Tuesday’s Washington Post revealed their angst for a second Trump term. Whatever can the media do now? All the media's horses failed to knock Trumpty Dumpty off the wall. Does anyone remember media angst over how to cover Biden? No. The headline on this Jeremy Barr roundup was:
How should the news industry cover Trump? Ten top journalists weigh in.
Well, ten top liberal journalists weigh in, and the most predictable was Don Lemon of CNN, channeling every predictable Jeff Zucker line about Cruel Trump ruling the media:
The media must also cover less of what Trump says and more of what he does. Too often journalists let Trump’s latest cruel or bigoted comment rule the news cycle. Too rarely do they dedicate the front page to the radical actions of the man. [What?]
There will be few guardrails in this second term. As Trump vows to carry out [a large wave of deportations], I pray an insult spat at a press conference doesn’t distract reporters from the work of showing the American people what it looks like to rip Black and Brown families apart.
At least Katie Couric suggested the legacy media is “in a bubble, and it’s time to pop it.” Whose fault is that? She offered the old saw of more shoe-leather reporting across the country, including transgender teens and women denied abortion “access,” and then there's Trump fans:
I’d also try to find a few Americans who were big Trump supporters and chronicle their lives to see if they improve. But pointing out lies and examining the fallout from certain policies will be more important than ever, even if criticism of President Trump will be called biased or “fake news” by many of his supporters.
Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson advised, “Assign at least one reporter to monitor and listen to right-wing media, the same influencers and podcasts where MAGA world and Trump get their (often dubious) information and ‘news.’” No one did that last time?
Abramson added: “Report exhaustively on the tech billionaires and crypto kings, and dig for stories that show how the White House rewards them. [Elon] Musk is a beat, at least for now.”
The weirdest line came from New Yorker editor David Remnick: “I think, to some degree, we should be self-critical, but we should stop apologizing for everything we do.”
Who on Earth thinks the media are apologizing for everything? Are they apologizing for anything?
Finally, it’s quite funny to turn to Lyin’ Brian Williams for journalism advice, but he turned the focus back on Biden:
It was crushing to watch so many working journalists attempt to generate the words to accurately describe a visibly struggling and diminished president, seemingly unable to complete a sentence or a thought in his disastrous and final debate.
Say it with me: It is perhaps the ultimate irony that the electoral collapse of the Democratic Party in 2024 was triggered in large part by the man who ran to save the country and democracy — the same man who then tried to stay too long at the fair.
They're all upset that the "democracy savers" lost an election. If you're asking Brian Williams for journalism advice, it's like asking Biden for advice on when to quit.