Margaret Sullivan’s final column was written for The Sunday Times on Sunday. Washington PostUnsurprisingly, it was full of Trump obsession. Even the title of her swan song hinted at her obsession with Trump: My final column: 2024 and the dangers ahead.
Hmmm… “2024 and the dangers ahead?” Guess what or who she is referring too. If you are unsure, you can see the image of who-knows-what just beneath the article title.
After a recent announcement that I’ve decided to retire this column and leave The Washington Post, a Vanity Fair reporter asked me by email about the media’s performance in covering threats to democracy. That certainly was a fair question, since it’s been one of my most frequent subjects here.
You are correct, “threats against democracy,” as Donald Trump is known, has been your favorite TDS topic. In your second paragraph you describe your fear as the sum total of your worries:
I’m “encouraged one day, despairing the next,” I told her, adding that the next election cycle is going to be a real test for the reality-based press.
The rest of the article urges the press to completely ditch objectivity (Solidarity Journalism) when covering the “democracy-threatening” Trump.
Here’s the good news: The media has come a long, long way in figuring out how to cover the democracy-threatening ways of Donald Trump and his allies, including his stalwart helpers in right-wing media. It is now common to see headlines and stories that plainly refer to some politicians as “election deniers,” and journalists are far less hesitant to use the blunt and clarifying word “lie” to describe Trump’s false statements. That includes, of course, the former president’s near-constant campaign to claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged to prevent him from keeping the White House.
Hoorah for blatant bias!
Sullivan is able to take a little comfort knowing that ABC’s Jonathan Karl shares her extreme TDS.
I’m often reminded of the troubling questions raised by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl in multiple interviews late last year about what it would mean to cover Trump if and when he runs for president again. This was perhaps the biggest challenge American reporters face as political journalists.
“How do you cover a candidate who is effectively anti-democratic? How do you cover a candidate who is running both against whoever the Democratic candidate is but also running against the very democratic system that makes all of this possible?” wondered Karl, a former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Karl’s questions were difficult because he is known in the political media as an honest shooter.
Are you a straight shooter? TDS is only found in those who are infected.
Now we will return to Margaret’s appeals for assistance, as it seems she is mentally incapacitated to live with a 2024 outcome that was unthinkable.
The deeper question is whether news organizations can break free of their hidebound practices — the love of political conflict, the addiction to elections as a horse race — to address those concerns effectively.
They must, for the good of democracy.
They have to! They have to let go of all lingering fair coverage “hidebound” practices. They have to! …Help!
One thing is certain. News outlets can’t continue to do speech, rally and debate coverage — the heart of campaign reporting — in the same old way. They’ll need to be less reliant on live reporting, and more on consistent reporting that offers meaningful context.
Smearing is a term that means “Relentlessly provides meaningful context”.
So my prescription — and it’s only a start — is less live campaign coverage, more context and thoughtful framing, and more fearless straight talk from news leaders about what’s at stake and why politics coverage looks different. The latter could take many forms: editors’ notes on stories, columns written by news directors and posted prominently on websites, public appearances, and more.
Yes, allow a fully biased press tell you what your lying eyes saw at live Trump rallies.
It is my hope that newsroom managers will be rethinking their old ways as the presidential campaign draws near. It will be an unconventional contest and the stakes here are very high. It is up to us to do it correctly.
Another plea for Solidarity Journalism
Last, but not least, a personal note. As I wrap up a 42-year newspaper career, I’m deeply grateful to those of you who have read my Post columns over the past six years, and to those who have written or called me to offer constructive comments or suggestions. Yes, it’s possible to disagree or correct.
It has been one of the greatest privileges of my life to write for the legendary Washington Post — the very newspaper that inspired a teenage girl awed by its Watergate reporting to get into journalism in the first place.
Maggie, we knew you well.
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