The Media Research Center’s aggressive defense of Donald Trump over his (fourth) indictment continued when he traveled to Georgia to be arraigned and have his mugshot taken. Bill D’Agostino whined in an Aug. 24 post that non-right-wing networks covered the story while purportedly obsessing over mugshots:
Over the past 24 hours, CNN and MSNBC have gleefully brandished the mugshots of Donald Trump’s co-defendants like grim trophies for their audiences to gawk at.
MRC analysts examined all coverage on CNN and MSNBC from 6:00 p.m. on August 23 to that same time the following day. During that 24-hour span, the two cable networks displayed mugshots of former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Trump administration Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and the other defendants a whopping 188 times, amounting to a combined 83 minutes of airtime.
MSNBC led the pair in both total on-screen displays and screen time; they showed the mugshots 122 times, for a total of 56 minutes and 23 seconds. CNN showed the images 66 times, which amounted to 27 minutes and 12 seconds of screen time.
[…]If these journalists want to get offended when they’re accused of publicly enjoying this latest Trump indictment, then they should probably stop publicly enjoying it. For a start, they could quit waving around the latest mugshots like excited baseball card collectors.
Strangely, D’Agostino and his “MRC analysts” didn’t offer a count for how many times the mugshots appeared on Fox News, even though its right-wing bias is the gold standard by which it measures all media coverage.
Serving up the completely opposite view, Kevin Tober complained that some argued that Trump would use his mugshot a a political tool:
During CNN’s live coverage of Trump’s motorcade to the Fulton County, Georgia jail for the former President’s booking on Erin Burnett OutFront, fill-in anchor Kaitlan Collins and correspondent Sara Murray fretted that Trump would use his new mugshot “to his political advantage” and fundraise off the photo to help his presidential campaign.
“Trump himself has been not downplaying this. I mean, he is certainly seeing how he uses these exact moments to his political advantage,” Collins kvetched.
Murray then jumped in to agree that Trump “uses these for fundraising, he uses these to rally his base.” Due to this, she openly regretted the plan to release Trump’s mugshot.
Tober then insisted that refuisal of some channels not to air Trump’s post-arraignment remarks was “election interference”:
In a case of blatant election interference, both CNN & MSNBC refused to air Trump’s remarks live on the tarmac after his arrest in Fulton County, Georgia. In stark contrast, Fox News did air Trump’s comments live where he lashed out at being arrested for a fourth time in as many months.
Just like earlier in the evening, both CNN & MSNBC aired wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s every move to and from the Fulton County, Georgia jail where he was fingerprinted and got his mug shot taken, both networks had cameras rolling while Trump got out of his limousine and walked to the cameras. Despite this, they kept Trump’s volume down and continued with their panel discussions.
But Tober gave Fox News a cookie for helping the Trump campaign: “Fox News Channel’s Jesse Watters Primetime did broadcast the former President’s remarks in its entirety.”
Nicholas Fondacaro spent an Aug. 25 post being mad that Trump’s overly self-aggrandizing height at weight self-presented at his arraignment was justifiably mocked:
Never let anyone in the liberal media claim they’re not gleeful that former President Trump was booked and had his mugshot taken at a Fulton County jail. Nearly 40 minutes after concluding their opening segment about Trump surrendering to authorities in Georgia, the cast of CBS Mornings revisited the topic in their “What to Watch” segment so they could make fun of Trump’s “self-reported” height and weight, and say he’s fatter than he claimed. They even compared his build to NFL players.
Coming back from the commercial break, CBS led into the segment by broadcasting their intentions with the song Body by Megan Thee Stallion, which has these enlightened lyrics:
Body-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody/Ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody (mwah)/Body-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody (ah, ah, ah ah)/Ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody
“Body body body!” co-host Tony Dokoupil sang along. “Perfect song!” co-host Gayle King proclaimed, with Dokoupil agreeing it was a “Very perfect song!”
They immediately went to correspondent Omar Villafranca to mock Trump for claiming he was 6’3″ and 215 pounds. They wanted to really have fun with it so they matched the former President up against young and muscular NFL players:
[…]Was Trump exaggerating how light he was? More than likely. Did it require an entire segment with special graphics to mock it? Definitely not. Were there better things they could have used the time for? Yes, like the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Biden family corruption.
We don’t recall Fondacaro passing up the opportunity to mock a liberal he thought deserved it because there were “better things” that should be covered.
Fondacaro joined Tim Graham’s podcast the same day to whine about this (and the mugshots) further:
The media’s Trump-indictment obsessives engaged in all kinds of glee out of Fulton County mug shots of Donald Trump’s “co-conspirators” in the Georgia election aftermath, and the glee only grew once Trump’s mug shot was released…except CNN lamented Trump would use the image for his “political advantage.”
Associate Editor Nick Fondacaro joins the show to talk mug shots and debates.
[…]Nick also reported CBS Mornings mocked Trump for reporting he was 6-foot-3 and weighed 215 pounds, which does not seem accurate. They compared him to professional NFL footballers at that height and weight. It’s probably not a wise idea for Gayle King to mock someone else’s size, but when you’re the queen of CBS in the morning, no one tells you what you shouldn’t say.
Graham didn’t explain why he tried to insinuate a fat joke about King. See what we mean about the MRC never missing an opportunity to mock someone, no matter how mean or petty?