Ted Cruz is likely to get beat Tuesday in Indiana.
With a probable win in the Hoosier State’s Republican presidential primary, Donald J. Trump will be standing as the presumptive GOP nominee.
So, who’s Ted Cruz blaming for the flameout his campaign suddenly is experiencing? The media.
It’s not going to work for the junior U.S. senator from Texas any more than it worked for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich four years ago when he sought to blame the messenger for reporting negative things about his campaign.
“Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd tried in vain Sunday to get Cruz to answer a simple declarative question: Will you support Trump if he’s the nominee?
Cruz didn’t answer. He then sought to blame the media, which he said are controlled by liberal Democrats.
“That’s what people hate about politics and the media,” Todd answered. “The broad brush.”
Yes, Cruz was painting the media with the broadest of brushes. Gingrich sought to do the same thing in 2012 with his broadsides against the “mainstream media.”
I just feel compelled to remind all of those who keep insisting the media speak with one voice that the “mainstream media” also comprise a large number of conservative voices. Fox News Channel? The bevy of radio talk-show hosts? All the right-leaning publications around the country — The Weekly Standard, The National Review? They, too, are part of the mainstream.
And let’s not ignore the torrent of online outlets that give the conservatives — even the “true conservatives,” such as Sen. Cruz — plenty of opportunities to air their views.
As Todd told Cruz on Sunday, Republican voters — not the media — are rejecting his message.