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‘The Office’ Star Torches Left-Wing Media In Brutal Takedown

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Rainn Wilson
Photo Credit: "Rainn Wilson" by watchwithkristin is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

Actor Rainn Wilson, best known for his iconic role as Dwight Schrute on NBC’s The Office, blasted legacy media for pushing anti-conservative messaging on Americans, causing them to stop tuning in.

Wilson caught MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle off guard during a recent episode of his podcast Soul Boom, using the platform to challenge what he sees as growing liberal bias and media disconnection from the public.

Wilson, 59, opened the conversation by questioning the media’s steep decline in credibility.

Referencing recent findings from an Electoral Commission survey showing that nearly half of young Americans now place more trust in social media over traditional news, Wilson asked Ruhle why public confidence in the press has eroded so dramatically.

Ruhle responded by trying to shift the focus toward prominent figures on the political right.

“Losing that trust is not an accident. It’s by design,” she said, squarely placing blame on former President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

“President Trump won, and tons of people were shocked or angry or frustrated, and they’re tuning out,” she ranted.

“And at the same time, you have the Elon Musk media machine, because they want you to leave traditional media, and they want you to go to X, which is a bastion of misinformation. There is no fact-checking.”

Wilson replied simply, “Right,” allowing Ruhle to continue.

“So it’s a perfect storm of people saying, ‘I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I’m tuning out, disconnecting,’ and then you have a force pushing it,” she said.

“But even in the last two weeks, what we need to do is just cover what is happening in America.”

Wilson didn’t let the narrative rest there. He quickly challenged her version of events, suggesting that the progressive tilt of the media and its unwillingness to critique the former administration also played a role in alienating viewers.

“This is where I would push back, when I see this kind of insight and passion being directed at the current administration and the lack of this kind of insight and passion being directed at the previous administration,” Wilson countered.

He then widened his criticism to include the broader media landscape like Ruhle’s network, MSNBC, and liberal counterparts CNN and ABC.

“Here again, I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about left-leaning news media organizations were kind of like, ‘La la la la, everything’s fine,’” he said, holding his hands over his ears.

“‘Look, the economy is great, la la la, immigration’s not that much of a problem,’ and really being Cleopatra, ‘queen of denial.’ Thank you. Boom!”

Though Wilson didn’t cite it by name, he appeared to allude to a Gallup poll from October that found almost 40 percent of Americans claim to have “no trust at all” in legacy news organizations.

Ruhle, undeterred, circled back to 2016 as a pivotal moment for public perception of the press. She recalled comments from former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.

“If you remember when President Trump was running the first time, Steve Bannon once said, ‘The goal is to blow the whole thing up,’” she said.

She claimed the undermining of traditional news was part of a deliberate strategy.

“I think that you’ve got mistakes made or things starting to slip, while at the same time there’s a concerted effort to destroy the media, because the media — the news media is, in my opinion, the last line of defense of holding power accountable. Right?”

Once again invoking Musk’s influence, Ruhle said that Trump’s election and Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, now X, formed a “perfect storm” that damaged public confidence in the media.

“They want you to go to X, which is a bastion of misinformation where there is no fact-checking,” she added.

“So, it’s a perfect storm of people saying, ‘I’m angry, I’m frustrated, I’m tuning out, I’m disconnecting.’ And then you have a force pushing it.”

As a fix, Ruhle suggested the media should just report “what is happening in America,” though she offered no further detail.

That prompted Wilson to return to the topic of media spin, particularly around immigration. He criticized what he views as dismissive coverage of major national issues.

Ruhle disagreed with the suggestion that the media had been ignoring immigration concerns.

“The media regularly talked about the fact that Biden was not doing enough in his first two and a half years on immigration, even though in the last year and a half you’re seeing the numbers go down,” she replied.

The internal culture at MSNBC was also highlighted in a separate interview with network host and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

During an episode of The Grill Room podcast, Psaki candidly described what MSNBC’s audience expects.

“We’re going to talk about what the opposing party is up to, in terms of Democrats, and we’re going to talk about future leaders and things,” she told host Dylan Byers.

“And, we’re also going to talk about Trump, and it’s typically not going to be positive.”

“I don’t think anybody watching expects it to be positive, right?” she added. “There is not like a North Star thing written on a card and everybody does it slightly differently… that’s fairly the vibe.”

Psaki also noted that she has not been instructed to balance coverage or bring in more conservative viewpoints.

“I have not experienced this like, ‘You have to move to the center, you have to have Republicans on, you have to be more moderate,’” she said.

“Every show kind of has a North Star but the vibe is, kind of, under the same umbrella,” she explained.

Meanwhile, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell praised Psaki’s tenure as White House press secretary under Joe Biden, contrasting her with her Trump-era counterparts.

“When Jen Psaki stepped up to the podium in the White House press briefing room for that very first time, I was watching and I knew very quickly that I was watching the best White House press secretary I had ever seen,” he said.

He criticized those who held the role under Trump, saying, “I knew I was watching the worst press secretaries in the history of that job, including the current holder of that job.”

O’Donnell defended Psaki even as reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicated that Biden’s team had been shielding him from public appearances and even from internal Cabinet contact as concerns about his health mounted.

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