#Obama-era gaslighting is back and other commentary

Media watch: Obama-Era Gaslighting Is Back

After four years of complaints from the media that “outgoing President Donald Trump treated them as an enemy,” we are about to return to “the gaslighting of the Obama era,” predicts Ben Shapiro at RealClearPolitics. Outlets are already “praising the newfound veracity of President Biden’s press team,” even though his press secretary has previously been accused of lying to the media. Journalists will spend the next four years ignoring real controversies to debate “just how cute Joe Biden’s dog is.” Some will seek alternative news sources, “but that will only provoke the media to seek new methods of repressing those alternatives. As it turns out, the commitment of many in our media isn’t to truth or facts. It’s to monopolistic control.”

COVID journal: About Those Predictions of Doom

An “ominous” December story in The Atlantic insisted “Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ reluctance to embrace stringent coronavirus lockdown measures resulted in a case spike” and “guaranteed certain disaster,” recalls National Review’s Tobias Hoonhout. But the “tsunami” never materialized — the magazine’s own numbers show Iowa cases “have fallen by 47.8 percent” since publication. The Atlantic based its argument on a New York Times story that looked at a single day to conclude that states with few restrictions have the worst outbreaks. In fact, “California and New York, which have had tight restrictions in place for months, now have worse case and death rates” than Iowa. It’s yet another reminder that ­media coverage “often misses the mark when it posits doomsday predictions or tries to explain case surges through a political lens.”

Conservative: Joe’s ‘Contempt’ for Trump Voters

President Biden’s “lackluster unity speech” couldn’t disguise “his continued contempt for” former President Donald Trump’s supporters, argues The Federalist’s Kylee Zempel. Listeners “who successfully overcame the ­elementary unity script” got “whiplash” from “the cognitive dissonance in the messaging.” His “facade of harmony” couldn’t “mask the subtle digs at the many Americans” who didn’t vote for him or Biden’s “enthusiasm for narratives to which half the country doesn’t subscribe” — like “systemic racism” and “impending climate doom.” Biden believes “we are racist, science-denying, nationalist capitalists,” and “healing is only possible if” we “commit to” a wide-ranging progressive program. That, apparently, is his idea of “unity.”

Campus beat: Harvard’s Double Standard

Harvard’s decision to boot Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) from a key committee for supposedly speaking of “voter fraud” without evidence is an “extraordinary sanction for an institution dedicated to free and open ­inquiry,” laments The Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn — one that “doesn’t seem to be used against Harvard liberals.” Stefanik noted voting irregularities “in the context of constitutional ­issues” but also demanded those behind the Capitol violence be prosecuted. As for her objection to certifying electors, Harvard took no action against then-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who did likewise in 2001 while serving on the same board as Stefanik. And in 2005, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi even defended her members for objecting to certification, arguing that “democracy ­depends” on voter confidence in the system. Yet “when Stefanik says it, Harvard casts her out.”

From the right: A Last Look at Trump’s Legacy

At Issues & Insights, the editors offer a parting review of Donald Trump’s tenure: The ex-prez “promulgated dozens, if not hundreds, of successful policies that other presidents talked about but never secured.” He “slashed taxes” and regulations, recharging the economy and reducing inequality. He got rid of ObamaCare’s “individual mandate” and restored balance to the Supreme Court. Besides Operation Warp Speed, his biggest triumphs came in the foreign arena: forging Mideast peace, isolating Iran and pulling out of the “phony” nuke deal, making the US energy independent, forcing NATO reform, quitting the restrictive Paris climate accord, reforming ­immigration. “Whether Trump emerges as a political force in the GOP, there is no question: In his brief time in office, he was one of the most ­effective presidents in history.” 

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board