Cable news ‘journalists’ don’t understand memes

The expression “the left can’t meme” has been used fairly often to criticize the lack of understanding that left-leaning internet has of meme culture as a whole.

Memes, which are surely one of the internet era’s most beloved byproducts, are part and parcel with internet culture, and political memes have become a particular talking point in recent years, especially after now-president Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president sparked what’s now referred to as the Great Meme War.

Whether or not the “left can’t meme” quip is true is more of a matter of opinion, though left-wing media has proven time and time again that they’re willing to push aside their sense of humour in some joyless quest for “truth” in memes—truth being something that is at times in a direct conflict with memes, due to doctored photos and videos being a very effective way to get a laugh out of people.

Case and point? MSNBC dissecting a viral meme video posted by presidential dumpster fire Mike Bloomberg, a clearly doctored video which even includes cricket noises in the background.

February 20, 2020

Joyless MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle decided it would be a good idea to break down the video.

“The campaign has said that it was tongue in cheek, but when somebody sends you that clip of the debate, that looks really good for the mayor and looks bad for everyone else. It’s not true.”

Along with Ruhle NBC’s Ben Collins, who told the anchor that this is a video that should be flagged as “not real” by Twitter.

February 21, 2020

“There was about a second or two of silence, not twenty or whatever. That’s the sort of thing—without the crickets—people might take seriously. And that’s how misinformation steamrolls.”

This is far from the first time that we’ve seen establishment media lose their collective cool over a meme.

In October 2019, President Donald sparked online “controversy” from the likes of humourless fact-checkers at the New York Times over a photo of the President placing a doggy-medal around the neck of Conan the hero dog, who played a big roll in killing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The photo, a clearly doctored image created by the photoshop team at the Daily Wire, became a thorn in the side of the Times, as they ran a headline reading “Trump Tweets Faked Photo Of Hero Dog Getting a Medal.”

“The dog appeared to have been edited over a 2017 Medal of Honor recipient,” stated the Times’ article.

October 30, 2019

Trump has consistently played media like a fiddle. We recently saw very serious journalists again blow a gasket when Trump tweeted a meme video after his impeachment acquittal.

The “TRUMP 4EVA” meme stirred controversy because again, joyless fact-checkers believed that Donald Trump would attempt to stay in power for eternity.

Replies to the tweet were filled with accusations that Trump was attempting to install his children into power to create a hereditary autocracy in the United States.

TIME magazine even stepped in to clarify that this was a “manipulated version” of an animated TIME cover.

February 5, 2020