It’s no secret that the mainstream media plays favorites, and nowhere is this more obvious than in how they cover political debates. When Kamala Harris steps up to the podium, major outlets seem to turn a blind eye to her evasions and gaffes. They’ll praise her composure, highlight her talking points, and refuse to scrutinize her claims. Yet, when Donald Trump takes the stage, it’s a different story.
The fact-checking machine kicks into overdrive, questioning every word that comes out of his mouth, no matter how accurate it may be. The double standard is glaring.
We saw this imbalance again during the recent Trump-Harris debate. Harris dodged questions left and right, but you’d never know that from the coverage. Major news outlets downplayed her vague responses, sidestepped her questionable record, and instead rushed to paint Trump as the serial liar. The media has perfected the art of protecting Democrats like Harris while portraying Republicans as deceitful. But this time, it backfired spectacularly when TIME Magazine got caught making an embarrassing mistake trying to “fact-check” Trump.
Breitbart columnist John Nolte noted that the left-wing publication initially reported:
The former President … falsely claimed that Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison.”
Trump made the factually correct statement when talking about the litany of issues that Harris has flip-flopped on since becoming the Democrat Party’s presidential nominee. [Source: Daily Wire]
After the debate, TIME rushed to discredit one of Trump’s claims about Harris. The publication initially accused Trump of lying when he said Harris supports transgender operations for illegal immigrants in prison. In their report, TIME called Trump’s statement false, but here’s the kicker: Trump was right. Harris herself confirmed her stance on the issue when she filled out a questionnaire for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) during her 2020 presidential campaign. She explicitly supported taxpayer-funded gender transition treatments for detained immigrants.
Trump didn’t pull this claim out of thin air. He referenced her own words. In fact, Harris was asked by the ACLU if she would use executive authority to guarantee that transgender and non-binary people in prison or immigration detention would have access to comprehensive gender transition treatments, including surgery. Harris responded with a simple “yes.” Yet TIME and other outlets were quick to dismiss Trump’s accurate statement, showing once again how the media attempts to shield Democratic candidates from their own records.
When conservative voters look at this situation, they see a media establishment working overtime to protect Democrats from any damaging stories. The fact that TIME had to issue a correction on something so easily verifiable only reinforces the belief that major outlets are more interested in defending their chosen candidates than in delivering the truth. The correction itself is telling: TIME admitted its error, but even then, the language used in the edited article was still slippery. They changed “false” to “claimed,” as if Trump’s statement still needed to be doubted, despite clear evidence backing it up.
This situation underscores a broader problem for many conservatives: the media simply cannot be trusted to hold Democratic candidates accountable. When Harris is caught on record supporting something as controversial as taxpayer-funded gender transitions for detained immigrants, the press hesitates to fully report it. Instead, they hedge, downplay, or try to discredit the information—even when it’s plainly true. Meanwhile, Trump or any other Republican could say the sky is blue, and they’d still find a way to question it.
What’s especially frustrating to conservative voters is that these are not minor policy positions. Harris’s support for gender transition surgeries in prison is a significant stance, one that raises serious questions about her priorities and the kind of policies she would implement as president. It’s not something that should be glossed over, yet that’s exactly what much of the media has tried to do.
This TIME Magazine blunder is just the latest example of the lengths to which the media will go to protect Democrats from themselves. But as more outlets get caught in these fact-checking misfires, it becomes increasingly clear that their credibility is eroding. Conservative voters already distrust the mainstream press, and stories like this only deepen that skepticism.
Author: Kit Fargo
