Fiddling while the US burns
At least Richard Nixon paid lip service to bringing us together.
Donald John Trump offers no such PR spin as his latest campaign rally in Phoenix proves. As usual, his favorite target is the “dishonest media” who he lambasted for not reporting that he had condemned white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK in the aftermath of Charlottesville.
In standard Trump fashion he failed to recognize the media did indeed report that statement, as well as his initial “many sides” are to blame comments and his Trump Tower diatribe in which he declared the were “very fine people” on both sides.
Oh, and he said all of this in a speech carried by many cable networks, even as he claimed they shut the cameras off. Naturally, the crowd behind him cheered.
It’s hardly surprising the media is the focus of Trump’s ire. It’s a general rule of thumb that he who controls the media controls the country. You really don’t need to look beyond recent events in Turkey to see that.
And Trump, who used to pose as his own publicist is a master at using the media.
The poor performance of the media in the 2016 election is starting to be chronicled in academic circles. Chief among the failures was that of focusing at the horse race polls (as usual) and not taking a close look at the disaffection of working class white voters fed up with years of broken promises.
In response, media outlets belatedly sent reporters to “flyover country” to find out why they voted for Trump. The Washington Post has given op-ed space to a Hillsboro, Ohio editor to regulary decry the media’s inability to hear from folks worried about The Dollar Store closing.
But perhaps it’s time for the media to take a closer look at the folks in flyover country who aren’t hearing what Trump is saying — and doing.
NPR has just offered a piece done by Minnesota Public Radio that begins to address that question. What’s most striking is that voters who contine to stand by him do so because they like the fact he can “get it done.”
Which begs the question of how well is the media covering the actual day-to-day (on health care, taxes, The Wall, Korea and other issues the answer is pretty well actually). And then why is this message not getting through to people?
That returns us to the question/suggestion I posted earlier. The national media has stayed on top of issues while local editors have apparently favored Dollar Store openings over Russia. And local TV shows no desire to shift from a steady diet of car crashes, convenience store holdups and fires.
Despite the steady shrinking of deadtree daily newspapers (and an acknowledged lack of adequate broadband access in rural America) there is room for both Russia and local issues. Not to mention the failed congressional effort to repeal Obamacare, the lack of even a plan to reform the tax system or a decided lack of interest on the part of a congressional majority in building a “big beautiful wall.”
A simple rule of journalism is that all stories can be localized by talking to people in the community — both experts and “people on the street.”
Yes, there are real issues surrounding the national media, particularly the role of the Fox News Channel in providing a “fair and balanced” report on the state of the nation.
But as long as people believe that Trump is “getting it done,” and that campaign-style rallies that appeal to those folks — while ignoring the substantial and growing majority of Americans disapprove of his job performance — the media will deserve at some blame for not doing its job.
Only not in the manner that Trump is charging in his continued effort to put himself above “us.”
