Local Newscasts Having Devastating Impact on Democrats. Here’s Why.

We hear lots about media bias, particularly during campaign season. But “media” is a broad term, as it comes in many shapes and sizes.

As a whole, trust in the media is at an all-time low. But one part of the industry has not seen as sharp of a decline: local newscasts. A poll by the Knight Foundation finds that local news is trusted more than national news outlets by a 17-point margin. And local news will likely play a pivotal role in several races in states won by Joe Biden in 2020: New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon.

In deep-blue New York, the race for governor has gone from being an afterthought to a down-to-the-wire cliffhanger, with challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) going from being down nearly 20 points to even with Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The Senate race in President’s Biden’s birth state of Pennsylvania has also seen a major shift to the GOP, as Dr. Mehmet Oz has erased a double-digit deficit against Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The race is now a dead heat.

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Crime is the main reason for these dramatic swings. In Zeldin’s case, he has seen the issue too up-close and personal: In July, a man was arrested after attempting to stab the congressman in the neck on stage at a campaign event. And in October, a drive-by shooting occurred right outside his Long Island residence {snip}

Overall, in New York City alone, subway murders are at a 25-year high. Major crime is up 36 percent. Cashless bail laws that allow violent criminals back out onto the street only to commit crimes again is a large driver of this trend. Hochul, instead of declaring that she will end this ridiculous law in the name of public safety, continues to claim that the jury is out on whether or not cashless bail is working {snip}

Next door in Pennsylvania, rampant crime in its largest city has become so bad that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner was held in contempt recently for failing to cooperate with state lawmakers investigating his possible impeachment.

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And crime is front and center on residents’ television screens every day. Murders, shootings, assaults, smash-and-grabs, car jackings. And with cameras everywhere, whether it’s people filming on their smartphones or public webcams throughout a city, there’s more footage of such crimes than ever before. Beatings and robberies are captured and shared with viewers within hours. {snip} It’s seemingly Groundhog Day lately when it comes to murder scenes, interviews with families and neighbors of victims and crime stories in general.

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