation into anything Trump or MAGA related will be heavily edited or redacted by new management and their veiled ombudsman, effectively keeping CBS from showing up again on Trump's media radar.

NEWSMAX SEEKING A BAILOUT: Hoping to cover their Dominion Systems losses.

Having recently escaped the possibility of forking out more than $1B to Dominion Systems in the defamation lawsuit over the 2020 election results, settling for a mere $67M, Newsmax has taken a page from their own playbook in seeking to find someone else to cover their losses.

Chris Ruddy: Billionaire Newsmax owner and media "water carrier" for Donald Trump.

Owner Chris Ruddy, who has a reputation of micromanagement in being the final arbiter on every decision made at the platform, tossed a legal "Hail Mary" into space, replete with plenty of public relations ballyhoo on his part. Newsmax was taking FOX News to court, leaving behind many a loud peal of laughter in legal circles claiming the right wing "Mac Daddy" had conspired against Newsmax by creating a monopoly for conservative viewers. The lawsuit was based on the Newsmax assertion that FOX was convincing distributors into not carrying any other conservative-leaning network, including theirs. What Ruddy conveniently failed to include was that distributors are looking for programming that makes them money, and comparing the profit possibility of carrying FOX to that of Newsmax might be considered comparable to selling high end luxury homes to leasing broken-down portable outhouses. FOX makes distributors real money. Newsmax returns pennies, if that.

What likely stung Ruddy is that the judge who dismissed the case within days of filing is US District Judge AIleen Cannon, a Trump and far right wing sympathizer who let the President off the hook in the criminal classified document case last year. No doubt Ruddy was hoping that with a case before her, moving forward on the complaint would be automatic. While Cannon turned the case down as "shotgun pleading", she did allow for the possibility of a future filing under certain circumstances.

Newsmax would like to think, and presents itself as, being a "hot on the heels" competitor to FOX News. Absolute rubbish. The FOX audience consistently dwarfs that of Newsmax, which operates out of an office complex in Delray Beach FL and a few satellite offices in NYC and Washington D.C. Newmax cherry picks various ratings services and samples to bolster their numbers, and have even gone public in a limited fashion to try and raise more money for their platform, which is in no way an actual news or television network. While the mini-IPO opened to big numbers, reality has set in when it comes to early investor interest. Newmax trumpets it's stock rise, then again it's easy to get excited when your initial stock was worth a measly $10 per share.

Filing this lawsuit is an obvious way to gain some measure of coverage that Newsmax believes would make it more attractive to investors, and hopefully using any profits from a legal victory or settlement with FOX to fill the gap in the settlement with Dominion Systems. It didn't work this time, and legal experts I've spoken with say the scheme has zero chance of filling his pockets.

As we've learned from the ratings of biased news platforms such as FOX, Newsmax, OANN and others, suckers are born every second in America. Therefore, there will likely always be buyers for the misinformation and disinformation shoveled from these journalistic charlatans.

Have a media tip? Suggest a story to be covered? Or just warble about which miniseries to binge between "Sons of Anarchy" and "Breaking Bad"? Get in touch, and let's change the channels. edberlinermedia@gmail.com.