The American news media, as an institution, has mostly failed to rise to the challenge of the Age of Trump – even after more than 8 years of experience. But, there are some bold and brave voices who stand out for their truth-telling and role-modeling of pro-democracy journalism and how their peers in the media should be responding to the crisis.
For example, in an excellent critical review and essay at The Philadelphia Inquirer about Alex Garland’s new film “Civil War,” Will Bunch highlights how its main characters are emblematic of the failures of the American news media:
The zeitgeist underlying Civil War reminded me of how the five leading TV news networks recently put aside their competitive rivalries to write a rare open letter that revealed the one thing newsroom leaders care passionately about: begging Trump and President Joe Biden to stage televised debates in the fall. That’s because even with Garland’s vision of dystopia too close for comfort, TV bosses still only care about ratings and a showcase for “both sides,” even when one side is a lying, three-term-president-in-waiting. Like Civil War’s Joel, they just want to get that quote, nothing more.
While the major news outlets continue to obsess on “both-sidesing” a five-alarm fire for the American Experiment, aided by reporters seeking to find “the fun” in politics even when our politics feel like 1861, there are some folks who do get it.
In a much-discussed new essay in his newsletter, Chris Quinn, Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, declared his unapologetic and unqualified commitment to pro-democracy journalism and the truth, an approach that does not engage in false equivalency or fake balance between Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. In a subsequent interview with Dan Froomkin at his site Press Watch, Quinn elaborated on why he is not afraid to make the historically accurate comparison between the MAGA movement and the rise of Nazism and the Third Reich:
But you know, I spent most of my life wondering how a country could go down the path Germany went down. It just seemed unfathomable growing up when I did that a country could do that. And then came Donald Trump. And you realize: “Wow! That’s exactly how it happens.”
You demonize the media. You create these phony divisions. You dehumanize groups of people. With Donald Trump it’s not Jewish people, it’s immigrants. He’s basically treating them like they’re nonhuman. We’re following the exact path. And I think a lot of people see that but they’re afraid to say it because they don’t want to be vilified for using the suffering of millions of people to push a cause.
But the reaction I got to that was a whole lot of people that said: “I’m so grateful you’re doing this. I’ve long studied what happened in Germany. That’s exactly what’s happening now.” We are on the edge. If he gets elected, he’s not even being secretive about what he wants to do. I don’t think we can draw those parallels enough, because I think right now in America we are on that edge. And a whole lot of people seem to agree.
Quinn offered these insights into why his fellow editors and other senior decision-makers all too often default to obsolete norms of “bothsideism” and so-called balance when covering Trump’s dangerous and aberrant behavior – behavior that is without equal in American history: “I think they’re afraid of that pushback. I think that the same reason that you’ll see a half dozen stories about Joe Biden’s mental state in the Washington Post and New York Times is it bleeds in, and they’re not setting their own agenda. I wish they would.”
His advice for other editors: “I think the false equivalence has got to go, because that’s not what this is anymore.”
I have been publicly chronicling the Age of Trump on an almost daily basis since 2015. I was also one of the first public voices to warn about Trump’s likely victory in 2016. For months, I also tried to desperately warn the American public about the increasing likelihood that Trump would attempt a coup instead of leaving office after his defeat in the 2020 election. I too have some hard-earned insights and suggestions about the American mainstream news media in the Age of Trump – and beyond — that I have been meditating on for some time.
We must use accurate and direct language to describe the democracy crisis, its historical antecedents and origins, global connections, and what may happen next based on the evidence. To fail to do so is to aid and abet right-wing authoritarianism and other enemies of real “we the people” democracy.
The American news media needs to dedicate itself to pro-democracy journalism not out of idealism but out of self-interest and self-preservation.
We should not assume that “everyone knows” that Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and other right-wing malign actors are an existential threat to American democracy, freedom, and society. Most Americans are disengaged, uninterested, ignorant, largely uninvolved, with and unsophisticated in their knowledge of politics and current events. Thus the demand to repeatedly, with examples and explanations, show and demonstrate what Trump and his forces believe and plan to do if they take power.
The Fourth Estate are supposed to be the guardians of democracy. This responsibility is even greater in the Age of Trump. Reporters, journalists, and others with a public platform must proceed from a position of moral clarity, a commitment to the truth, and not be afraid to take a stand on questions of right and wrong. We should seek out real experts and quote them, interview them in long-form, and more generally provide them with a platform.
Don’t forget the basics and common sense and what should be standing order number one for reporters and journalists: “If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out of the window and find out which is true.” To reiterate what New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen has so wisely commanded, it is the stakes not the horserace. We must consistently tell the public why this all matters.
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the ability to follow through, persist, and succeed in the face of fear. The Age of Trump and what it has wrought and unleashed upon the country and world are very frightening, if not terrifying.
Donald Trump and the other American neofascists have repeatedly called reporters, journalists, and the news media as a whole (if they are not sufficiently compliant and quislings) “enemies of the people” (Hitler and the Nazis used the slur “lugenpresse”). The American news media needs to dedicate itself to pro-democracy journalism not out of idealism but out of self-interest and self-preservation.
Journalist Masha Gessen wisely told us to “Believe the autocrat….The best predictors of autocrats’ and aspiring autocrats’ behavior are their own public statements because these statements brought them to power in the first place.” America’s mainstream news media needs to stop seeking alternate explanations for Trump’s words and those of his propagandists, allies, and followers. There is little there to be translated. The ugliness is raw, plain and in its own foul way, refreshingly honest.
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