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Just to make sure I've got this right...
On Monday, the RNC gave a prime speaking spot to the St. Louis couple that pulled guns on protesters walking past their house, going on about how important it is to be able to defend yourself, yadda yadda yadda
On Monday, the RNC gave a prime speaking spot to the St. Louis couple that pulled guns on protesters walking past their house, going on about how important it is to be able to defend yourself, yadda yadda yadda
(again, the protesters were walking *past* their house and weren't stopping until the couple came out with guns)
And then on Tuesday, a 17-year-old Trump superfan drives across state lines with a rifle to "protect" a burned out business, who then goes on a shooting spree.
And then on Wednesday, everyone on the right just falls in line to defend this little right-wing terrorist, with prominent voices in conservative media praising his actions/asking where they can donate to his defense fund/saying he should run for office...
Meanwhile, the press is sitting here churning out puff pieces about the TONE of the RNC.
Something is very wrong with the politics in this country, and VERY wrong with the press.
I don't want to hear a single word about "tone." "Tone" is not policy. "Tone" is not action. "Tone" is not governance. We've been hearing the same story over and over about what the public cares about and what they don't. "Oh, the public doesn't care about the Hatch Act."
"Oh, the public doesn't care about the corruption." "Oh, the public doesn't care about the specifics of policy."
But somehow they just *know* that the public *does* care about "tone?"
But somehow they just *know* that the public *does* care about "tone?"
Spare us the talk about "tone." Seriously. Stop covering the news like it's entertainment. For years, that's been my big push: stop covering politics the way you cover the Olympics or March Madness or any other sporting event.
And so often, I've just felt like I'm screaming into the void.
The news should not entertain you. The news should inform you. "Why not both!?" Because as soon as you start factoring in entertainment value, you start losing information value.
Do we benefit from pundits filling CNN panels where they shout back and forth? No.
Do we benefit from pundits filling CNN panels where they shout back and forth? No.
If you're trying to craft your website/newspaper/news broadcast around what people *want* to hear or what you *think* they care about, you're not putting information value above entertainment value, and we all suffer for it.
This morning, @MattGertz wrote a piece for @mmfa asking one simple thing of the press: Spare us your reviews of Trump's "tone" https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/tonight-spare-us-reviews-trumps-tone
There are 68 days left until the election. Producers, publishers, editorial directors, assignment editors, and anyone else with sway over your coverage, I beg of you: do better. Ignore ratings, don't base your coverage on what you think people "want," but what they need.
After 2016, there should have been a major reckoning over how the American press operates and what the overall objective and purpose of our media is.
But there wasn't. In fact, we got the opposite. Some of the worst examples of entertainment over information ...
But there wasn't. In fact, we got the opposite. Some of the worst examples of entertainment over information ...
... got promotions, fancy new job offers, and book deals. There were an abundance of stories centered around what people *think* is happening in government vs. what is *actually* happening. Just yesterday, a NYT reporter tweeted about how someone said they were probably going ...
... to vote for Trump because they believed in an unhinged conspiracy theory about whether Kamala Harris is eligible to be vice president (she is). The fact that people believe stuff like this, stuff that is just so completely and totally false, *is a failure* of the press.
How do people get so misinformed? Because as an institution, the press is failing pretty hard right now. It wasn't for hours that the NYT reporter who tweeted that out even bothered to add in a note saying that yes, she is eligible to be vice president.
That should have been in the very first tweet. But beyond that, why are uninformed opinions getting amplified in the first place? We've made politics a popularity contest about personalities instead of policies. That's not new. It doesn't have to be that way, though.
How will my life be affected by a Trump win? How will my life be affected by a Biden win? What will their policies do if enacted by Congress? What are the odds of Congress doing that?
Those are the questions we need answers to.
Those are the questions we need answers to.
Tell us about policy. Is it boring? Sure. Is it worse for ratings than having Rick Santorum and Van Jones shouting at each other? Yeah.
But is it better for democracy, for government, for our lives? Yes.
But is it better for democracy, for government, for our lives? Yes.
You have 68 days to tell us about the meaningful differences in policies between these two presidential candidates. 68 days.
I challenge the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, and every other major newspaper in the country to commit to a front page story with in-depth policy analysis every day from now until the election.
In short, I am asking you to do your jobs.
Pick a different subject each day. Health: here's what Biden's policy would do if enacted vs. Trump's (at the moment, Trump doesn't actually have a health care policy proposal aside from saying it'll be great). Environment: here's what Biden proposes vs. what Trump's done. etc.
To quote my favorite bit of news media satire, Network: "This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people."
It's my (perhaps unpopular) view that you should be bored to death by the news — but that the quality and resource it provides leads you to watch it anyway.
