New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart mixed up their usual Friday routine on PBS NewsHour and actually had, by PBS standards, a contentious argument on whether or not media arrogance partly explains Donald Trump’s popularity.
Discussing Trump’s Wednesday town hall with CNN and the reaction to it, host Amna Nawaz asked Brooks, “Is granting him a live platform a mistake or a bad idea?”
Brooks didn’t believe that it was because, like him or not, Trump is an important political figure, “No, I don't think so. You know, he's in — Washington Post poll, he has a healthy lead on Joe Biden. By a huge margin, people prefer his economic policies to Joe Biden's. He is the number one or two most important political figure in the country right now.”
Moving on to the media, Brooks claimed, “We in the media don't get to decide who we cover. Basically, the American people get to decide, and they did get to decide by their votes and their preferences in polling.”
One can quibble with that assertion because media does choose to promote certain causes and politicians regardless of how well they poll, but Brooks warned of consequences if the media were to simply ignore Trump:
And so we cover major figures. Now, there's ways to cover and ways not to cover, but, in my view, it would be disastrous if we appointed ourselves the censors or the determiners of who gets covered in this country. And one of the reasons Donald Trump is popular is because people think people in our business are arrogant. And, to me, that would be an arrogant move to say, no, we're just not going to cover that guy.
Not intending to prove Brooks correct, but still managing to do so, Capehart huffed, “I mean, let's be clear that Donald Trump isn't popular because folks see that the media is arrogant.”
Instead, “Donald Trump is popular because he scratches that very raw, emotional, and ugly itch that is there within the American — within the American populace, where he — if I read one more time of someone saying, I like Donald Trump because he says what we're thinking, if that's the case, then those are some really ugly thoughts.”
There are several reasons why Trump was able to become so popular. Frustration and anger at elites, including media elites, was definitely one of them as was the well-founded belief that media sides with the left and views others as the bad guy who has “ugly thoughts.” On this issue, the media should listen to Brooks.
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Here is a transcript for the May 12 show:
PBS NewsHour
5/12/2023
7:42 PM ET
AMNA NAWAZ: Is granting him a live platform a mistake or a bad idea?
DAVID BROOKS: No, I don't think so. You know, he's in — Washington Post poll, he has a healthy lead on Joe Biden. By a huge margin, people prefer his economic policies to Joe Biden's. He is the number one or two most important political figure in the country right now. We in the media don't get to decide who we cover. Basically, the American people get to decide, and they did get to decide by their votes and their preferences in polling.
And so we cover major figures. Now, there's ways to cover and ways not to cover, but, in my view, it would be disastrous if we appointed ourselves the censors or the determiners of who gets covered in this country. And one of the reasons Donald Trump is popular is because people think people in our business are arrogant.
And, to me, that would be an arrogant move to say, no, we're just not going to cover that guy.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: I mean, let's be clear that Donald Trump isn't popular because folks see that the media is arrogant. Donald Trump is popular because he scratches that very raw, emotional, and ugly itch that is there within the American — within the American populace, where he — if I read one more time of someone saying, I like Donald Trump because he says what we're thinking, if that's the case, then those are some really ugly thoughts.
