skews13
Diamond Member
- Mar 18, 2017
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If anything has defined the 2024 election cycle, it's the disheartening failure of journalists across mass media. Some of that failure has come in the form of "sane washing" Donald Trump's statements to make it seem that his rallies and interviews contained coherent information. More often it's come through simple omission—though ignoring what Trump said when no level of editing could sift a rational thought from his nightly stream of gibberish.
Both are demonstrations of nothing more complicated than cowardice.
Maybe journalists are afraid of the threatening emails and phone calls they'll receive if they write truthfully about Trump's declining mental state. Maybe they're afraid Trump will shut them out of plum roles at the Ministry of Propaganda if he should regain control of the government. But they're definitely afraid.
In 2016, the Washington Post dug so deep into Hillary Clinton's campaign that they published the risotto recipe of one of her advisers along with texts asking his wife to pick up prescriptions from CVS — even though they knew Russian hackers had stolen those texts and released them in hopes of hurting Clinton's campaign.
But in 2024, the Post, along with The New York Times and Politico, opted out of publishing information taken from the Trump campaign, even though that information contained the campaign's inside analysis of vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance.
None of these organizations have any doubt about the veracity of the information, and while it may be coming to them from a disgruntled insider at the Trump campaign, it's not being sourced by a foreign government bent on ripping a hole in American democracy. But they've decided that the public has no interest in seeing what Trump & Co. are covering up when it comes to Vance. Everyone, please move along.
That's not a signal that these organizations have suddenly discovered that publishing stolen information is a Bad Thing. It's just one small part of a very big pattern.
Major media outlets are clearly acting from a deep well of fear. There is no other explanation.
But thankfully, not everyone is so cowed as the people who are supposed to be informing the nation. Trump ran into a few forthright souls on Wednesday night at a Univision town hall with Hispanic voters. Those voters did what the media seems terrified to do: Confront Trump with direct, serious, questions.
Both are demonstrations of nothing more complicated than cowardice.
Maybe journalists are afraid of the threatening emails and phone calls they'll receive if they write truthfully about Trump's declining mental state. Maybe they're afraid Trump will shut them out of plum roles at the Ministry of Propaganda if he should regain control of the government. But they're definitely afraid.
In 2016, the Washington Post dug so deep into Hillary Clinton's campaign that they published the risotto recipe of one of her advisers along with texts asking his wife to pick up prescriptions from CVS — even though they knew Russian hackers had stolen those texts and released them in hopes of hurting Clinton's campaign.
But in 2024, the Post, along with The New York Times and Politico, opted out of publishing information taken from the Trump campaign, even though that information contained the campaign's inside analysis of vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance.
None of these organizations have any doubt about the veracity of the information, and while it may be coming to them from a disgruntled insider at the Trump campaign, it's not being sourced by a foreign government bent on ripping a hole in American democracy. But they've decided that the public has no interest in seeing what Trump & Co. are covering up when it comes to Vance. Everyone, please move along.
That's not a signal that these organizations have suddenly discovered that publishing stolen information is a Bad Thing. It's just one small part of a very big pattern.
Major media outlets are clearly acting from a deep well of fear. There is no other explanation.
But thankfully, not everyone is so cowed as the people who are supposed to be informing the nation. Trump ran into a few forthright souls on Wednesday night at a Univision town hall with Hispanic voters. Those voters did what the media seems terrified to do: Confront Trump with direct, serious, questions.
On Univision, ordinary citizens stepped in for cowardly journalists
If anything has defined the 2024 election cycle, it's the disheartening failure of journalists across mass media. Some of that failure has come in the form of "sane washing" Donald Trump's statements to make it seem that his rallies and interviews...
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