To emphasize that the media doesn’t decide elections, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh released the photo below. Needless to say, like all the other lies emanating from the Trump camp, it’s a fake. The Washington Times never ran such a headline. (Why would it? The Washington Times is a rabidly rightwing newspaper that acts as a propaganda platform for the GOP and rightwing causes.)
It’s true, as Murtaugh and other Republicans are bleating, that the media doesn’t pick winners. The voters do, and media only report news. But that begs the issue. Election results are news.
Biden won’t become the actual president-elect until the electoral votes are cast and counted, but it’s reasonable for the media to call an election when the outcome is clear. This election wasn’t close. Biden has electoral votes to spare, and Trump would have to overturn the results in at least three states. He doesn’t have a plausible chance of doing that in any state.
Recounts typically change results by only a few hundred votes. No states are anywhere near that close. To overturn the results in court, he has to prove — not merely allege — fraud. No evidence supports his fraud claims. Some Republicans have talked about legislatures choosing the electors, but that would violate federal law, and there are other obstacles in the way (such as Democratic governors in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the Democratic-controlled House, which would refuse to accept those slates). And Trump isn’t going to find 37 “faithless” electors in states without laws to replace such electors.
It’s over. The media weren’t wrong to call it. The purpose of these and similar shenanigans is raise false hopes in order to extract money from gullible Trump supporters which will be used, not to challenge the election results, but to pay off the campaign’s debts (read that story here).