The Full Donald Trump Was Allowed to Run Loose
Clearly, all of us except Donald Trump are having trouble separating Donald Trump the presidential candidate from Donald Trump the villain – and perhaps criminal, depending on the outcome of pending prosecutorial actions – of a host of offenses against persons. Institutions, and the country itself.
That conundrum is leaving most of the nation’s news media in a twist over exactly how to handle someone who is not a “normal” candidate worth equal time and the overly respectful deference he seeks.
All that was made obvious by CNN’s decision to let the full Donald Trump loose under its aegis for what turned into a 90-minute virtual campaign stop marked by constant inaccuracies, denials of reality, and repetitious self-boasting before an adoring crowd of “town hall” voters who were unquestioning supporters.
From a political perspective, Trump may have reassured his MAGA base and the Republican primary crowd that he seeks to draw now that he is unchanged by events or even by indictments and a jury finding that he is a sexual aggressor. He also likely guaranteed that he will persuade absolutely no new voters not already in his column that he is capable of looking forward rather than backward to lead this country rather than to use his position to wage a constant war of revenge on anyone who deigns to challenge him.
As a result, we’re seeing another round of media navel gazing underway about what CNN should have done, and, indeed, what all of us should do to consider Trump’s candidacy in a year in which truth, history, reality itself finds itself increasingly at risk. You don’t have to disagree with choosing Trump to recognize that this is a guy who cannot take in information that does not serve his personal glory, whether a jury verdict, the horrors of Jan. 6 violence or the idea that the Presidential Records Act does the very opposite of what he thinks it allows about holding government documents, including those with classified markings.
Denying Reality
What do we – we the voters or we the media — do about a candidate who cannot accept daily reality?
How can we assume that a mind unable to state what is happening can be seen as capable of conducting the nation’s business? How can we conclude that this is someone who knows wrong from right, or who can distinguish what is a reliable basis on which to set government policy for anything other than specific personal gain?
Even if you believe that all politicians lie and spin, Trump is a special case. He denies reality, from who is legitimately in the White House to the outcome of court cases to rules that seek to restrain.
And if that is the conclusion – despite voter preferences for this man as a national leader – how are journalists, news organizations and networks who are pledged to pursue the craft of reflecting the daily reality – complete with its conflicts – supposed to treat this guy? After all, a decision not to explore what Trump may have to say about a new term as president will certainly feed a political interpretation that the network is slanted against presenting his point of view.
The 24-hour cable television commitment has created its own problems by filling the time with open opinion rather than journalistically sound material. “Live” coverage is regularly overrated because it dwells on a photo op created exactly for cameras that don’t capture the full picture and on-air personalities so tied to giving updates that they have no time to do any reporting. A live “town hall” cedes much of the rigor of the journalist altogether.
Despite the recent court disclosures about network fact-bending for profit, we all recognize, and even apparently accept, that the “fair and balanced” coverage on Fox has leaned way right while MSNBC unduly reflects voices from the political Left. Under new management seeking ratings and profits, CNN wanted to fight the perception that it too was unfriendly to voices from the right, and so leaned far to justify giving Trump essentially a lengthy, free campaign ad towards an effort to re-establish its reputation as politically centrist.
Instead, the blowback pretty well establishes that CNN got none of the above. Instead, it is being seen as having had its pockets picked by Trump partisans. As CNN on-air figures acknowledged, the Trump lies in this town hall presentation were so numerous and frequent that any attempt at instant fact-checking was a finger in a flooding dike.
All-Important Context
The middle-ground, rational answer in all this is for less live coverage and more context.
Many years ago, I tried doing radio interviews, and basically hated it, exactly because the q-and-a was the product rather than the written article I favored as a chance to order the information, to provide a background phrase or sentence, or to put the comment in context.
Somehow, we have persuaded ourselves that personal witness, even if inaccurate, is better than hearing an appropriate summary. So, our newscasts are filled with reporters about hurricanes standing in the middle of what looks like a flooded street or a reporter who has not yet had a chance to read a court opinion trying to summarize it while smoothing down hair while racing to the nearest camera.
Our politics deserve better than a live town hall before party-selected fans who won’t ask a difficult question. The job of governing requires more than a personal off-the-hip opinion, and even if you want to see politics as a game of some sort, the object is to persuade voters or even opponents of the correctness of your point of view. It’s not about revenge for perceived hurts.
The most generous reviews of Trump’s use of the CNN town hall were those that simply said there was nothing new here, that for the most part, Trump had reiterated the election denial tropes, the promises to pardon most Jan. 6 rioters for their participation on “that beautiful day,” and the unchallenged statements that only he could fix the Russian-Ukraine war, among other expressions of self-congratulation.
In other words, other than suggesting that Republican congressmen should force the United States into financial crisis over the debt ceiling showdown, there really was little new to hear from The Former Guy.
If CNN wants better journalistic credentials, do better journalistic work, and not kowtow to a would-be monarch. We already had a coronation this week.
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