You’ve got to be kidding

| 11:20 pm EDT May 13, 2024
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Back in late 2023, when a number of 2024 general election polls looked good for Donald Trump, the media (on both sides) hyped these polls to the sky. Of course the media ignored the fact that a number of other polls back in 2023 looked good for President Biden. The media, as always, only talks about the specific polls that suit its preferred ratings-driven narrative at any given time.

Over the past few months, as President Biden’s 2024 poll numbers have slowly but steadily improved, there really hasn’t been any positive data for Trump at all. Accordingly, the media decided that the polls no longer mattered and didn’t talk about them at all.

But now that one new poll has been released on Monday showing Trump ahead, the media (on both sides) has suddenly decided that polls are everything again. The election is over, Biden has lost, Trump has swept every state, and is now emperor, or so they want us to believe.

Nevermind that this one poll – from the increasingly disreputable New York Times – has been skewed in favor of Trump for this entire election cycle. Nevermind that this poll is so far removed from believability that it has Trump winning Nevada by a laugh out loud impossible thirteen points. And nevermind that the other recent polls have Biden winning. This one poll, which is obviously wrong on its face, is getting endless media attention.

This is when you have to take a breath and remind yourself that the political journalism industry is the dirtiest, filthiest, slimiest, most dishonest thing you’ve ever encountered in your life. The political journalism industry exists solely to turn a profit, which is accomplished by ratings and page views. This industry does not exist for any other reason.

The polls have their problems. In fact the polls have a lot of problems. The polls aren’t the problem. The problem is that the (entire) media is flat out lying to you about what the polls are even saying. When most polls have Biden winning, and one poll has Trump winning, but the media only talks about that one poll while pretending the others don’t exist, the media is LYING TO YOU.

So if you’re sitting around fretting over this one new poll, stop doing that. And if your response is to say “ignore the polls,” then you’ve also largely missed the point. The point is that THE ENTIRE GODDAMN MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU about what the polls are even saying. The lesson isn’t to ignore the polls. The lesson is to ignore the media. The political media sees you as suckers and marks who can be scared into staring at your screens all day, so they can hit their ratings goals. Stop letting them play you.

Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.