Read on Twitter
Here is how the Los Angeles Times put it on July 14: “We shouldn’t rise to his bait, but how can we not? If we ignore him, we normalize his reckless behavior, and that’s even worse.” https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-trump-aoc-squad-ilhan-bigoted-tweets-20190714-story.html
Welcome to my new THREAD, where I try to solve this problem. 1/
Welcome to my new THREAD, where I try to solve this problem. 1/
Here it is again in an observation by journalist @juliaioffe on July 18. https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1151868566087622656 2/
On the Last Word with @Lawrence O'Donnell, July 16, @ezraklein of Vox felt a similar exasperation: "I don't know that it's strategy, but it's certainly at this point intuition, that if he loses control of the conversation, he can always say something outrageous... 3/
"... something offensive and then it is at least back along the divisive lines that he prefers arguing around. Again, the point is not that it is a strategy or even that it is wise, but he has figured out that there is this hack of just acting outrageously and offensively." 4/
All of them — the LA Times editors, Julia Ioffe, Ezra Klein on @Lawrence — are pointing to a problem with a common piece of advice given to journalists about how to cover Trump. The advice is: don't take the bait!
Have you not said that to our press? I know I have. 5/
Have you not said that to our press? I know I have. 5/
Don't let him control the news agenda — and don't let him change the subject — with methods that should be familiar by now: outrageous stunts, offensive remarks and reckless, tradition-busting behavior. He's like a toddler who wants attention. Ignore him! ...says this advice. 6/
The problem with "ignore him!" is that when it's the President of the United States indulging in it, behavior we might recognize as infantile and attention-getting can have huge effects beyond the manipulation of our domestic news cycle. 7/
Journalists cannot ignore his acting out when it may have geopolitical consequences, or trigger suffering in real people, even when they know that Trump's latest outrage may be a ploy for news coverage, and the ploy may be part of an attention cycle in which they are caught. 8/
This problem is real, not just a matter of spine. If the President decides it's okay to say to some of his fellow Americans go back where you came from, or to advise elected members of Congress to leave the country if they have complaints about it... 9/
...by what defensible code can journalists decline to share with their publics these surprising, disturbing, and consequential facts ("if you don't like it here, leave!") even IF they believe them to be a ploy for media attention or meant to keep his base in a pop-eyed state. 10/
There is no such code. They have to report it, because with the American executive it is often true that words are actions. If journalists took the advice never to take the bait they would often be taking a holiday from their most basic responsibility: to say what happened. 11/
But that is not the end of the story. We can do better than the mournful ask of the LA Times: “We shouldn’t rise to his bait, but how can we not? If we ignore him, we normalize his reckless behavior."
Take the bait or normalize Trump: these are NOT the only choices. Read on! 12/
Take the bait or normalize Trump: these are NOT the only choices. Read on! 12/
Here are some options I think national newsrooms have:
One is to suspend normal relations with the Trump government, a step I have written about before. http://pressthink.org/2018/06/its-time-for-the-press-to-suspend-normal-relations-with-the-trump-presidency/ Each newsroom has to start asking: what "game" do we stop participating in with this government? 13/
One is to suspend normal relations with the Trump government, a step I have written about before. http://pressthink.org/2018/06/its-time-for-the-press-to-suspend-normal-relations-with-the-trump-presidency/ Each newsroom has to start asking: what "game" do we stop participating in with this government? 13/
For CNN, never going live to a Trump campaign event — on the grounds that you will inevitably broadcast falsehoods if you do so — would be a plausible start. Again, take the bait or normalize the toddler are not the only choices. Suspend normal relations is a further choice. 14/
If you don't want to take the bait, but you feel you cannot ignore — and by ignoring accept — his behavior, then a distinction worth making is between coverage in which Trump is the protagonist, and coverage where his actions are reported, but he is not the main character. 15/
I bring to your attention this reply from Antonia Hylton, a producer and correspondent at Vice News. https://twitter.com/ahylton26/status/1151112204546191362 16/
The Truth Sandwich is third on my list of choices newsrooms have beyond 'take the bait' or 'ignore the toddler.' First you say what is. Only then do you report his latest falsehood. Then you repeat what is actually the case. That is the truth sandwich. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/instead-of-trumps-propaganda-how-about-a-nice-truth-sandwich/2018/06/15/80df8c36-70af-11e8-bf86-a2351b5ece99_story.html 17/
Number four on my list of choices newsrooms have beyond 'take the bait' or 'ignore the toddler' is to recognize that sometimes the news he made today is meant only to bring opacity to news he made yesterday. https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1152223575031635968 That is gaslighting. It should be resisted. 18/
People knew what the Spotlight team was for at Boston Globe, and sent things to it. They will learn what the Gaslight Desk is for and refer things to it. Imagine editors telling front line reporting teams not to bother with Trump's latest because Gaslight would be handling. 19/
Fifth on my list of choices beyond 'take the bait' or 'ignore the toddler' is to anchor 2020 coverage in a transparent and public agenda that derives from a creative act of listening. http://pressthink.org/2019/06/key-steps-in-the-citizens-agenda-style-of-campaign-coverage/ You have to know what your community wants the campaign to be about. 20/
Newsrooms of America: You cannot keep from getting sucked into Trump’s agenda without a firm grasp on your own. But where does that agenda come from? It can’t come from the journalists. Who cares what they think? It has to originate with the voters you are trying to inform. 21/
Summarizing my tips for the American press: Suspend normal relations with the Trump regime. Try it this way: his actions are reported, but he is not the main character. Move the Truth Sandwich up on your menu. Open a Gaslight Desk. Anchor your journalism in a citizens agenda. 22/
We know it's coming: more outrageous stunts and offensive remarks. More reckless, otherizing behavior. All of it fully newsworthy by pre-Trump standards. But are those the right standards, now that we have seen repeated "this hack of just acting outrageously and offensively?" 23/
No, you shouldn't rise to his bait. But that doesn't mean you can ignore him, either. Journalists need more agile and creative options beyond these two. That is what this thread has been about. Thanks for following it to the end. 24/
