WashPost Media Columnist: We Haven’t Obsessed Over 1/6 or Trump Enough

Since Donald Trump entered national politics, the notion of objectivity, balance, or fairness has been weakened. What’s dominant today is the media elite constantly encouraging each other that their product is never activist enough. 

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan was thumping the tub with a new vigor on Monday under the headline “If American democracy is going to survive, the media must make this crucial shift.” The crucial shift? Increased activism. Increased overt attention to readers and viewers, and more scaring. It was a loud shout from the roofs, she said.

“That American democracy It is Teetering cannot be denied. Jan. 6 is every day now, in the words of a recent New York Times Editorial,” she stated. She said that the media has stopped obsessing about Trump and 6/6. Really? Sullivan was forced to acknowledge that “To be certain, even the most studiously neutral news organizations are doing significant journalism on this subject.” 

— An AP editorial/news report on “slow motion insurrection” by the GOP. It was all the rage on cable news.

— NPR’s Morning Edition presented a seven-minute report on “the clear and present danger of Trump’s enduring ‘Big Lie.’ ”  She quoted professor Jay Rosen admiring there was “no dilution via ‘both sides.'”

— Chuck Todd — “who has deservedly drawn criticism in recent months for too often allowing GOP talking points to go unchallenged” — stepped up in a significant way to detail the “big lie” spread by Trump allies this past year to evoke the specter of a supposedly stolen presidential election.

— AtlanticMagazine — which “positions itself as centrist rather that left-leaning.”  Predicting “January 6” was practice. This feature was widely promoted in liberal cable “news.”

You are likely to think Bernie Sanders is a squish if you feel that any of these outlets “studiously neutral” and/or “centrist”. Sullivan claims to be “reality-based,” but she flunks in categorizing media outlets.

Biden may be president but these media outlets still love Trump 24/7. It isn’t “democracy” to hold the Democratic power in Washington responsible. Trump Menace, which is constantly decried by the public, defines democracy.

Sullivan was still upset despite the widespread anti-Trump coverage 

But, in general, this pro-democracy coverage is not being “centered” by the media writ large. It’s occasional, not regular; it doesn’t appear to be part of an overall editorial plan that fully recognizes just how much trouble we’re in.

This must change. It’s not merely that there needs to be Continue reading This work. Also, it must be unique. You should place more emphasis on the people fighting for democracy and voting rights.

Literally, she said that an occasional promotion feature on Stacey Abrams wasn’t enough. 

This new pro-democracy emphasis should be articulated clearly — and fearlessly — to readers and viewers. That could be in statements from editors or publishers, in advertising campaigns, or in other ways, declaring, in essence, “we are devoting more resources to this crucial subject because it is at the heart of our mission.”

That’s what you do, for example, by putting the slogan “Democracy Dying in Darkness” on the front cover of the newspaper and then selling T-shirts and oneies with the slogan. It hasn’t been. done? 

Jay Rosen and Sullivan have an awe-inspiring irony. We also recommendThey love one-sided activism and are pushing for “centering Democracy”. They delight in crushing this damaging idea of “both sides” reporting, as if….democracy has two sides.