Message to distrusted news outlets: It's your own fault

Even though he has left office, Trump continues to draw the ire of a mainstream media that can't seem to let him go. Recent headlines bear this out: CNN published a story over the weekend chronicling what it dubbed Trump's "10 worst abuses of power"; MSNBC argued his presidency "would not have been possible without white supremacy and without racism"; and The New York Times said on Friday that Trump plotted to oust his acting attorney general then use the DOJ to undo Georgia's election results earlier this month that sent two Democrats to the U.S. Senate.

Curtis Houck of Media Research Center says the mainstream media may just be getting in a few parting shots, but to most Americans it's just more fake news.

"Fifty-six percent of Americans say journalists or reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things that they know are false or gross exaggeration," he reports, referring to a recent study by the Edelman communications firm about trust in the mainstream media.

"They're only covering a handful of stories a day," Houck continues, "with CNN in some cases [covering] probably no more than three or four a day – and they're almost 24/7 live coverage about narratives, about snarky chyrons, about fact panels. It's really cheap – people don't have the time for this."

And the media doesn't get it, he adds. "Journalists react to [criticism], suggesting that it's really not their fault; that it's the fault of conservatives or conservative media," he tells One News Now.

Indeed, columnist Ben Shapiro last week noted that for the last four years, the mainstream media – while being labeled by Trump as the enemy – "self-servingly claimed that they were actually the protectors of democracy and individual rights."

"People will continue to seek information from alternative sources, of course," Shapiro wrote. "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."

According to Houck, the distrust is driving Americans to alternative media sources – which he says is actually a good thing. "I think it's a net-positive that Americans have a different number of perspectives," the media watchdog offers. "I think it's still important to take in a variety of news sources."

At least one major news outlet has decided from its perspective that fact-checking the president of the United States is no longer necessary. The Washington Post announced last week it is ending a false-claims project that was launched when Donald Trump took office. The newspaper says it now has "no plans" to launch a similar project as Joe Biden begins his tenure in the Oval Office.