On That Washington Post Piece You Keep Sharing

There is a Washington Post piece that is making waves on Twitter. It’s called “Finally. Someone who thinks like me,” and it was written by a reporter named Stephanie McCrummen.

At first glance, it seems like a masterpiece, a piece of journalism that truly tells a story about the world and time we live in. How can we as the so-called coastal elites understand what the average Trump supporter is thinking? Well, here’s an inside look at the life of Melanie Austin, a woman from a small town in Pennsylvania who is one of Donald Trump’s disciples.

She believes ‘The president of the United States was a gay Muslim from Kenya working to undermine America.” We hear her life story, how she was a victim of rampant sexism and harassment in the workplace, how she lost on appeal her fight against the big railroad companies she filed discrimination suits against. How she now lives on disability due to her PTSD, depression and anxiety. We hear about the condition of her town, Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and how it used to be part of the prosperous coal and railroad country, but now lacks the jobs and economic stability to keep its residents afloat.

I have been calling for more pieces about what it’s like to live in one of America’s many decaying smaller towns. I come from one of those myself. Drive on the highway anywhere in the U.S. and you are likely to find a few that you could stop by. You might learn something if you do.

On the surface, this piece sounds exactly like what I had been asking for: a slice of life that shows how economic anxiety leads to anger and hateful thought in those deemed to live in Flyover Country.

The part that troubles me so much is that Melanie Austin isn’t your run-of-the-mill Trump supporter. She is someone who has a mental illness, and she was very clearly taken advantage of.

Austin was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution after posting that President Obama should be hanged, diagnosed with “homicidal ideation.”

To reporter McCrummen, Melanie Austin probably seemed like the perfect main character in a story about the average Trump supporter. She perfectly fit the archetype of the angry, white and middle-aged person who happens to rant on the Internet and believe the right’s conspiracy theories.

But think about what a reporter has to say and do to a source to get this kind of access. What kind of story did McCrummen tell Austin she was going to tell? Did she say that she was going to follow her around for a while to see what it was like to be a Trump supporter? Did she mention that to the Washington Post’s readers, Austin would end up looking like a fool?

What did Melanie Austin do to warrant this type of treatment by a national newspaper? This woman who has suffered so much in her life, who now cannot skip a dose of anxiety medication lest she be taken over by the thoughts that consume her.

What did Melanie Austin do to deserve to be the target of upper middle class ridicule?

In Journalism 101, we are told to “Minimize Harm” by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. We are given examples of how journalists, due to editorial oversight and ignorance, harm their sources and act without compassion and empathy. We all cluck our tongues and shake our heads, saying we will never do something like that!

And yet, here we are.

This piece of literary, in-depth journalism is, for the most part, receiving heaps of praise from those on social media. It would not surprise me if it is submitted to various prestigious journalistic competitions within the next year. The Washington Post and McCrummen will receive accolades, while the people in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, continue to live in a place with few economic opportunities, few chances to rise to a new class and live better than previous generations.

What did Melanie Austin do to deserve it?