When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, it quickly became clear that much of the media was not up to the challenge of reporting on a candidate who openly lied, espoused racist ideologies, boasted about sexual assault, and encouraged his supporters to engage in a toxic vision for America by exploiting their fears and insecurities.
Part of the problem was that coverage of Trump was a ratings boon for the struggling news industry — with the “Trump Bump” Record numbers of viewers and readers are sent to newspapers, online publications and TV shows. It was exhilarating for the industry. News channels were notoriously intrigued by Trump’s roadshow air empty podiums while they waited for his arrival, instead of listening live to his opponent Hillary Clinton, who gave a speech about her plans to increase the incomes of working families. Newspaper journalists spent countless hours on it at Red State Diners They seek to probe the psyche of Trump voters as if they were unknowable secrets rather than people who regularly articulate exactly who they are and what they stand for.
Still, the American media establishment was surprised by Trump’s victory in 2016 and grossly underestimated his ability to implement his far-right agenda as president. While he was in the White House, many in the press resorted to euphemisms and false equivalences, such as Perry Bacon Jr. recently wrote in the Washington Post: They “downplayed Trump’s radicalism in order to appear neutral and objective, to gain access to Trump and his top aides, or to appeal to Republican officials and consumers.” And even now, they continue to court Trump’s favor and disseminate the rhetoric ” both sides” – as if there were more than one side of the bigotry.
After Trump lost the 2020 election, fomented a riot and, to this day, peddled the “big lie” that he had been stripped of a second term as president, I had dared hope the media had learned their lesson about keeping Trump in the to cover election campaigns.
In these early days of the 2024 election cycle, however, it seems like nothing has been learned at all.
Trump looked tired as he took to the New Hampshire stage for the CNN town hall event on Wednesday, visible in all his 76 years. The day before a federal jury held him liable for sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and subsequent defamation. Still, CNN chose to continue the televised event, hosted by This morning Host and chief correspondent Kaitlan Collins addressed an audience of Republicans and independents inclined to vote for him – an odd choice at best.
From the first moment to the abrupt end, Trump was exactly who he had long revealed himself to be.
The candidate was bombastic, arrogant and rude. He lied over and over again. As Collins, who seemed well-prepared and well-versed on all political issues, corrected his lies in real time, he spoke about them, grinning as he explained that his distorted version of the truth was the last word in all electoral fraud involving the Jan. 6-riot insurrection debt ceiling. He continued to vilify Carroll (who now says it is her). consider suing him again). And right up to the final minutes of the town hall meeting, Collins looked helpless in the face of the former president’s performance – just as he and his camp wanted.
At times, Trump seemed like a maniac babbling incoherent nonsense. At the appropriate moments, he threw out the words that were sure to drive his base up the wall. Radical. Border. Patriot. bad person. He rarely replied to the question asked, instead using each one as an invitation to further discuss what he wanted. The audience applauded and laughed and applauded and laughed. That was perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the prime time television event watched by viewers 3.3 million people.
But the morning after that debacle was perhaps even more disappointing, as CNN chairman Chris Licht congratulated Collins on “a masterful performance” and himself on his bravery in broadcasting. “I wholeheartedly believe that what we did last night has served America very well,” he said in the station’s morning interview. He continued, “Kaitlan kept pressuring him and making headlines, lots of headlines.”
To be clear, media organizations are, for the most part, corporations. Struggling in the midst of a downward spiral, they make it harder to break away from a spectacle that gets them large audiences, even if the spectacle is destructive, anti-democratic, and criminal. Any competing network of CNN would probably have jumped at the opportunity to air City Hall. However, I would like to think that they would have done so with a little more integrity.
Most media outlets employ great journalists who know how to confront liars and criminals—several of them did this at CNN, criticize their own employers. But these people doing the right thing and holding power to account can’t keep up with the spectacle. Trump and people like him know this, which is why they rarely face the press without bringing their own circus to town.
This town hall will hold people’s attention until we move on to the next garish spectacle. But there are far more important issues for us to discuss: that Trump remains the front runner, representing his party by a wide margin; that despite what has happened, the GOP thinks he’s a viable candidate; that his base remains relentlessly loyal to him. These are real problems. Given all of this, the fact that CNN provided him with a prime-time platform for monologues about lies and misinformation, thereby lending legitimacy to his ideological stances, is a real problem.
In the post-Town Hall discourse cycle, some pundits have raised the specter ideological silos– Reminds those who criticize Wednesday’s farce that we shouldn’t just surround ourselves with people who reflect our values and beliefs. But those of us who find Trump abhorrent do not live in a silo. We absolutely see and understand that half the country agrees with who Trump is and what he stands for.
Bigotry isn’t just another opinion we should expose ourselves to. It is not an intellectual exercise or a useful contribution to a variety of viewpoints. It is an evil that must be eradicated. It must be identified as unacceptable as often as necessary. And the oxygen of the media should be denied. Freedom of expression does not guarantee unrestricted access to media coverage.
Journalists keep saying they just don’t know how to report on Trump, that it’s impossible to report on him. But he’s just impossible to cover Because He’s getting an inordinate amount of media attention that he so desperately craves. It’s impossible to cover for him because he does what he wants and no one really challenges him. It’s impossible to represent him because we continue to let him dictate the terms of the engagement.
It’s time to stop. If journalism is truly about the truth, giving free airtime to the prime minister of mendacity is nothing new. Trump has been found guilty of felonies and faces several more criminal investigations. He despises democracy and openly advocates autocracy.
There should be standards for people who want to run America. Donald Trump does not meet these standards in any way. We should stop using euphemisms when it comes to his words and actions. We should stop pretending that what he has to say is automatically newsworthy just because he is the front runner. If he refuses to speak truthfully or acknowledge election results, we should just break off the interview and walk away. Enough is enough; There’s too much at stake. At all costs, we should protect the many vulnerable populations who will be less safe in a second Trump presidency. No matter what we believe or what party we belong to, we should wish for something better for this country, for our communities, and for the world of which we are a part.
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