If Only the American Press Would Do This…

abuse of power, current events, democracy, election, Joe Biden, mainstream media, Political wrongdoing 4 Minutes

I hope you’ll watch this succinct BBC report on Donald Trump and his plans. I don’t know why the American press has such a problem creating this type of video.

In the latest spinoff of the Big Lie, which may well be number 11,756,293–give or take a few–of the childishly malevolent “I’m rubber, you’re glue” variations, the narcissistic would-be American dictator has been telling his hapless followers, in essence:

“Forget that silly stuff you heard me say about being a dictator on Day One [which is scaring some Republican women, apparently]. I’m not the one who’ll be a dictator; it’s Biden who plans to be a dictator. And yeah, forget all that stuff about Sleepy Joe and his dementia; he’s really a very crafty guy who’s got it all figured out.”

(Full disclosure: I haven’t yet heard Trump say these words, but they seem to fit his previous patterns.)

As you know, I’m often infuriated by the American media’s ongoing “bothsidesism”/false equivalencies, as well as their giving short shrift to Biden and his accomplishments.

I felt The New York Times did it again in their Sunday print edition.

The page one article, placed prominently near the upper right corner, is titled “Grim Feelings Saturate Iowa Ahead of Vote.” The subhed is “Bipartisan Dread of a Nation in Turmoil.”

I’ll acknowledge that Americans are gloomy these days, though I wonder how much less gloomy they might be if we hadn’t been experiencing the Trumpian, et al, Big Lie(s) and assaults on all our institutions for several years now.

And I understand that news media focus on the negative because such stories sell.

Even so, this article struck me as Exhibit A of my ongoing concerns about the press.

The first four paragraphs focus on what the reporter, Lisa Lerer, terms “existential dread about the very foundations of the American experiment.”

Then we get to the first paragraph that raised my hackles.

“Donald J. Trump, the dominant front runner in the Republican primary race, bounces from courtroom to campaign trail, lacing his rhetoric with ominous threats of retribution and suggestions of dictatorial tendencies. President Biden condemns political violence and argues that if he loses, democracy itself could falter.”

It seems to me that in framing this article about doom and gloom, that paragraph linking both men suggests shared responsibility. And after dramatically discussing Trump, her use of the word “argues,” reduces Biden’s stirring warning to just so much mealy-mouthed campaign rhetoric. Did she not watch his strong, urgent speech at Valley Forge so recently?

Other examples:

She cites a Kentucky chemical engineer who happened to be in Iowa, “was hardly the image of a radical” but said: “There’s civil war coming–I’m convinced of it.” He’s so concerned that he’s thinking of going to Brazil for election week.

How does the reporter respond to that?

“The fear Mr. Binns and other voters express is bipartisan, though each side blames the other for causing it.”

Though she then provides an accurate account of Trump’s campaign of lies, she prefaces it by saying “Democrats worry that a second Trump administration could plunge the country into chaos, trample constitutional rights and destroy the legitimacy of elections.”

There are plenty of independent and Republican voters who share these concerns but gain no recognition in this piece.

She writes that

“the fears come despite what on paper looks like national stability. Inflation has fallen, unemployment has returned to a prepandemic level, and layoffs remain near record lows. The Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates several times in the coming year.”

Does Biden get credit for any of this?

“The incumbent president and his Republican challengers do also speak optimistically about the future. Mr. Biden promotes the economic progress under his administration. Ms. Haley promises to cut federal spending, expand mental health services and rebuild America’s image abroad. And Mr. DeSantis says he will cut taxes, curb illegal immigration and crack down on China.”

There are so many little outrages in this single paragraph of so-called optimism “about the future” that I’m inserting it here with utter bewilderment.

And then…

She points out, legitimately, that many voters are unhappy about both Trump and Biden as candidates. Then she forgets about both sidesism and–with the last four paragraphs– zeroes in on an Iowa photographer named Terry Snyder who “said she was more worried about the results of this election than any other in her lifetime.”

Snyder supports Nikki Haley but doesn’t think Haley can win the nomination. She rejects Trump because “he’s a dictator. And I don’t like that aspect.”

But she’s equally concerned about Biden–and not because of his age.

The final paragraph:

“Her three grandchildren are now teenagers, and if Mr. Biden is re-elected, she said, she worries about their future and a liberal culture that she fears would police what they could say. ‘I’m afraid they are going to have so many of their rights taken away that we have always enjoyed,’ she said.”

And so ends the newspaper of record’s lengthy story about the American electorate.

I can’t help wondering whether the BBC would have reported such a story, and if so, how they would have handled it. I’m guessing there would have been a lot more context and evidence of follow-up questions to interviewees.

Please take the seven-plus minutes to watch and listen to the BBC video-–and share it as widely as you can. I think it’s an excellent summation and a fine educational tool for potential voters who haven’t been paying much attention to the news.

Annie

Published by annieasksyou

I've been a nonfiction writer for many years, exploring diverse topics that pique my curiosity, as noted in my first blog posting (Greetings!). I'm seeking dialogue with others committed to joining me in this exploration, sharing my conviction that different views can be exchanged in a respectful, civil discourse where we can learn from one another and be agreeable, even when we disagree. These postings depend for their enrichment on your participation: your ideas, insights, knowledge, opinions, and personal stories.

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34 thoughts on “If Only the American Press Would Do This…”

  3. My wife and I had the same reaction to those stories and the bothsiderisms that were on full display, and were full-on GRRRR in response. Terrific BBC video, and yes, why can’t a US media company do this? Why, because they fear that they’d have backlash that they’re taking sides. Cheers

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    1. Thanks, Michael. I appreciate the affirming views. As to why a US media company can’t do this, I think it’s a combination of economics and an inability to adapt to reporting in a world of “virtual facts”—downright lies. Only recently have I noticed the Times coverage using the word “lies” or referring to Marjorie Taylor Greene as “far right” rather than conservative. At least the editorial board has been hard-hitting recently in warning against Trump.

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  4. I share your frustration, Annie! The lazy American media does tremendous damage each and every day to the public’s ability to think critically, understand complex issues and sift through massive amounts of misinformation.

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  5. I think we got lucky once again. There are plenty of competent criminals. Never underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. It is often hard to gage the severity of the storm while you are in it. DJT revealed the depth of fascist rot infecting the political community. He did not create it. A couple of years ago a doctor asked me why I was not dead based on laboratory results. I felt a bit under the weather. Sometimes we don’t know we are sick. The lucky ones find out BEFORE it is to late.

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    1. I’ve been interested to read a number of reports about the Iowa caucus results that push back on the claims of Trump’s “historic” win and point out all the weaknesses it showed in his candidacy, eg: 49% of the most ardent Republicans voted against him. It will take us a while, but we WILL get beyond both Trump and Trumpism.

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  6. I overlooked Lisa Lerer’s article in “The New York Times” on Sunday; I found much more of interest in the paper. I read your critique before going back to it. That article struck me as fair. Worries about the future, reasonable or not, evidently are the story of this year’s Iowa Republican Caucuses. I noticed that Lisa Lerer did label some political claims as lies.

    There is another article in that paper Nation’s First Voters Weigh Trump’s Gravitational Pull by Jennifer Medina, with two pages of mostly bizarre opinions. I find that one more provocative–it highlights only far-out Republican views.

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    1. I’m not surprised by your response, William; in fact, I expected it. I did mention Lerer’s pointing out lies. And just quoting some reputable sources does not, to my mind, make her piece “fair.” I found the closing quite bizarre based on reality.

      What did you think of the BBC video?

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    3. The problem is, Sheree, 90% of Republican voters believe the 95% that no one should believe. They take Trump’s words as gospel without using their power of reasoning or fact-checking anything he says. Most Americans use good judgement — by most I mean at least 51%. I don’t expect Trump to ever be elected again, but it seems all his voters show up for elections he is running in. If sane, reasonable Americans do not get out to vote, they could lose whatever majority they have.
      I for one do not want to see Trump get power of any kind ever again. That scares the hell out of me. I hope fear for the future gets all American voters out to the polls. You might need it.

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      1. It’s up to us US voters, rawgod. A number of commentators have pointed out that Trump’s win in Iowa was “underwhelming.” He got only 51% of Republicans in a low turnout caucus. There’s a believable poll that a substantial minority of voters don’t believe he’ll be the Republican nominee. They’re wrong, but that poll suggests when people are faced with the reality, they won’t support him.

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  8. Had the same reaction when reading what I thought might be an interesting take on whether or not Trump should be prevented from running. The Op-Ed was written by someone named Angie Wong, co-host of a show called “The Final Countdown.” Her Op-Ed was quite unconvincing, and was less a compelling opinion than rehashed Republican talking points. I looked her up, disturbed that a newspaper considered her Op-Ed worth newsprint, and found out that The Final Countdown is actually being produced by Sputnik News, an international news channel out of Moscow, in Russia, that airs on FM radio in the Washington, DC area, and also on the internet, where it seems to have a fairly pro-Russian bias. I wrote to the editor of the local paper to protest, but it turns out she is syndicated. It pays to investigate one’s news sources, but I wonder sometimes how many English teachers take the time to teach their students to do so, the way mine did.

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    1. Thank you very much for this comment, and for doing your research, a bayliss. This is deeply worrisome, and it is an extreme example of a dangerous trend. As local news sources are folding nationwide, their absence is being filled by some unsavory far-right sources. I suspect there are many more foreign influences such as this one trying to persuade Americans at the grassroots.

      Would it be all right with you if I use your above comment as a jumping off point for a blog post on this topic?

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  9. Pingback: Freedom of the Press Run Amok? | Filosofa's Word

    1. It certainly is, Matthew. The infuriating part is that so much of the press seems to have learned little or nothing from their coverage of Trump in 2016 and 2020. I look for signs that they understand their very existence could well be jeopardized if there’s a Trump 2.0 administration.

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  11. E.B. White wrote in 1956 in “Bedfellows,” that President Truman complained in 1948 that the “Republican-controlled press and radio” was biased against him, but it reported his speeches and their editorials and commentaries. White says: Millions of studious, worried Americans read and heard what he said; they checked it against the editorials; then they walked silently into the voting booths and returned him to office.

    White continued: The beauty of the American free press is that the slants and the twists and the distortions come from so many directions, and the special interests are so numerous, that the reader must sift and sort and check and countercheck in order to find out what the score is. This he does. /em>

    I think this year the voters will sift and sort and reach a conclusion; they sometimes make a mistake, but are unlikely to make the same mistake twice.

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  12. E.B. White wrote in 1956 in “Bedfellows,” that President Truman complained in 1948 that the “Republican-controlled press and radio” was biased against him, but it reported his speeches and their editorials and commentaries. White says: Millions of studious, worried Americans read and heard what he said; they checked it against the editorials; then they walked silently into the voting booths and returned him to office.

    White continued: The beauty of the American free press is that the slants and the twists and the distortions come from so many directions, and the special interests are so numerous, that the reader must sift and sort and check and countercheck in order to find out what the score is. This he does.

    I think this year the voters will sift and sort and reach a conclusion; they sometimes make a mistake, but are unlikely to make the same mistake twice.

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    1. I agree with you about the American electorate, William. We differ about the state of the American media. I think EB White would be shocked to see some of the careless/callous reporting. And social media platforms have changed the picture dramatically, I believe—as has the Republican party’s unwillingness to challenge The Big Lie.

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