One Republican congressman is fed up with what he calls "the most biased media I've seen in my lifetime" and has launched a campaign to call out the press for its close association with Democrats.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), founder of the House Media Fairness Caucus, believes the media and Democrats are so tightly linked that he has created a new term for both.
"The media and Democrats are so close in association and so close in their philosophical views that we might as well use one word to describe both, and that's 'Mediacrats,'" Smith told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
Smith, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said he is urging fellow lawmakers to stop using the term "mainstream media" because of media bias against Republicans and conservatives.
"How can the media be considered 'mainstream' when it doesn't represent a majority of the American people?" he asked. "It's more accurate to use the term 'liberal.'"
Smith cited negative coverage of President Donald Trump and the media's lopsided campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton in 2016 as evidence that the press is biased in favor of Democrats.
Ninety-one percent of ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news coverage of the Trump campaign was "hostile," according to the Media Research Center.
The Center for Public Integrity found that 96 percent of journalists' campaign contributions benefitted former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Smith noted to the Examiner that 55 percent of the public is "growing weary" of anti-Trump coverage.
Poll: 54% call media Trump's 'opposition party.' Party breakdown in graph... https://t.co/x1uVmxO4pk via @DCExaminer pic.twitter.com/shgUlpZNnL
— Paul Bedard (@SecretsBedard) March 7, 2017
Smith, who cited the media as a primary reason why Trump's approval ratings are low, said he is a "strong advocate" of Trump's use of Twitter as a remedy to the media's control of public perception.
"The only way the president can get around the national liberal media is to tweet," Smith said. "He can connect directly with the American people, and that's why the media doesn't like it."
The media, according to Smith, wants to "be the only conduit" of information for Americans and "tell the American people what to think."
"I am concerned that it is hurting our republic, I'm afraid they are hurting themselves, I'm afraid they are hurting the country, and they're clearly so intent on hurting the president that they are taking themselves down at the same time," Smith added.