2018

Fake news that turned out to be true news was the headline but  I strayed off topic to talk about main stream media’s epic fail.  From the day he announced  his candidacy for the Republican nomination main stream media (MSM) struggled with a way to cover him.   The extreme narcissism, amorality, lawsuits, affairs, corruption, illiteracy, dubious financial success, etc. were well known and a matter of public record.  His speeches were characterized by rambling answers to questions he wanted to be asked not the questions he was asked until the questioner couldn’t remember what he’d asked.  MSM settled on two approaches  (three if you include Fox News and alt-right outlets).  Let Trump have his head, no follow-ups, no fact-checking and no contradictions.  Just sit back and record the show.   Put lipstick on the pig.  Mute or paraphrase his worse answers and go to the well how ever many times to fetch him a bucketful of benefits of the doubt.  MSM had a duty to warn too but they ignored it.

And speaking of how our free press failed us in our hour of greatest need, the media should stop using the following: “seemingly”, “seem to say”, and “appeared/appears”. Equivocation and timidity by the media during the campaign is partly what got us here in the first place with a powerful assist from Putin. In other words, use more declarative statements and fewer qualifying ones. Also journalists should circle back and persist in reporting on the long standing issues: Trump’s refusal to release his tax return; emolument; voter suppression; Trump’s weaponizing of the government apparatus to punish his critics; and how little if any dollars the State Department has spent of the $120M allocated to it to protect November’s election . And I am dumbfounded as to why journalists don’t ask follow up questions that point out the inconsistencies in a statement at the time instead of writing about the contradiction days later. Trump is still in office because he tells bold lies. Now is not the time for timidity in telling the truth.

Trump makes another call to end the Mueller probe. If he could have he would have fired Mueller but considering that firing Comey led to the Mueller probe in the first place, he tried repeatedly to delegitimize it.  More on how the main stream media failed us when we needed it most.

I am glad you said “falsely claimed” instead of “appeared to falsely claim” or “seemed to falsely claim”. Equivocation and obfuscation by journalists in the face of such blatant lies does not serve the nation or your readers well. They create unnecessary doubt when the facts show there is none. Had the media been less timid during the campaign the outcome could well have been different in spite of Russia’s interference.